American Made

★★★ COMEDY THRILLER⊲

In this breezily satirical, fact-based action comedy, Tom Cruise plays Barry Seal, a skilled but jaded pilot-cum-smuggler who gets recruited by the CIA in the late-1970s to take reconnaissance photography of communist insurgents in Central America. Before long, he is acting as a go-between for the CIA with Noriega in Panama and the Sandinistas in Nicaragua. There is a larky charm to Barry’s escapades, even when things get scuzzy. Dir: Doug Liman 2017, 15, 135min