‘Risky Business’ is a great 80s coming-of-age film about a boy named Joel (Tom Cruise) who’s parents go out of town for the weekend, leaving him home alone. Joel’s best friend Miles thinks Joel is too tame for his own good so he orders a call girl for Joel and tells him that sometimes you just have to say what the fuck and have a good time. This call girl, though, was not what Joel wanted so he, in turn, calls another girl named Lana. After getting involved with Lana, her pimp gets upset with Joel and chases after Joel who is driving his father’s Porsche. Lana then sees a business opportunity in Joel’s pubescent, privileged friends and together they decide to use Joel’s house as a brothel for the night. That night a representative from Princeton, Joel’s Father’s Alma mater, comes to meet with Joel. After seeing the amazing success of Joel’s business scheme, and having a little fun for himself, the Princeton rep leaves. The next day Lana’s pimp comes back and steals all of Joel’s furniture and forces Joel to pay him all the money he made the night before in order to get it all back before his parents return. In the end Joel uses his call girl business venture to win the Future Enterprisers competition, gets accepted to Princeton and has the adventure of a lifetime.

Like many other 80s movies such as breakfast club and 16 candles, this is a coming-of-age film; however it takes a unique angle to learning how to take chances and enjoy life. Although Joel incurs a good deal of stress and hardship for his actions, in the end he seems to come out a more mature and self-sufficient man. The movies motto ‘sometimes you just have to say what the fuck’ is also timeless and echoed throughout much of the 80s. The dance scene with Joel in a white shirt and tightie-whities is also a timeless classic and, in my opinion, one of the best dance scenes of the decade, illustrating the prevalence of rock and roll as well as youth’s rebellious nature.