When I suggested to my wife that we watch this film, she was skeptical. Tom Cruise in a "based on a true story" movie about the 1980s CIA and drug trade? Really? But here's the thing: Liman has such a great sense of how to use Cruise and how to tell a story like this. The plot starts quickly and keeps rolling. The tone/approach was just light and nostalgic enough to maintain balance between dark and entertaining. The protagonist seems both morally questionable and highly likable from moment one because - well - it is Cruise. There's a fair amount of fluff here, but it is hard not to enjoy the fluff. And even harder to resist Googling afterwards to confirm that this bizarre story had more truth than we might want to admit.