‘The Fall Guy’: SXSW Review

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

Ryan Gosling is at the height of his movie star powers. His smile is beguiling; his eyes are fetching. Even his dishevelled hair bears high wattage. Those strengths come together to uplift The Fall Guy, director David Leitch’s high-flying, hard-punching action flick about a roguish stuntman who returns from obscurity to haul a missing star back to a troubled movie. A former stuntman himself, Leitch returns to SXSW — where his film Atomic Blonde garnered significant adulation — with an ode to the overlooked profession integral to movie making.   

A swooning, undeniably fun adventure primed to kick off the summer season in a big way

Crowd-pleasing blockbusters like The Fall Guy once fuelled Hollywood. Tinseltown used to pride itself on casting the widest ensembles, igniting the biggest explosions, and churning out new larger-than-life heroes in ever-more extravagant stories. Leitch’s latest film, a big screen adaptation of Glen A Larson’s TV series, checks all of those boxes — particularly for viewers who haven’t had Kenough of Gosling. Set for release in the UK on May 2 and the US on May 3, The Fall Guy is a swooning, undeniably fun adventure primed to kick off the summer season in a big way, even if the pairing of Gosling with Emily Blunt as romantic foil leaves much to be desired.

It’s a film captivated by the creative spirit. Stuntman Colt Seavers (Gosling) loves confidently strolling the set with a devil-may-care attitude. Everyone knows he’s the best, including the star he supports: the self-absorbed Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). On his way to perform another feat, he walks past gaffers and grips, assistants and craftspeople, all tirelessly working to set the conditions for more movie magic. He also flirts over the radio with Jody (Emily Blunt), a camera operator with dreams of one day directing her own picture. Colt’s entire life comes crashing down when a stunt gone wrong causes him to freefall to the ground, breaking his back. He leaves the biz and Jody, his air of invincibility permanently shattered.  

Leitch and screenwriter Drew Pearce aren’t content to make an easy 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 picture, an ’alien sci-fi desert war movie’, in Sydney, Australia: Ryder is missing and they need a stuntman. The apprehensive Colt takes the job only to discover that a still-feeling-jilted Jody wants nothing to do with him. Also, Gail needs him to track down Ryder’s whereabouts or the movie is kaput. Finding Ryder will require Colt to avoid unsuspecting traps and tussle with hired guns to learn the truth.  

The Fall Guy wears its influences on its sleeve. Colt often trades movie references, such as The Last Of The Mohicans or Rocky III, with his stunt coordinator Dan (a delightful Winston Duke). He can usually be seen rocking a Miami Vice jacket, a running gag that pays dividends in one of the picture’s biggest and best set pieces. Even Taylor-Johnson gets in on the act, doing a spot-on Matthew McConaughey impression in a monologue lifted from Reign Of Fire. They’re all spirited gags, mostly propelled by the kind of impeccable comic timing Gosling has previously employed on Barbie and The Nice Guys. 

While there’s plenty of excitement to be had — from Stephanie Hsu appearing for an epic chase to chart toppers like the Darkness’ ’I Believe in a Thing Called Love’ and Taylor Swift’s ’All Too Well’ filling the mega soundtrack — the pairing of Blunt and Gosling falls short. Too often their scenes are meta commentaries, melding the filming of Jody’s movie with the arc of their relationship. While Gosling is clearly striving for classic Hollywood mystique, Blunt takes a more modern approach. She is less concerned with a persona than with a groundedness. Their disparate approaches put them on totally different pages. The VFX for many of the scenes is also lacklustre, although a kind interpretation would say the garishness is a winking nod to the necessity of practical effects and stunts.  

Unsurprisingly, this is also an anti-AI film, which goes so far as to squarely critique deep fakes while making the case that filmmaking should be a place for play rather than simulations. The Fall Guy is at its best when it captures the frenzied energy, the multiplicity of artisans, and the devoted precision necessary to bring a scene together. It explains the importance of stunt people through the guise of a singular star like Gosling, allowing him the bandwidth to pull every lever of his persona for maximum enjoyment. It all culminates in a final set piece that appears to incorporate every action muscle: mammoth explosions, intricate car chases and a helicopter fight that leads to the perfect romantic movie kiss. 

A thrilling spectacle of immense proportions, The Fall Guy isn’t Leitch’s best film. That title belongs to Atomic Blonde. But it’s probably his warmest, most earnest and endearing — further ingraining Gosling as his generation’s favourite action star.