The Fall Guy

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

The Fall Guy follows Colt Seavers, a stuntman who suffers a severe onset injury that destroys his life and his relationship with upcoming director, Jody Moreno. Now healed, Colt has a chance to rekindle his love with Jody when he is invited back to be a stuntman in her big blockbuster project. The only problem is the lead actor is missing in action, and it's going to be down to Colt to find him and save Jody's film.

 

This is a film that truly loves blockbuster cinema production, like through and through, there is a tremendous amount of dedication to the craft here. Over the course of the movie there are tributes to various departments, a major breakdown of what a shooting day can look like, examples of the production process and even playful jabs at how studios interfere in big productions like this. The meat of this love is very notably geared towards stunt work and how these performers are the backbone of major action cinema. You get a detailed view of safety measures, how stunts are developed and the multiple stunts that can be worked into a film. Even the little references, quotes or nods to other blockbuster productions shows nice insight and passion went into The Fall Guy. The core chemistry of Colt and Jody is also a major driving force; in a film where action is the big spotlight, it's actually the romance that held my attention more. The characters are genuinely very sweet, and work well for one another in a way that makes you believe in them. I liked that their conflict, that which divides them for a time, is very understandable but also something they can be expected to work through together. The Fall Guy is also ceaselessly funny, there are a lot of great gags in this; which is certainly the sort of script I expect David Leitch to gravitate to these days.

The score for the film keeps a nice central theme to Kiss' 'I Was Made For Lovin' You' which really kept the fated love story very present throughout. I also thought the soundtrack for this film was incredible, it had a rough and rugged 80s vibe at times, and at others a very modern bleeding heart sound like Taylor Swift's 'All Too Well'.

 

Emily Blunt, who played Jody Moreno, is such a sweet character who just seems entirely fun and witty as this up-and-coming director; Blunt plays a role who really backs herself but is also really joyful and sincere throughout.  Aaron Taylor-Johnson, who played Tom Ryder, really has a blast leaning into the self-absorbed celebrity superstar; Taylor-Johnson's persona talks a big talk but is a bit of a flake under pressure, which is a nice change in type for him. Teresa Palmer, who played Iggy Starr, is a really fun role that leans into the celebrity girlfriend stereotype a bit; watching her bicker with and chastise Gosling is quite the memorable scene. Winston Duke, who played Dan Tucker, is a character who gets to be dedicated to just loving cinema, which feels wonderful to watch; I could honestly watch Duke deliver famous movie quotes back and forth with gosling all day long. Matuse, who played Doone, is quite the fun minor drug dealer character role; his sort of feigned bromance with Gosling's stunt performer makes him an intriguing figure. Adam Dunn, who played Nigel, is one of the funniest characters in the cast in my opinion; his overly-stressed AD character who goes from barking commands to losing himself to karaoke makes for a hell of a time.

However, the best performance came from Ryan Gosling, who played Colt Seavers. Gosling is on a real career high right now, buzzing off of Barbie, I think it'd be hard to go wrong with whatever script he chose. In Colt, we get a quietly charismatic and flirtatious stuntman who has such positive feelings of love and has to grapple with the fallout from losing that connection. Seeing Colt go from a man on top of the world at the start of the film to someone very downtrodden takes you to the pit with him. Yet, the hope and desire Gosling brings as his role returns to see Jody at her new film is this invigorating sensation that fuels the audience for the whole film. Colt can be a bit of an adorable dork, stumbling into things poorly or finding the wrong words before the right ones, but he's an easy underdog to root for. Watching his determination to fight for Jody, save her film and win her back is a classic character type, but one that Gosling really fleshes out and makes his own.

I like an action movie that has heart at its core, but I also like an action blockbuster that tries to find some fresh elements or plot points. Where The Fall Guy really falters for me is the action storyline, which is an outlandish crime piece that just feels a bit too generic for its own good. Colt running around trying to find Tom Ryder only to come face to face with a cartoonish criminal underworld and a murder conspiracy that is more than a little predictable is quite disappointing. The movie keeps dragging out the motives and actions of the antagonists to solidify them as the villains, but it makes the whole movie a lot harder to buy into.

The way this film is shot is surprisingly ugly given how much varied stunt work there is to cover. There are so many big blocky wides that repeat after one another, it's rare to see any effort to get creative visually or show a little variety from scene to scene. The editing was a real let-down too; setting a surprisingly slow pace for the type of movie this is and also chopping between far too many sequences in a scene at times. I also thought the transitions between scenes wasn't consistently very good, at times the shifts in location would be entirely jarring.

