Quick Reviews: The Fall Guy, Boy Kills World, Challengers
Two of these movies I had a blast viewing, and one was….a movie
“The Fall Guy”
Director David Leitch has carved out a niche in Hollywood that I believe is giving a much-needed boost to the action genre. Leitch is a former stunt man and stunt coordinator, and when he looked upon the landscape of action a few years ago, he saw the genre was being a bit over-saturated with CGI-drenched efforts. Apparently disenchanted with the state of action at the time, he released a series of fun, wacky, often funny, and energetic action flicks such as “John Wick”, “Bullet Train”, and “Atomic Blonde”. All of these films made liberal use of stunt performers over digital effects, and with his latest film, “The Fall Guy”, he uses the film as a heartfelt tribute to the profession.
Sure, on the surface this is an action-adventure romance in the vein of “Romancing the Stone”, and the film works on the level beautifully. Ryan Gosling is a charisma machine as always as a stuntman in love with his director (Emily Blunt), and the chemistry between the two is palpable in this. I’ve said many times there’s really only one metric that determines if a romance movie is any good: do I care if these two end up together by the conclusion of the film? It doesn’t even really matter if they do, you just have to be invested enough to hope for that outcome. In “The Fall Guy”, the answer is a firm “yes”. Between Gosling’s reluctant hero being really compelling and Blunt playing her emotional conflict in a way that is often quite funny, I could watch this duo play off one another for days.
The supporting cast is also a lot of fun, as Leitch likes to populate his movies with character actors who bring interesting ideas to the few scenes that they are featured in, particularly Aaron-Taylor Johnson as the entitled actor Gosling is acting as the stunt double for. But while the acting is competent in the film, it is really the stunt performers who steal the movie, which it is clear was by design. There are so many jaw-dropping practical stunts and effects in this, and each of them feel designed to push the narrative forward rather than act as a mere showcase. In fact I would argue this detail overcomes one of the film’s main flaws: the plot can be a little silly at times, and it is meant to be, but it sometimes borders on being a little too silly. However, when you know it’s an actual human being performing what you see unfolding onscreen, it has a way of grounding even a lot of the most ridiculous moments.
“The Fall Guy” in many ways is a very personal film for Leitch. It’s over-the-top and it never forgets how to have a great time, but this is clearly a cinematic thank you to the stunt profession Leitch came up in. Stuntmen are the working class heroes of the film industry as they literally risk their safety for memorable onscreen moments. It’s certainly long overdue for them to receive their flowers for it.
9/10
“Boy Kills World”
A movie hindered by a commitment to style over substance. This action comedy featuring Bill Skaarsgard as a deaf mute assassin (accompanied by an audible inner monologue voiced by H. John Benjamin) seeking revenge for the death of his family could not have a more generic plot. Most of the characters don’t even have full names in this, and in fact the lead character is simply named Boy. Then again, it’s not always about the story being told, but how it is told, and to the movie’s credit they try to tell the story in a different way.
Because it is an action comedy, the movie plays a lot of key moments for laughs, and it is pretty funny at times. But it just fell short of being a really good comedy, and that seems to be the theme of this film: it just missed being a better movie. There are cool fight scenes, but it falls just short of being cool enough to overcompensate for the flaws of the film. There are fun characters, but their development falls just short of being satisfactory. The film even has a measure of heart, but it falls just short of investing me in it enough to relate to it.
“Boy Kills World” isn’t devoid of fun and entertainment, and I would even say it would not be an awful idea to fire this movie up on a Lazy Sunday once it falls on streaming. But it will likely leave you frustrated because it just felt like it could have been more.
5/10
“Challengers”
Luca Guadagnino has built quite the varied filmography, whether it be horror yarns like “Suspiria”, a magnetic coming-of-age story like “Call Me By Your Name”, or a story of cannibalistic drifters in love like “Flesh and Bone”. For “Challengers”, Guadagnino tries his hand at screwball comedy, albeit a darker approach to it, and for the most part it makes for a great viewing experience. Zendaya plays Tashi Duncan, a tennis prodigy who draws the obsession of two up-and-coming male players and best friends (Mike Faist and Josh O’Connor). This leads to a story that takes place over a 10 year period revolving around the competitiveness the feelings they have for Tashi and how it drove them, both on the tennis court and off. You could call it a love story but it’s debatable anyone in this triangle truly loves one another. Tashi is manipulative and is only concerned with staying by someone who she perceives as having potential in the game, one of the men (Faist) is a tennis pro who is on a losing streak, and the other is a con man who is sleeping in his car between matches.
This film is less about romance and more about the chemistry between the three leads, and all three of the actors are terrific in the film. I’d even say that there are issues with the writing, and the editing as they jump between timelines is a little sloppy, but the star of this film is the performers and their interactions are riveting. Zendaya in particular has not often played a character quite like this and it may rank as my favorite acting she’s done in her career so far. I also found myself laughing far more than I anticipated when seeing the trailer.
The only aspect of the film that was a bit disappointing to me was the score. Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross composed the music, and usually if they are working on the soundtrack for a movie I couldn’t be more excited to hear it in the movie. In this, they went with almost a 90’s techno approach to the sound, and it not only feels weird in the film at times, it’s also mixed in a way that at times wasn’t very pleasant. Thankfully, it doesn’t lessen the enjoyment, though it did briefly pull me out of the movie at times. Also, Guadagnino sure does love his slow motion, maybe a little too much.
I hope people take the time to go out and support this in theaters. It’s sexy as hell as a movie, and personally it’s exciting for me when a movie has three newer actors with a long career ahead of them giving some strong performances.
8/10