Most of what I heard about The Fall Guy before seeing it myself was folks pondering on Twitter, “who is this movie made for?” It turns out the movie is made for folks who love movies. Whodathunkit?
Rarely do I get to watch a movie that feels so jam-packed with passion and love for the art form. Not only is The Fall Guy a movie about movies, it’s a movie about the people who make movies. Emily Blunt plays a stunt coordinator turned director playing opposite Ryan Gosling, a stunt man forced into early quasi-retirement who is brought back for one more gig. Winston Duke excels as the movie-within-a-movie’s stunt director; he’s a great addition to an already stellar cast. What was marketed as a nonstop action romp turned out to be much more of a romantic comedy through the lens of film making, which was a pleasant surprise. The writing was witty, the actors looked like they were having a blast, and the visual effects were stunning.
Compared to the director’s other similar project, Bullet Train, The Fall Guy kept me engaged throughout and was more polished overall. I usually find myself nitpicking dialogue or special effects if I’m not really into a movie. Besides leaving to get drink refills and a quick bathroom break, my partner and I were stuck to our seats, nearly forgetting to eat all of the snacks we snuck in with us.
The question is, was this movie worth watching in the theaters instead of catching it on streaming in the comfort of my own home? I guess that depends on your living situation, but The Fall Guy was worth watching on the silver screen. Health concerns notwithstanding, the theater feels like the right place to see a movie that is a celebration of the industry as well as the art. TFG may not have a gimmicky popcorn cup like Dune2, but it was worth seeing in the theater for the sake of talking about it on the walk to the parking lot.
Although Disney Pixar’s Onward isn’t the type of film that usually draws my attention, I was pleasantly surprised with the recent release on Disney+. Besides being a genius marketing strategy for their new streaming platform, Onward is also a wholesome and heartfelt road trip movie for the whole family starring Tom Holland and Chris Pratt.
The two brothers, Ian and Barley, live in a world very similar to our own except that it was once full of magic and wonder. Now that the magic is gone, however, capitalism has taken over, leading to the formerly-mystical creatures getting day jobs. The Lightfoot brothers, who just so happen to be elves, find themselves getting wrapped up in an epic quest with a surprisingly compelling twist. With stakes rapidly escalating, jokes throughout, and heartstrings being pulled like only Disney knows how, Onward completely shattered my expectations. Whether that’s because I had extremely low expectations to start with is still up for discussion.
Onward completely shattered my expectations. Whether that’s because I had extremely low expectations to start with is still up for discussion.
Without spoiling too much, Onward is set up as a very standard family-friendly animated flick but ends up taking some interesting creative twists that surprised and delighted. The fact that the story had so many emotional moments that hit close to home for me definitely helped. It’s hard to dislike a movie when you’re bawling your eyes out and clutching your significant other’s hand at the sight of two cartoon elves hugging. That’s got to take some kind of magic in and of itself, to be honest.
Although I enjoyed the movie, it’s definitely not without its flaws. Both Ian and Barley took a while to grow on me, which I partly attribute to the film’s pacing and writing. Chris Pratt is really the only actor given enough of a personality to warrant an especially expressive take, but his lines are wasted, at least at the beginning, on a lackluster Jack Black impression that he eventually grows out of. As Holland and Pratt are given more to work with, their performances drastically improve.
For the price of already having Disney+ to rewatch the Mandalorian and an hour and forty-two minutes of your time, Onward is the kind of wholesome, magical adventure that we all need in these difficult times.
With Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite racking up Oscar accolades and bringing renewed attention to Korean cinema, it felt like the perfect time to watch another film that I’ve had my eye on. Like a good horror movie, Train to Busan explains its premise just enough for us to jump right into the story; an absentee father promises to bring his daughter to see her mother in Busan for her birthday, but not everything is as it seems. Tension begins to ramp up as a sickly woman flings herself onto the train just as it’s about to depart, only to be followed by a swarm of zombies rushing the train platform.
