Falling in Love Brings the Same Thrills as Falling Off Buildings in 'The Fall Guy'
BJ Colangelo on David Leitch's latest stunt-filled spectacular.
Today, BJ Colangelo is back to share her review of The Fall Guy, which hits theaters this weekend. If you enjoy BJ’s review, check out her coming-of-age film podcast, This Ends at Prom. She also joined us on this week’s Summer Movie Wager episode of The Filmcast.
Ten years ago, stunt performers David Leitch and Chad Stahelski unleashed John Wick onto the world, and American action cinema has never been the same. While Stahelski has continued to man the John Wick franchise, Leitch has branched out into helming other action flicks like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Bullet Train. With an extensive background working as a stunt double for actors like Brad Pitt and Jean-Claude Van Dame, Leitch knows the landscape of stunt-heavy cinema better than most, even writing and starring in the parody film Confessions of an Action Star.
But now, Leitch has gifted us with arguably his best film yet, The Fall Guy, a very, very loose adaptation of the TV series of the same name starring Lee Majors. Honestly, there’s not much that connects the series to the film outside of the name and a very ‘80s television approach to genre mixing… or at least that’s what I was told when I asked my Dad about the show, considering I was born five years after the series went off the air. Majors’ character Colt Seavers is now played by Ryan Gosling, a consummate star who brings the humor of The Nice Guys, the dreamy romance of The Notebook, and the willingness to commit to the bit like his Oscar-nominated performance in Barbie, all while leaving his previous action performances in the dust. Movie pundits often claim that Tom Cruise is “the last true movie star,” but at 43 years old, Gosling delivers a performance that is the most “movie star” of his career.
Co-written by Drew Pearce, The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunt performers everywhere, extending an appreciation to those working in an industry that still refuses to honor them with an Academy Award category. But to consider this solely as “a stunt guy movie” would be a grave disservice to the delightful cheeseball romance at the center between Gosling and Emily Blunt’s Jody Moreno — a camera operator turned first-time director in an on-again/off-again relationship — and the playful critiques of the film industry as a whole. Sure, there’s the required suspension of disbelief to go along with the soapy mystery at its center, but with a performer as impossibly cool, cocky, and charismatic as Gosling, we’re willing to buy in and let him take us all the way.
After an injury derails Colt’s stunt career, he turns his back on the industry and takes up work as a valet driver for a restaurant. His identity crisis is lifted when he gets a call from producer Gail Meyer (a hilariously unhinged Hannah Waddingham), who needs him to once again double for Hollywood megalomaniac superstar Tom Ryder (in a stand-out performance delivered by Aaron Taylor-Johnson) on a new movie… which happens to be Jody’s feature directorial debut. It feels as if The Fall Guy is setting us up for a “one last job” redemption story, but it’s then revealed that Tom Ryder has gone missing and the movie is in danger of being shut down for good unless Colt can track him down.
Gosling already has the audience hanging on his every wink and thumbs up, so from here, The Fall Guy more than delivers on its promise of high-octane ass-kicking and unbelievable action set pieces, including a World Record-setting cannon roll car stunt. With a soundtrack bursting with needle-drops that’ll have you screaming “HELL YEAH, BROTHER” at the screen (I’m particularly fond of “I Was Made for Lovin’ You” by KISS), The Fall Guy is here to give us all a good time above all else. This isn’t meant to sound like The Fall Guy can only be enjoyed if you subscribe to the “let people enjoy things” mentality that many use as a shield against criticism of their faves, but it is a reminder that there’s nothing inherently wrong or “lesser than” about films that prioritize spiking the serotonin and adrenaline levels of the viewer above all else. This is a movie about and made by people who risk life and limb to entertain the masses, and by God, the filmmakers behind The Fall Guy are going to entertain our faces off even if it kills them.
If there’s any major complaint, it’s a lack of Emily Blunt throughout the film’s second act which dilutes the power of some of the quieter scenes between the two leads. Admittedly, these moments include some questionable editing decisions that feel like Leitch is noticeably out of his comfort zone. But when these two are given the space for screwball romance, they flourish. Watching Jody and Colt rekindle their relationship is electrifying, and elicits the same butterflies in the belly as turning the page of a magazine and landing on your celebrity crush. There’s an old line from Joey Comeau and artist Emily Horne’s A Softer World webcomics that comes to mind, “Yes, we are a disaster but tell me your heart doesn't race for a hurricane or a burning building.” If you’ve been following the Gosling/Blunt promotional tour over the last few months, their magnetic chemistry seen at The Oscars or on Saturday Night Live is cranked up to an 11 here, so it’s a shame that we don’t get more of it.
Fortunately the supporting cast — including Winston Duke as stunt coordinator Dan Tucker and Stephanie Hsu as Tom Ryder’s assistant Alma — are more than capable of filling the void when Blunt is not around. Duke in particular gets to prove why he’s one of the most sought-after performers currently working today, effortlessly balancing heart, physicality, and a laugh-out-loud sense of humor.
At times The Fall Guy feels like the twists and turns of the story exist solely to get from one action scene to another, but for this film in particular, it’s a feature and not a bug. There is so much movie in this movie about making movies, oozing the same chaotic and oftentimes nonsensical energy of a group of 15-year-olds who just saw Mad Max: Fury Road or Face/Off for the first time trying to tell you about their favorite part while peaking on a sugar high. There’s a glossiness to every scene that makes it seem as if we’ve stepped into the idealized glitz of a Hollywood set, which I reckon might have been the point. Movies are magic, and Leitch is ushering us into his stunt performer version of the Land of Oz. It’s an action-rom-com yes, but at its core, a fantasy of what it means to work in the movies — that same fantasy that made movie lovers out of us all.
Stay through the credits for added fun and be sure to snag yourself a spicy margarita, because The Fall Guy is the perfect way to usher in the 2024 summer blockbuster season. -BJ Colangelo
Stuff David Chen Has Made
On my personal YouTube channel, my wife and I discussed why Challengers is one of the best films of the year. See also: BJ’s review of the film right here on Decoding Everything.
On Decoding TV, Patrick Klepek and I wrapped up our conversation about Fallout season 1, which is probably the funniest show I’ve ever seen that takes place in the post-apocalypse.
On The Filmcast, we had our annual Summer Movie Wager episode, in which we each tried to predict the top 10 films of the summer by domestic box office. It’s always fun to make a bunch of predictions and then see how wrong we are at the end of the summer.