With a centre tooth that’s creepily aligned perfectly with the bridge of his nose (Google at your own risk), scientology madness and over-familiarity thanks to a series of similar blockbuster action-hero flicks, it’s easy to forget that Tom Cruise in the right role is one of the most-talented and engaging actors in Hollywood.

Director Doug Liman’s American Made is a reminder of this: that when Cruise hits cruise control, the film’s runtime can go by very quickly.

It feels like American Made was styled for Tom Cruise so as to showcase the best of his talents. This funny biographical crime drama could have been a deeper character study about one of the more fascinating characters of our time, Barry Seal. Instead, it balances the historical accuracy with popcorn cinema, with a scathing commentary of the American government’s foreign policy to boot.

Here, Cruise (Barry Seal) is cocky, a risk-taker, headstrong and sometimes unbelievably so. I can’t imagine the real Seal would have been that carefree, especially when he took on a life of crime for the betterment of his family, but it makes for amusement with Cruise in the lead.

American Made is a star vehicle for Tom Cruise and while guilty of glamourising a bad guy, the film pulls no punches skewering US foreign policy

When the film begins, we are told that the narrative is based on a true story. And as the film progresses, we witness events so far-fetched that we are filled with doubt. Let me assure you that much of what American Made shows actually happened, even if Seal is portrayed as less vile and more Hans Solo-like than he actually was.

In the 1970s, Seal — who happened to be a commercial pilot — was hired by CIA agent Monty Schafer (Domhnall Gleeson) to run recon missions over Central America, with a plane designed to take pictures. Soon his work was upgraded and he started making runs to General Noriega, then the dictator of Panama. Of course, this was just the start of the CIA’s handiwork.

Eventually, the Medellín Cartel made contact with Seal. Yes, that Medellín Cartel. Feeling untouchable, Seal began to run cocaine on the flights back to the US for Pablo Escobar (Mauicio Mejia). Of course, the CIA knew that Seal was bringing cocaine back to the US from the man who was shaping up to become the most powerful drug lord of the world, but it wasn’t bothered. When the DEA caught up with Seal, the CIA helped him avoid incarceration and instead passed him weapons to arm the Nicaraguan Contras militants in Honduras who, most in the world, would define as terrorists. Of course, the enterprising man that Seal was, he also sold some of these arms to even more questionable characters on the side. Without giving away the many entertaining shenanigans Seal was involved in, he earned so much that he didn’t know what to do with the money.

The mostly true American Made story feels so implausible that Liman tries to ground things by shooting with the edits and the stylised camera work of a documentary. But coupled with Seal’s bombastic characterisation and the humour, American Made almost feels like a mockumentary.

Although Seal’s anti-hero portrayal makes for a fun film, filtering out his more unforgivable deeds and not effectively portraying the real consequences of his actions is a double-edged sword, for much like The Wolf of Wall Street, American Made is guilty of glamourising a bad guy.

Where Liman pulls no punches is in the critique of the duality of the American CIA which, in the pursuit of its own interests had no qualms about supporting evil characters, even when the victims were its own citizens. Perhaps that was Liman’s plan: to draw us in by embellishing the story, yet at the same time leave us with some food for thought.

Published in Dawn, ICON, October 8th, 2017