‘The Fall Guy’ Review: Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt are Dynamite in this Top-Notch Action, Romance Popcorn Flick | SXSW 2024
Think about your favorite action movie and what makes it stand out. Most likely, you’re thinking about a known, bona fide superstar actor getting themselves in a crazy car chase, a big explosion, an intense hand-to-hand combat scene, or an insane gun battle. In reality, though, a lot of those iconic moments don’t even involve the actor that you see on screen because dozens of stuntmen and women across the industry put their bodies on the line to create excellent, authentic entertainment for audiences around the globe. One of those stuntmen was David Leitch, who worked as a notable stunt double for actors Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Damme and now has stepped behind the camera to become the director of acclaimed action hits like John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Deadpool 2. But with his latest film inspired by the 1980s TV show of the same name, The Fall Guy, Leitch, and his team create a love letter to not just the stunt community but also to all the members of the crew who put their blood, sweat, and tears into making the movies we love. By doing this and providing tons of laughs and impressive action set pieces, Leitch has made his best film to date.
As we walk onto set for his latest job, the dashing Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) explains to us what exactly his job is as a stunt guy while clips of various action films that Leitch either acted in or directed play on. He’s in the prime of his life, the best stuntman in the business, working as the double to a giant movie star, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). While neither of them get along great, they’ve worked together on several films and it has led to Tom becoming one of the most recognizable names in Hollywood. Taylor-Johnson gives one of the best performances of his career, satirizing the diva, ego-obsessed movie star personalities we’ve all come to know, with his voice sounding like he is imitating Matthew McConaughey with the body movements and confidence of a Tom Cruise from the Mission Impossible 2 era of his career; it’s brilliant work. For Colt, though, the work is just as important as his relationship with Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), a production assistant with big dreams of becoming a Hollywood director. As we see Colt getting ready to perform a stunt that would have him fall from the top floor of a building, we see the powerful, kinetic on-screen chemistry that Gosling and Blunt have with one another. By just flirting over walkie-talkies and sharing their intentions to get a ‘spicy margarita,’ which would lead to some naughty activities following the shoot, you pick up immediately that Gosling and Blunt are a match made in heaven. But things take a turn for the worse as the communication is cut off, and Colt performs the stunt unsuccessfully, falling to the ground and shattering his back.
Flash to eighteen months later, where we find Colt now parking cars at a Mexican restaurant in Los Angeles (think Casa Vega meets El Coyote), living a depressing life outside of the business. With his back still a problem and a fear of facing not only the job again, but Jodie as well, he has found a lonely acceptance in his life with unlimited burritos and a decent salary. But this broken man is given a second chance when Gail (Hannah Waddingham), a Hollywood producer who worked with Colt on several Tom Ryder films, gives him a call, needing him to come out of retirement and work on the latest sci-fi action film she is making. Waddingham is hilarious throughout the film, poking fun at the lengths producers in Hollywood would go to get their films made and what they would do to protect their stars, all while having a fresh can of Diet Coke in her hand. She informs him that she’s lost Tom and needs him to come to Australia to find him before the press and studio find out he is missing and to help finish shooting the movie. When he refuses, she reveals to him who the director is, Jodie, and that this movie is her one chance, a big break, to make it as a director in Hollywood. This takes Colt right out of his funk, as he realizes that this could be his moment to get back the girl of his dreams, and so he agrees to “aisle seat” on the first flight to Sydney.
Once he arrives, Colt’s entire body is digitally scanned for CGI effects, mostly to cover up his face in post and implant Tom’s face when he is found. It is a scary reality that, in the larger context outside of the film, is why the industry at large is scared of AI technology, as this later plays a big role in the conclusion of this film. While it has its benefits, AI can ultimately replace actual humans performing stunts in movies, something Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce know from making action movies for decades, and make a profound statement with The Fall Guy that there is no way to recreate the experience of seeing an actual person doing an impressive stunt. Case in point, when Colt gets onto set and is welcomed back by his longtime friend and stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke). Duke is terrific in every scene he is in, as he spends a lot of time with Gosling, quoting inspirational movie lines from Rocky, The Fast and the Furious, and more to get Colt pumped and back into the right frame of mind to perform his first stunt in a year and a half; a canon roll on the beach in the pivotal action scene that they want to use to market the film. Shot practically, Leitch and team, led by stunt coordinator Chris O’Hara and Gosling’s stuntman Logan Holiday, create a fantastic, authentic, and historic (the Guinness World Record for the most canon rolls in a movie at eight and a half rolls) scene that beautifully gets Colt back into the game just enough for Jodie to notice who performed the stunt, and immediately regret who did it.
See, since he has been gone, Jodie has made her way up in the world of the Hollywood system, but with a broken heart since he never called her back after his accident. In a hilarious scene where Colt has to be set on fire and then flung back into a giant boulder, Jodie uses it as a good time to “tell him about the script” and throughout four to five setups (edited effortlessly by editor Elísabet Ronaldsdóttir), the story of this alien-cowboy, Dune-esque blockbuster starts to mirror their past, with Blunt being able to effectively showcase her hilarious command as a movie star that makes her one of the best actresses we have working today. She’s then balanced perfectly by Gosling, who is a comedic tour de force throughout this film, further cementing his case for the best movie star we have on the planet. His comedic performances in The Nice Guys, Lars and the Real Girl, and his recent Oscar-nominated role in Barbie have all led to this, where his charm and humorous sensibilities are at an all-time high, and he’s nothing short of sublime. Every look at the camera and smile they give each other is full of electricity exploding off the screen. They even each get a perfect musical moment to shine and showcase their strengths, as Gosling hilariously cries in his pick-up truck (the original 1981 GMC K-2500 Wideside model from 1980s series) to Taylor Swift’s “All Too Well” as he remembers his relationship with Jodie and where it all went wrong, and Blunt belts out a version of Phil Collins’ “Against All Odds (Take a Look at Me Now)” at a karaoke party as Colt is running late trying to solve the case of the missing movie star.
Speaking of The Nice Guys, Gosling is a one-man detective, and the fish-out-of-water plot is perfect for him as every reaction he has to finding clues (or even a dead body) is hysterical. And as each layer of the mystery unfolds, so does the grandness of the action sequences, as there is an extensive, brilliant chase scene involving Ryder’s personal assistant (Stephanie Hsu) being kidnapped by henchmen and Colt having to save her as she holds a key piece of information to the location of Tom. Throw in a boat chase scene, Colt having to fight a one-on-one in a club while he is high on drugs from a spiked drink, or the explosive finale that blends Jodie’s action movies and the mystery Colt is trying to solve, and you’ve got yourself some of the best action sequences of the year so far, and one of the best studio action films in the last several years.
Its playful nature is The Fall Guy’s ultimate strength, as the film never tries to take itself too seriously, easing the audience into every joke, explosion, and romantic moment within its two-hour runtime. It’s the kind of movie Hollywood used to make a ton of but got away from for a while. But when the level of commitment in front and behind the camera is there, movies like The Fall Guy can remind you that going to the movies is a magical, highly entertaining experience.
Grade: A-
This review is from the 2024 SXSW Film Festival. Universal Pictures will release The Fall Guy in theaters on May 3, 2024.
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