Risky Business

Paul Brickman’s first film as director opens in slow motion on a foggy Chicago skyline seen from a moving elevated train; train and fog keep returning. Joel belongs to his school’s Junior Enterprisers club, which is not decoration: turning the house into a business is the lesson applied, not a lapse of character. Sean Penn, Gary Sinise, Kevin Bacon, John Cusack and Tom Hanks all auditioned for Joel; Michelle Pfeiffer was offered Lana and refused. Filming ran mid July to late November 1982 around Chicago. It opened in 670 theatres, took 4.3 million dollars that weekend and reached 63.5 million domestically against a 6.2 million budget. The version that played cinemas carries the studio’s upbeat ending. Brickman’s own more tentative, melancholic conclusion appeared as an alternate on the 25th anniversary disc in 2008, then as a full director’s cut on Criterion’s 4K edition in 2024; the two diverge only in the closing moments. Tom Cruise was nominated at the 41st Golden Globes for best actor in a musical or comedy, won by Michael Caine for Educating Rita. A good fit if you want to decide for yourself whether Joel’s story ends upbeat or on a tentative, melancholic note. Not for viewers troubled by sex work made a plot’s cheerful engine; Joel’s lesson in enterprise is built on it.