American Made is about a clandestine CIA-run drug-trafficking operation in Central America that was exposed as part of the Iran-Contra Affair during the latter days of the Reagan presidency. It follows the exploits of former TWA pilot Barry Seals from the age of 32 in 1972 to his murder in 1986 by the Panamanian drug cartel at the age of 46. He is played by Tom Cruise, who at 55, is getting a bit long in the tooth to be playing these much younger, highly energetic characters.

Cruise’s charm is, however, what gets the audience through the film’s allegedly true, if bizarre plot twists. Domhnall Gleeson as Cruise’s CIA handler and Sarah Wright as Cruise’s dumb blonde wife are the one-dimensional characters you might expect. Only Caleb Landy Jones as Cruise’s hot-headed brother-in-law comes across as a believable human being among the film’s many supporting characters. It was directed by Cruise’s Edge of Tomorrow director Doug Liman, whose father, Arthur L. Liman, was one of the Iran-Contra prosecutors.

This one’s strictly for adventure fans. Anyone looking for something of substance should look elsewhere.

American Made is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Valerie Faris and Jonathan Dayton, the directors of Little Miss Sunshine, have applied the same light comedy approach to Battle of the Sexes, their new film about the Billie Jean King-Bobby Riggs tennis match of the 1970s.

As in real life, Bobby Riggs, as played by Steve Carell, is totally annoying. Billie Jean King, as played by Emma Stone, is a lovely human being inside and out, someone whose side we’re immediately on whether we know the story or not. This, and not her Oscar-winning performance in last year’s La La Land, is likely to be the film people remember most about this stage of what promises to be a long career.

The parts of the film that focus on King, her husband (Austin Stowall), and her first lesbian lover (Andrea Riseborough), are smart, funny, sad, and fascinating as you feel for all three characters and hope they can work their way through their problems. When it focuses on motormouth Riggs, it’s only partly satisfying in the few crumbs that are thrown the way of Elisabeth Shue as his long-suffering wife and Lewis Pullman (Bill’s son) as his put-upon son.

I’m not sure that anyone could have made a better film from this material. It covers the best-known episode of Billie Jean’s life, but is far from the biographical tribute the lady deserves, and hopefully someday will get.

Battle of the Sexes is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Robin Cavendish, the British polio survivor and advocate for disabled people around the world, the father of Andy Serkis’ producing partner, Jonathan Cavendish, is the subject of Serkis’ first directorial effort, Breathe.

Andrew Garfield gives a strong performance as Cavendish, but is somewhat constrained by having to recite most of his lines completely immobile except for the movement of his face, and later his head a bit to the side. As his ever-faithful wife, Claire Foy, is under no such constraint and gives a powerful, moving performance as the woman behind the man. Every bit as radiant here as she is the young Queen Elizabeth in The Crown, Foy gives the kind of performance that frequently receives Oscar nominations and even wins, but the film’s shallow box-office has kept the performance from generating much buzz. Time, though, should enhance the film’s reputation and in fifty years, film scholars may be wondering why no one paid much attention to this performance.

Breathe is available on both Blu-ray and standard DVD.

Mike White is a prolific writer-director whose Chuck and Buck and School of Rock remain his best-known previous works. Beatriz at Dinner, earlier in the year, which he wrote, but didn’t direct, was well-regarded by many, but not by me. His more recent Brad’s Status is a more fully realized slice-of-life comedy-drama, but still more of an idea than a fully rounded film.

Ben Stiller, in his best performance since Flirting with Disaster, stars as Brad, a middle-aged ne’er-do-well, not-for-profit manager from Sacramento, who accompanies his 17-year-old son on his visit to Harvard for an interview that doesn’t happen because the supposedly brilliant kid got his dates mixed up and showed up a day late. Stiller uses his old friend connections to get the kid interviews with an admired professor and the college dean the following day. In the meantime, he realizes that his old friends are jerks and the kid is already smarter than he ever was.

What pleasure there is in the film comes from the performances of Stiller, Austin Abrams as his son, Shazi Raja and Luisa Lee as the kid’s friends, and, briefly, Jenna Fischer as Stiller’s wife. Michael Sheen, Jermaine Clement, Luke Wilson, and Mike White himself play Stiller’s old jackass friends as, well, jackasses.

Brad’s Status is available on Blu-ray and standard DVD.

In 1967, Sidney Poitier starred in the three biggest hits of his career, To Sir, with Love, In the Heat of the Night, and Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner. In 1968, he made just one film, For Love of Ivy, a comedy which he co-wrote with Robert Alan Aurthur and which was directed by Daniel Mann, a film that was critically well-received, but disappointed his fan base. For the first time in a long time the actor wasn’t playing a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders. He was playing a rich guy who came to dinner in a tux to court a maid. Cary Grant could do it, Rock Hudson could it, but Poitier was meant for better things, or so they thought.

The film, which has been given a Blu-ray upgrade by Kino Lorber is no great work of art, but it’s a pleasant domestic comedy in the style of the day, with good performances by Poitier, Abbey Lincoln as his leading lady, and Beau Bridges as their hippie matchmaker. Lauri Peters, Nan Martin, and Carroll O’Connor appear as members of Bridges’ family.

This week’s new releases include It and the Criterion Blu-ray of Young Mr. Lincoln.