Film Review: "American Made" (2017).

"The CIA. The White House. Pablo Escobar. One Man Played Them All." This is American Made. This action crime film directed by Doug Liman, and written by Gary Spinelli. Inspired by the life of Barry Seal, a commercial airline pilot, who gets involved in drugs and arms smuggling while working for the CIA. Later, he turns into a government informant in order to escape his jail time.

In the summer of 2013, Spinelli was looking for a project that was based on real events. He came across the Mena story. He conducted extensive research on the CIA's involvement in Mena, and ultimately discovered Seal. Once he found his subject, he was then inspired to write a Goodfellas-styled screenplay based on the story. The film was originally titled Mena and was first featured on The Black List, a website showcasing the best unproduced screenplays, in 2014. By late May 2015, Tom Cruise, Domhnall Gleeson, Sarah Wright, Alejandro Edda, Mauricio Mejía, Caleb Landry Jones, and Jesse Plemons were cast. At the same time, principal photography commenced, and wrapped in early September. Filming took place in Cherokee, Clayton, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett, and Morganand Pickens, Gerogia, as well as Medellin, Colombia, and Santa Marta. Cruise is a qualified pilot. He did all of his own flying scenes during filming. In early September 2015, a plane crash occurred on the set in Colombia killed two people and caused serious injuries to another member of the crew. The plane (a twin-engine Piper Aerostar), which was carrying crew members (three American pilots), was returning to Enrique Olaya Herrera Airport in Medellín when it ran into bad weather and the crash occurred. The dead were identified as Carlos Berl and Alan Purwin, who was the founder and president of Helinet Aviation, a company which provides aerial surveillance technology to government agencies and law enforcement, and a film pilot who had worked in top films. American pilot Jimmy Lee Garland was seriously injured and rushed to a local hospital. Reshoots took place in early February 2016, and January 2017.

The film stars Cruise, Gleeson, Wright, Edda, Mejía, Landry Jones, and Plemons. All of the performances are first-rate; Cruise and Gleeson stand out, though, with their seemingly unscripted charm and manner. More than any earlier Liman film, it is memorable for the ensemble nature of the performances. The film has been beautifully cast from the leading roles to the bits.

Hard-hitting and stylish, American Made will be, and is, a crime classic—and arguably the high point of Doug Liman's career. The film is easily one of the year's best films. There is flash also in some of Mr. Liman's directorial choices, including freeze frames, fast cutting and the occasional long tracking shot. None of it is superfluous. The film is a whopping good time. Every crisp minute of this long, teeming movie vibrates with outlaw energy. Big, rich, powerful and explosive. One of Liman's best films! The film is great entertainment. So it is Liman's triumph that the film offers the fastest, sharpest 115 minutes ride in recent film history.

Simon says American Made receives:

Also, see my review for Edge of Tomorrow.