‘The Fall Guy’: SXSW Review

Dir: David Leitch. US. 2024. 125mins.

Ryan Gosling is on the peak of his film star powers. His smile is beguiling; his eyes are fetching. Even his dishevelled hair bears excessive wattage. These strengths come collectively to uplift The Fall Man, director David Leitch’s high-flying, hard-punching motion flick a couple of roguish stuntman who returns from obscurity to haul a lacking star again to a troubled film. A former stuntman himself, Leitch returns to SXSW — the place his movie Atomic Blonde garnered important adulation — with an ode to the neglected career integral to film making.   

A swooning, undeniably enjoyable journey primed to kick off the summer time season in a giant method

Crowd-pleasing blockbusters like The Fall Man as soon as fuelled Hollywood. Tinseltown used to delight itself on casting the widest ensembles, igniting the most important explosions, and churning out new larger-than-life heroes in ever-more extravagant tales. Leitch’s newest movie, a giant display screen adaptation of Glen A Larson’s TV sequence, checks all of these bins — significantly for viewers who haven’t had Kenough of Gosling. Set for launch within the UK on Might 2 and the US on Might 3, The Fall Man is a swooning, undeniably enjoyable journey primed to kick off the summer time season in a giant method, even when the pairing of Gosling with Emily Blunt as romantic foil leaves a lot to be desired.

It’s a movie captivated by the artistic spirit. Stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) loves confidently strolling the set with a devil-may-care perspective. Everybody is aware of he’s one of the best, together with the star he helps: the self-absorbed Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). On his method to carry out one other feat, he walks previous gaffers and grips, assistants and craftspeople, all tirelessly working to set the circumstances for extra film magic. He additionally flirts over the radio with Jody (Emily Blunt), a digicam operator with goals of at some point directing her personal image. Colt’s complete life comes crashing down when a stunt gone incorrect causes him to freefall to the bottom, breaking his again. He leaves the biz and Jody, his air of invincibility completely shattered.  

Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce aren’t content material to make a simple comeback story. They add a layer of suspense too. Eighteen months later, Colt is a valet at a Mexican restaurant when Gail (Hannah Waddingham), a producer, frantically calls him. Jody is filming her first image, an ’alien sci-fi desert battle film’, in Sydney, Australia: Ryder is lacking they usually want a stuntman. The apprehensive Colt takes the job solely to find {that a} still-feeling-jilted Jody needs nothing to do with him. Additionally, Gail wants him to trace down Ryder’s whereabouts or the film is kaput. Discovering Ryder would require Colt to keep away from unsuspecting traps and tussle with employed weapons to study the reality.  

The Fall Man wears its influences on its sleeve. Colt typically trades film references, resembling The Final Of The Mohicans or Rocky III, together with his stunt coordinator Dan (a pleasant Winston Duke). He can often be seen rocking a Miami Vice jacket, a operating gag that pays dividends in one of many image’s greatest and greatest set items. Even Taylor-Johnson will get in on the act, doing a spot-on Matthew McConaughey impression in a monologue lifted from Reign Of Hearth. They’re all spirited gags, largely propelled by the type of impeccable comedian timing Gosling has beforehand employed on Barbie and The Good Guys. 

Whereas there’s loads of pleasure available — from Stephanie Hsu showing for an epic chase to chart toppers just like the Darkness’ ’I Consider in a Factor Referred to as Love’ and Taylor Swift’s ’All Too Effectively’ filling the mega soundtrack — the pairing of Blunt and Gosling falls brief. Too typically their scenes are meta commentaries, melding the filming of Jody’s film with the arc of their relationship. Whereas Gosling is clearly striving for traditional Hollywood mystique, Blunt takes a extra trendy strategy. She is much less involved with a persona than with a groundedness. Their disparate approaches put them on completely completely different pages. The VFX for lots of the scenes can also be lacklustre, though a form interpretation would say the garishness is a winking nod to the need of sensible results and stunts.  

Unsurprisingly, that is additionally an anti-AI movie, which works as far as to squarely critique deep fakes whereas making the case that filmmaking ought to be a spot for play somewhat than simulations. The Fall Man is at its greatest when it captures the frenzied power, the multiplicity of artisans, and the devoted precision essential to convey a scene collectively. It explains the significance of stunt individuals via the guise of a singular star like Gosling, permitting him the bandwidth to tug each lever of his persona for optimum enjoyment. All of it culminates in a ultimate set piece that seems to include each motion muscle: mammoth explosions, intricate automobile chases and a helicopter struggle that results in the proper romantic film kiss. 

An exhilarating spectacle of immense proportions, The Fall Man isn’t Leitch’s greatest movie. That title belongs to Atomic Blonde. Nevertheless it’s in all probability his warmest, most earnest and endearing — additional ingraining Gosling as his technology’s favorite motion star.