Hannah Waddingham, who played Gail Meyer, really just hams up the overbearing producer figure from her first scene onwards; this is a character that just gets worse as her role is brought into the action plot more and more. Stephanie Hsu, who played Alma Milan, is a role that just doesn't fit all that nicely into the movie; her character is just there to give Gosling a phone, and otherwise she makes for an odd sticking point in a couple of scenes. Ben Knight, who played Dressler, is entirely forgettable as the big muscle-bound goon of the film; Knight just seems capable of bringing generic anger and a menacing slower to his role.

 

The chemistry between Blunt and Gosling paired with the genuine love of major-motion Hollywood filmmaking, especially stunt work, makes this a gem to watch. I would give The Fall Guy a 7.5/10.

Challengers

 

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Challengers follows Art Donaldson and Patrick Zweig, two up-and-coming tennis players who both fall for Tashi Duncan, a player who is on the track to being a tennis sensation. While Tashi is motivated to compete and exceed at tennis by any means, both Art and Patrick are lovestruck and want Tashi's affection by any means.

 

This film tells you all the time that it is about tennis, but it never reduces tennis to a mere sport. What the film really wants to present you with is the idea of tennis; a duel and a partnership simultaneously. At all moments of this film, we cut back and forth to the Challenger game Patrick and Art are both playing late in their lives; the final climactic match we get to watch as an audience. This match at first feels like a game; but as we watch it evolves to a struggle to survive, a fierce rivalry, but also an intimate relationship that has a lot of fire left in it. The person in this film who understands the complexities of tennis and wants to witness a match like this is Tashi, on some level she fully understands this deeper meaning and strives for it in everything. This is why she becomes so disinterested in Patrick when he loses focus or starts falling out of love with Art when he loses his drive to compete. In a nice contrast, Art and Patrick are playing the game of tennis over years of their lives. They want to compete for Tashi in a competitive teenage way, taking things as a light competition between friends. Yet as Tashi comes to be something they both yearn for more and more, their friendship begins to fracture, and they come apart in a bitter way. Trading blows back and forth for years as they seek their moment with her, doing anything to be worthy of this woman they both love. Tashi also recognises this friendship as something that holds a very intimate bond. There is an element of repressed homoeroticism in Art and Patrick and how they feel for one another. It's actually very beautiful to see such a great friendship touch on becoming something more, shattering and then finding its own way to reunion. Challengers is the literary and visual metaphor done perfect, and it's going to stand as one of the best scripts of 2024.

 

The visuals in this get pretty wild and experimental at times, but that results in something that is visually quite thrilling, especially when watching the active matches. I also thought the hyper-close way this film shows passion, yearning and intimacy makes it one of the more visually attractive films of the year. The editing is conducted at an incredible pace, moving scenes from something steady to something electric with impeccable timing. The score crafted by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is this thrilling synth work that feels like adrenaline and desire made music.

 

Zendaya, who played Tashi Duncan, is a real calculating force of ambition in this one; I would probably say that this could be one of Zendaya's greatest roles to date. Mike Faist, who played Art Donaldson, portrays yearning and hunger for something very well; I also enjoyed seeing present day Faist at this low point of wanting to quit but not wanting to lose.

 

However, the best performance came from Josh O'Connor, who played Patrick Zweig. This role feels like a desperate individual when first we meet him, a bit of an underdog and someone who really needs a win. Which is true in some ways, but Zweig is a little more complicated and slippery than that. This is a role brimming with charisma, he knows how to talk the talk and feels so entirely sure of himself. O'Connor thrives with Zweig, presenting this cocky player who seems convinced every door before him will just open. He has such brilliant chemistry with Faist, their friendship is one of the most interesting aspects of this whole thing. I like how he presents boyish annoyance for his initial moments of conflict, but in his later scenes his anger comes across as more sudden or unexpected. O'Connor also just happened to be charming and seductive in this, he made Zweig this figure who really is quite attractive in the context of the story and to the viewer. It's a titan role in a film where all three leads absolutely dominate.

 

Challengers doesn't step poorly too often, but I felt some of the later act work to make a convincing cheating sub-plot really didn't land as nicely as was intended. It all just felt a bit more fantastical than everything else up until that point.

 

I also wasn't a fan of the intrusive text boxes to make everything look like a tennis match, it was a clunky and basic moment of post-production. The experimental, fast-paced camera work in the third act resulted in some point of view shots that just did not work and intruded on the flow of a scene here and there.

This film has one of the most electric and fascinating scripts of the year, writing this good is such a treasure. I would give Challengers an 8.5/10.

Civil War

 

This review may contain spoilers!

Civil War is a speculative dystopian film depicting the concept of the United States fracturing into four factions vying for power and control. The plot centres on a team of war journalists who are driving across country towards Washington DC in the hopes of interviewing the embattled President.

