American Made is conventional Hollywood biopic filmmaking

Rating: 4/10 (11 September 2017)

American Made tells the story of Barry Seal, the pilot who transported drugs for Pablo Escobar from Columbia to the States. Seal was a crafty, good looking guy with a golden tongue that allowed him to operate as freely as he did. But just as crafty as Seal was, he was a daredevil. While Seal's life story is surely interesting enough to sustain a film, American Made is merely tipping the hat at conventional filmmaking and never really tries to do anything different to distinguish it from other crime films. And being directed by Doug Liman makes it feel like that much more of a missed opportunity.
American Made, while being conventional, is also very watchable. Tom Cruise brings everything Tom Cruise to the role where it is hard to distinguish whether Barry Seal was actually like this or if Tom Cruise thinks he is still playing Ethan Hunt. For me, I didn't see anything distinguishable from Cruise other than a half baked accent. This is especially frustrating because Tom Cruise can act and he can act better than most working actors. The problem is, his film choices have limited him to one liners and bombastic stunts. Not that I don't appreciate his work, I simply don't appreciate it in this film because it feels like Cruise is just getting by. I think he was an absolute miscast. The rest of the cast does well but we barely see them enough to make an opinion of them as we are with Seal for the majority of the movie which becomes exhausting.
Overall, American Made is a very conventional crime drama that makes sense for Hollywood to make. Unfortunately, those looking for a dark and gritty telling of Seal's life will be sorely disappointed as the film is the definition of conventional and plays rather light despite its dark ending. Tom Cruise makes the best out of his role and makes sure that he has more fun than anyone else...including its audience. American Made is a taxing film that relies on the star power of Tom Cruise rather than relying on the heft of its true story to carry it.