American Made
2017
****
Director: Doug Liman
Cast: Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright Olsen, Jesse Plemons, Caleb Landry Jones, Jayma Mays, Lola Kirke, Connor Trinneer, Mauricio Mejía, Alejandro Edda, Benito Martinez
In the late 1970s, the CIA recruits Barry Seal, a commercial airline pilot, to fly reconnaissance missions in Central America. A few years later, he is running guns to the Nicaraguan Contras, transporting drugs from Colombia for the Medellin Cartel, and making so much money that he doesn't know where to put it. This light-hearted and entertaining caper story is based on true events. Gary Spinelli's script doesn't spend one second questioning whether we should really be rooting for this represehensible man. Nevertheless, Tom Cruise gives an unusually relaxed performance in the lead. The HBO documentary series The Invisible Pilot tells a similar story of a different unapologetic aviator.