This is a film that feels really timely in a period where conflict is at the forefront of our minds globally, and America is filled with strong opposing political viewpoints that have broken out into violence recently. Yet the genius of this movie is that this isn't as easy as going it is a political right versus a political left sort of film, the conflicting sides are very unique and their motivations harder to identify. Every American that we meet on-screen has the potential to be hostile and a threat to our journalist protagonists. This film handles tension well, there can be some moments that will really have you in a chokehold with just a few set pieces and some stunning performances. The whole film isn't one I would describe as a war film or a political thriller, ironically this is a road trip film. Civil War presents as an all-American road trip in which our characters are driving their way slowly to Washington D.C. to meet the President. Yet where a road trip film might bring a dysfunctional family together while they see the wonders of America, this film unveils the dark horror of what America could be to our protagonists. Watching the 'family unit' at the core of this feature have misery visited upon them and slowly get torn apart until we are left with the remains is the strongest reason to get out there and see Civil War.

 

This movie is also beautifully shot with this intimate attention to detail on our core cast and long expansive visuals of a desolate dystopian America. There is a real reverence here to framing something that moves you visually, which is so powerful given that war photography is at the centre of all this. I also felt the score had me on edge throughout, while the soundtrack really lifted up the brutal irony of the scenes those tracks were playing in. My favourite example of this was 'Breakers Roar' by Sturgill Simpson, which feels warm and uplifting while playing against tragedy.

 

Nick Offerman, who played the President, feels very stoic and robust while also being appropriately charismatic for the role; Offerman leads us into the film and does a great job of crafting a very disarming version of an American icon. Kirsten Dunst, who played Lee, is a very cold role who is distanced from the scale of conflict around her; watching Dunst steadily break as this war takes a personal toll on her throughout this makes for a great protagonist journey. Wagner Moura, who played Joel, is very quick-talking and charismatic; Moura's character feels like one who doesn't let a thing phase him and is thrilled by the landscape of horror around them for most of the film. Nelson Lee, who played Tony, was such a thrillseeking hotshot when he is first introduced; the contrast with his intense shutdown during his final scene is excellent work. Stephen McKinley Henderson, who played Sammy, is in one of my favourite roles of his to date; this is a role that feels extremely wise and knowledgeable while also distantly mournful about the fall of the world around them.

However, the best performance came from Jesse Plemons, who played an American Soldier. It feels an odd move in some ways to single out a one scene performance as my favourite role in the movie but there is no part of me that doesn't think Plemons crafted the best narrative moment in the film. There's a very cool indifference from the start of the scene, where things should feel like they could go either way you instead know they are going to go rotten. This soldier character steadily moves through our cast, illiciting fear through an easy-going smirk and blunt disregard. His vitriol slowly coming loose as he interviews them to work out just how 'American' they all are felt like a very real moment; like something that would genuinely develop in a modern American Civil War. I would say Jesse Plemons crafts the most intense, fear-inducing and memorable scenes of the entire movie in this moment.

While I really liked this film overall it was a concept that probably needed to be tightened down a little more. The worldbuilding didn't make a great deal of sense in terms of how the Civil War functioned, stepping a little further back by watching this film through the lens of non-combatants helped this but not by much. I also felt positioning this movie around the perspective of war journalists was an odd one. At times this resulted in a very neautral or distant relationship with the material playing out before us, making it harder to connect with the emotional stakes of a scene. The film feels very empty a lot of the time during the travel sections, we have a number of excellent tense moments but the road to D.C. feels barren and the budget feels really pushed to the limit. There is a whole story arc around a young woman called Jessie randomly joining our journalist team, a storyline that comes together quite quickly with not much attention to detail. If more work had been done to justify Jessie's presence and her sort of mentorship storyline with Lee then I would have been more impressed. The final push into Washington D.C. feels like a whole different movie at times too; just a big 'war is brutal' sequence with none of the poignant reflecting from earlier in the story.

The special effects should be the thing that they got right, this was A24's biggest budget for a film yet. But the effects are a real eyesore in this, with a number of fake vehicles and backdrops that take away from the otherwise impressive camerawork at play.

Cailee Spaeny, who played Jessie, plays the plucky kid who really just wants to prove herself and it is a hard role to fit well tonally into this piece; Spaeny's performance almost finds the mark a few times but she is rare to surprise throughout.

An extremely volatile and well constructed piece of speculative fiction that is sometimes dwarfed by the immense concept driving it. I would give Civil War a 7/10.

Love Lies Bleeding

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Love Lies Bleeding is a crime thriller following Lou, a gym employee who has a crime boss father, and Jackie, a travelling bodybuilder. When the two become romantically entangled Lou's darker past and family threaten to destroy the love and life they have found with one another. Tested at every point, these two women must endure domestic violence, drug addiction and murder to find any hope of escape.