Like Parasite and Snowpiercer, Train to Busan delves deep into the struggles of class and politics while also telling a thrilling tale. In fact, the similarities between the two most popular train-based Korean films to break into the international market are hard to ignore. Both take place on a train and use the convenient separation of the train cars to both physically and metaphorically distance the characters from one another while taking full advantage of the limited space to create an unnerving sense of claustrophobia.
In terms of the zombies themselves, Train to Busan decides to take the World War Z approach of fast, mindless, and twisted undead who trample over one another in a mass of flesh and rapid hunger. This helps keep the characters and the audience on edge, but the world-building isn’t as internally consistent as it could have been. As the protagonist struggles to understand the situation, I also had a hard time stitching together clues to figure out the origin of the outbreak or even the terms on which the plot was progressing forward. For example, there is a scene that involves soldiers falling out of helicopters, only to rise as zombies a moment later and attack nearby civilians that left me wondering if the whole incident was an accident or a direct attack by weaponized zombies.
As the story and train get moving, plot points slowly fall into place and become a lot easier to predict. The occupants of the train are widdled down to a small cast of plucky survivors, including a baseball player, a cheerleader, a pregnant woman, and her husband, and a narcissistic COO of some corporation. Although they fit neatly into archetypal horror movie roles, each brings a personality and charm to the film that helps keep it from being just another zombie gorefest.
Where the story diverts from horror tropes, however, also happens to be the film’s weakest point. For a movie that otherwise left little room for sentimentality, I was surprised at the sharp left turn towards the end of the film that plays more like a Korean day-time drama than an apocalyptic horror flick. It suffices to say that Train to Busan desperately wants to tear at your heartstrings, almost to a melodramatic degree. The dragged out ending with borderline nonsensical character decisions and goofy sentimental moments only helped sour what would have otherwise been an outstanding film.
All that being said, the good aspects of Train to Busan are hard to ignore despite its obvious flaws. It’s a zombie flick with a fun premise, interesting characters, and a great sense of pacing that only falters towards the end, long after you’ve stopped caring about the plot. If you’re a zombie/horror fan or want to explore some of what Korean films have to offer, this would be a hard title not to recommend.
I’m a sucker for a well-executed gimmick, especially films meant to look like they’re filmed in one long shot. Children of Men and Birdman both come to mind as great examples of this style, but rarely have I seen an artistic gimmick so perfectly match its story as with Sam Mendes’ latest creation, 1917. To call it a gimmick is actually a disservice to the emotional weight that it carries in terms of getting the audience intimately familiar with what the characters are experiencing.
Besides the opening scene, which is meant to introduce the single-shot idea as well as the main characters and the relatively simple plot, most of the movie takes place in tight, restrained environments that put the camera directly in the midst of the action. The film does an amazing job of capturing your attention and not getting too caught up in its own brilliance to tell a good story. That is to say, the film’s gimmick is in service to the story, not the other way around (I’m looking at you, Hardcore Henry).
To be frank, I was surprised to like 1917 as much as I did. I knew exactly what to expect going in, yet found myself in awe of the technical marvel unraveling before my eyes rather than trying to catch every hidden cut out of boredom. For a story that is almost entirely “spoiled” in the synopsis of the film, Sam Mendes shows that excellent writing, likable characters, and believable conflict are more important to a good story than subverting the audience’s expectations.
1917 takes very little time in cluing the audience in on just how awful it was being a soldier in the First World War. Although the “good guys” win in the end, the stakes rapidly escalate as our protagonists slog through trenches and into bunkers, facing death at every turn. With the introduction of every new character, you begin to wonder just how much the protagonists can trust them and where their motives truly lay, even those in British uniforms. The tension ramps up to a grand crescendo that both fills you with joy and also rips your heart out from your chest and makes you stare at it. War is hell, alright?
Is this the most important war movie of all time? That’s not for me to say, especially given that I rarely watch war movies outside of the star variety, but I can say that it is easily the best movie I’ve seen so far this year and I’m excited to see it again. Will I be as caught up in the commotion and forget that I’m watching a movie or will the cracks start to show when I’m not spending half of the movie watching over the character’s shoulders for potential threats? That’s hard to say too. What isn’t hard to say, however, is that you owe it to yourself to see 1917 in theaters.
