The Fall Guy is the Most Adorable Movie Ever Made About Stuntmen

That's mostly a good thing!

Over the many years I’ve been researching and writing The Fractured Mirror, a book that I promise will eventually be released, preferably within my lifetime, I discovered all sorts of fascinating subgenres within the wild, wacky world of American movies about filmmaking.

For example, there’s a deep vein of American movies about the filmmaking process that are variations on the classic fable “The Emperor’s New Clothes.” In these newfangled cinematic morality tales, a screenplay becomes incredibly hot and sought-after because it does not exist, not because of it. It is much easier to get excited about ideas that exist only as thrilling possibilities than a finished script.

Another fascinating subgenre is movies devoted to the shift from silent to sound film. Singing in the Rain is the most notable example of this breed, but they started cranking out movies about the subject more or less immediately after the transformation occurred.

But perhaps my favorite cinematic subgenre involving movies about the filmmaking process is the stuntman movie.

The stuntman movie experienced a surge in popularity in the 1930s and 1970s. In the 1920s and 30s, a generation of lost men returned from war disillusioned, unafraid of death, and blessed with unusual skills involving flying, danger, and death.

We are currently experiencing another glorious stuntman boom thanks to the John Wick and Mission Impossible franchises. Tom Cruise has been risking his life for our amusement in various late-period sequels to the iconic TV show adaptation.

One of these days, Tom Cruise is going to kill himself doing a dangerous stunt. Then where will Scientology be? The stuntwork in  Mission Impossible and John Wick is so impressive that it seems a goddamn crime not to honor them with Academy Awards as well as rapturous critical praise.

John Wick and Mission Impossible deserve to dominate the Best Stunts category at the Academy Awards. Unfortunately, that category does not exist, but hopefully, it will soon.

John Wick elevated Keanu Reeves to a new level of popularity and ubiquity. John Wick launched the careers of two stuntmen-turned-directors, Chad Stahelski and David Leitch, although only Stahelski was credited.

While Stahelski distinguished himself by directing the next three John Wick movies, all of which were critical and commercial hits, while Leitch has become an A-list action director with credits like Atomic Blonde, Deadpool 2, Fast and Furious Presents Hobbs and Shaw, Bullet Train and now The Fall Guy.

Of the many wonderful films made about the dangerous, exciting world of stunt performers, none has been anywhere near as cute as David Leitch’s 2024 feature film adaptation of the Reagan-era boob tube smash The Fall Guy. Movies about stunt performers tend not to be adorable like a golden retriever puppy, but The Fall Guy is an atypical example of a proud, often macho subgenre in that it is a romantic comedy as much as an action comedy. It’s about falling in love as well as falling from tall buildings.

I wouldn’t go so far as to say that they’ve made a Fall Guy for girls that has girl germs and also cooties, but they have made a film for an audience that wants to ogle Ryan Gosling as well as root for him.

The notable hunktor (that’s a portmanteau combining “hunk” and “actor”) stars as Colt Seavers, a veteran stuntman known for his work as the double of Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson).

A horrifically botched stunt puts our hero out of operation for eighteen months, but he returns to work on a science fiction blockbuster being filmed in Sydney, Australia, largely as an opportunity to reconnect with first-time director  Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt), the love of his life as well as the one that got away.

As played by a scene-stealing, riotously funny Taylor-Johnson, the movie star combines the worst elements of Tom Cruise and Matthew McConaughey.

When Tom Ryder, the poster boy for Narcissistic Personality Disorder, goes missing, imperiling the film he’s working on, it falls upon Colt to track down his man, crack the case, and save the movie. Colt needs to get his man to get the girl.

The Fall Guy has a serious but not fatal case of The Cutes. Making Kiss’ surprisingly successful disco foray, “I Was Made For Loving You,” the primary musical theme, with any number of variations, proves a surprisingly inspired endeavor.

One of the film’s most memorable scenes, meanwhile, finds Gosling in a car listening to pretty much all of a particularly melodramatic Taylor Swift song and feeling all the feels.

The Fall Guy resembles 1978’s Hooper, a simpatico tribute to the wild, wonderful world of stunt performers from Hal Needham, another former stuntman turned action director. Hooper was a vehicle for star Burt Reynolds’ folksy charm and mega-watt movie star magnetism as much as a showcase for some of the most remarkable stunts ever filmed.

Like Hooper, The Fall Guy is gloriously unhurried, a boldly casual hangout film with perfectly cast, perfectly matched leads. The Fall Guy isn’t afaid to ramble and digress.

The Fall Guy is just as dependent upon the universal appeal of its wildly charismatic star as Hooper was. The Fall Guy does not need to pass the two-hour mark, but if it’s way too long, it is at least too much of a good thing. In addition to being an Academy Award-nominated dramatic actor Ryan Gosling has the breezy charm of Burt Reynolds in his prime. That’s just as impressive and just as rare.

Four Stars out of Five