 

This is a film that really challenged me the whole way through, I felt like it would the moment the opening sequence went from this ethereal beauty to a bird's eye shot of a clogged toilet brimming with shit. That's the beauty and horror of Love Lies Bleeding for everything wondrous or romantic we must be grimly reminded of something ugly and hard to accept. The central relationship of Lou and Jackie is so electric and satisfying. These are at times starcrossed lovers meant to be, in other scenes you couldn't imagine two people worse for one another. And it makes sense right? The film is love Lies Bleeding, named for the plant Love-Lies-Bleeding; a plant that has symbolism of immortal love while also simultaneously representing hopeless love. A perfect symbol for the relationship that seems to be consuming itself. Lou and Jackie together feel strong and truly full of affection for one another. Yet their history and nature means that they are also the reason for one another's downfall. Lou is responsible for Jackie's addiction to steroids, while Lou pushes her vulnerable girlfriend into killing the man who is abusing her sister. It is only when an outside manipulating force attacks them both, in the form of Lou's father, that they come together to protect the person they love.This isn't the bubblegum queer story like Heartstopper or Red, White and Royal Blue nor is it the tragic 'kill your gays' trope coming home to roost once again. This is a deeply unique and creative queer narrative with a fascinating noir pulp setting and an intricate relationship at its core.

 

The way this film is shot is very graphic and arresting, the visuals are brutal and grimy. I felt like this film knew how to dance that line between grounded grit and fantastical imagery. The editing was very smooth, setting an often tense and frantic pace. It also had some brilliant, 70s/80s retro music video cutting to sequences that made this whole thing stand out like crazy. The soundtrack is a lot of fun and is filled with tracks that speak to the points of danger and change - with 'Transformation' by Nona Hendryx being an absolute standout scene. The score itself is anxiety-inducing, really seeping right into you while also holding a few faint tracks of optimistic hope.

 

Anna Baryshnikov, who played Daisy, is an extremely disarming and wild character in this; the way she portrays her intense infatuation for Stewart is alarming and makes for a dangerous role. Kristen Stewart, who played Lou, has found one of her career greats in this leading role; Stewart is so confident and in charge with this character both in her relationship and in her onscreen rivalry with Lou Sr. (Harris). Dave Franco, who played JJ, might be in one of his filthiest roles ever; Franco is portraying this vile thug who is abusive and an incredible creep to the female characters of the film. Ed Harris, who played Lou Sr., is not your typical antagonist with the Harris glower; this figure is a major manipulator and is more conniving than a physical threat in the feature. Orion Carrington, who played O'Riley, is quite a charismatic yet threatening figure in all this; this portrayal of an FBI agent feels like a force to be reckoned with despite his lower screen time.

However, the best performance came from Katy O'Brian, who played Jackie. This role is immensely interesting and a lot of what goes on with the two leads hinges on Jackie. The obvious component is how immensely physical this role is. Jackie is a bodybuilder and O'Brian has to get big for this role. But more than that she has to train for bodybuilder competition showmanship, posing and performance. This is an aspect of the character she has clearly put strong work into and achieves well. However, what separates this performance out is just how interesting she is; when first we meet her she is alone and has to make personal compromises to get work or a place to sleep. Yet she radiates joy and is quite a hopeful figure, she shines and it's no wonder that Stewart's character is so drawn to her. O'Brian and Stewart have phenomenal chemistry from the way they fall in love even to how intimate their points of conflict are. O'Brian's work to show Jackie as a vulnerable figure who doesn't know how to deal with complex things like Lou's pain so she responds with violence is interesting. Jackie is a rash person who barrels forwards; into aggression or into stereoids. Yet watching O'Brian portray the spiral and her role's reaction to the consequences of her actions is equally fantastic. Jackie is O'Brian's best work to date and squarely cements her as a genuine dramatic performer worth getting excited for in the years to come.

In the early beginnings of this film there is some great work done to create the two leads and how they come together in a very realistic way. I fell into their story because it was so neatly presented. This did result in the more crime family aspect feeling a little more fantastical when it was first introduced. It took some time for the movie to really work out how to blend the grounded elements of that with the heightened elements of that. There are also many moments depicting the obscene to make things go from bad to worse or to shake the audience back to reality. While I did like the thematic use of this style, I didn't feel like every instance of this was purposeful, resulting in some gross moments that felt excessive to the style.

Jena Malone, who played Beth, perhaps embraces the meek quality of her role too much; it is hard for Malone to leave an impression in her scenes and her character is more reduced to a glaring facial prosthetic than anything else.

 

I was horrified, transfixed, enamoured and sobered by this entire whirlwind of a film. I would give Love Lies Bleeding an 8/10.