Although I wouldn’t call myself an Adam Sandler fan, I was nonetheless drawn to the trailer for Uncut Gems when I originally saw it in theaters. I immediately wanted to see what he would do with a serious role that was tailored specifically for him. The psychedelic visual motifs in the trailer and the fact that the directors were relatively unknown all but secured my ass in the theater seat to see this flick.
What I thought was going to be a cautionary tale about the dangers of gambling addiction and stealing from the mob seemed to be more in favor of the protagonist’s behavior than not by the end of the movie. In fact, I would go so far as to say that Uncut Gems has a lot of anti-intellectualist vibes. An obvious clue would be the fact that the movie’s plot is centered around the idea that a fictionalized version of Kevin Garnett thinks that a rock will give him magical basketball powers.
If reveling in the lives of skeevy con men and superstitious imbeciles doesn’t make you uncomfortable, then the borderline pretentious cinematography gimmick of zooming in on subjects until they are out of focus certainly will. This isn’t the say that the film isn’t self-aware enough to effectively convey the morale of the story that gambling is bad, but rather that it spends so much of its run time focused on that idea that it fails to mention the other elephants in the room.
Ultimately, Uncut Gem’s main selling point pays off in spades, both in Adam’s ability to slip into such an interesting character and in his supporting cast’s ability to bring life and believability to an otherwise comically ridiculous bunch of characters. Julia Fox’s acting is superb, especially given that this is her first role in a feature film. I suspect that Mr. Sandler will receive most of the praise for his performance in Uncut Gems, but Ms. Fox shows that you don’t have to make three decades worth of bad movies first before putting on a killer showcase of raw acting talent.
As I sat on this review, I began thinking about how the marketing and trailer specifically affected my expectations going in, my thoughts during the film, and my opinion on it after the fact. There is a powerful scene in the movie that was mined for Uncut Gem’s marketing campaign where Howard says “This is how I win!” If this were a more traditional movie, I would expect that line to cap off a redemption arc for an otherwise unlikeable anti-hero who is down on his luck.
While the trailer presented Howard’s “winning” scene as an example of his prowess and confidence, the actual movie portrays it very differently. What comes off as a self-congratulatory brag without any context is actually Howie awkwardly floundering as he explains how he conned Kevin Garnett and himself out of a significant amount of money over a stupid rock. In fact, Howard doesn’t win in the end at all.
What left me with a sour taste in my mouth after immediately leaving the theater has now turned into an appreciation for clever marketing more than anything. Sure, the movie could have been an extra thirty minutes longer with a redemption arc for Howard in which he regains control over his finances and fixes his life. In the end, I don’t think I would have seen that movie, however. The ending left me with a Seinfeldian sense that the plot ultimately didn’t matter, but that may very well be the point. Maybe Howard was doomed from the start and watching his rapid downward spiral is enough of a thrill ride by itself without having to manufacture a happy ending for him.
I’ve had a lot to say about this movie, but I would absolutely recommend seeing Uncut Gems even if it’s just to witness the movie first hand for yourself. I didn’t enjoy the flick half as much as I’ve enjoyed talking about it, but that’s still enough of a pro in my book to warrant a recommendation. Seeing Adam Sandler enjoy acting again is worth the price of admission alone, but you’ll also enjoy the claustrophobic cinematography, a variety of interesting side characters, and an ending that you both see coming from a while away and still gasp at when it finally hits you in the face like a brick.
Uncut Gems could be an incredible movie with a few adjustments (namely punching up the pacing a bit and letting Trent Reznor compose the soundtrack), but on its own, it’s still a pretty damn good movie with a lot of great actors and a plot that will keep you pulled along for the ride. It does all this despite the fact that its foundation is pretty flimsy under further inspection and you definitely could have gone to see 1917 instead.
tommgoldrick.com 