I Love That 'The Fall Guy' Has an Ending
An ode to summer blockbusters that aren't trying to be big franchises.
For most of the 21st century, the summer movie season (which I view as starting with the first weekend in May) began with a superhero movie. As the MCU grew and Marvel staked out that weekend, kicking off the summer meant also having an awareness that the movie you were about to see was a chapter in a larger story rather than a self-contained narrative, although some films managed this balance better than others.
But this year, there will only be one Marvel movie (Deadpool & Wolverine) and it doesn’t arrive until July. That means our summer starts with The Fall Guy, a blockbuster adaptation of the 1980s Lee Majors series about a stuntman who also works as a bounty hunter. When I walked out of The Fall Guy screening last night, the publicist asked for my opinion, and I said, “It’s fun!” She pushed, “That’s it?” and I had no idea what else to say. Isn’t fun enough?
There’s been a period in recent blockbuster filmmaking where the answer has been a surprising, “no.” Instead, you’re talking about worldbuilding, and instantly drawn into comparisons with other movies in the franchise. Then it becomes a matter of, “Well, I wonder how they’ll pay that off down the line,” or “It’s not as good as the last one in the series.” The Fall Guy stands alone perfectly. It is a self-contained story of stuntman Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) getting pulled into a murder mystery so he can salvage the movie directed by his ex-girlfriend Jody Banks (Emily Blunt) who he hopes to win back. I mean, it’s clearly a love letter to stuntpeople directed by a former stuntperson (David Leitch), and that’s great! But even if it wasn’t, you’d still have an enjoyable, standalone blockbuster.
Walking out of The Fall Guy, I felt a sense of relief. If the movie is a hit, they’ll probably make a sequel, and that’s fine too. But at least it’s a blockbuster that isn’t trying to draw me into some deeper mythology or have me understand timelines and diagrams of character connections. Those aren’t necessarily bad, but audiences have clearly burnt out a bit on doing homework for every blockbuster. Even standard sequels like last summer’s Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny and Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning, Part I struggled as fans felt worn out on the franchise machine. I don’t know how The Fall Guy will perform on its opening weekend, but at least there’s no barrier to entry for audiences.
And it’s a movie that ends! There’s no cliffhanger! There’s a fun little credits scene, but it has nothing to do with alluding to a future project. You can stick around for it or not! Rather than trying to draw things out or make this the Lee Majors Cinematic Universe (LMCU) where we also need movies based on The Big Valley and The Six Million Dollar Man, we can just enjoy The Fall Guy for what it is rather than the promise of what it might be someday assuming all installments are massive hits.
Recommendations
Last week’s SCOTUS hearing on Donald Trump’s immunity claim was the most depressing farce imaginable. They shouldn’t have even taken the case in the first place, but it’s clear that the Republican justices see their duty as eating up as much time on the clock as possible so that the insurrection case doesn’t go to trial before the election. But then SCOTUS went a step further by having the Republican justices openly muse if a coup is just another valid path to power. To wit Jonathan V. Last’s appraisal of Justice Alito’s position during oral arguments:
I want to be very clear about what Justice Alito is saying here:
Donald Trump attempted a coup, and failed.
The criminal justice system is attempting to hold him accountable for this clear violation of the law.
But doing so might lead to some other president to attempt a coup.
So if someone attempts a coup they must not be prosecuted.
Because if you prosecute them, they might attempt another coup.
The Alito Theory sees a coup as merely an alternate path to power, no more or less valid than an election.2 If a coup is attempted and succeeds, the couper becomes president and faces no consequences. If a coup is attempted and fails, the couper is immune to prosecution and free to attempt another coup in the next election. And perhaps even in the election after that.
From Alito’s perspective, a coup is no different from a recount or a lawsuit attempting to disqualify ballots. It’s just another electoral Hail Mary pass.
Though, of course, sometimes those passes are caught.
The whole thing is worth a read, depressing as that may be. The real question we’re coming to isn’t when Republicans will move past Trump, but when Democrats will realize that court reform is necessary because Republican justices believe democracy is an inconvenience rather than one of our country’s bedrock principles.
Over on 4K, The Lord of the Rings Trilogy is only $59.19, a pretty good deal when you consider that not only is this the best these films have ever looked, but also that the set includes the theatrical and extended versions of the movies. I prefer the theatricals, but it’s nice to have both in case you’re feeling up for a super-charged 12-hour marathon through Middle-earth.
Note: I get a small percentage of sales made through my Amazon Associates link.
What I’m Watching
I’m eagerly awaiting to hear what more people think about Jane Schoenbrun’s new movie I Saw the TV Glow. It feels like a film that’s bound to be divisive, but I kind of loved it. Between this and her prior feature, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Schoenbrun knows how to cut to the bone-deep loneliness that young people feel. I Saw the TV Glow builds on that feeling of isolation by crafting out a queer allegory where some piece of media speaks to you on a level you can’t fully articulate or even justify, but it awakens your true self. The question then becomes if you’ll answer that call, or if, for whatever reason, you bury that calling because you’re scared of the consequences. It’s incredibly exciting to see a filmmaker like Schoenbrun have such a clear command and visual identity in their movies, and I can’t wait to see what they do next. I Saw the TV Glow opens in limited release on Friday.
Over on the lighter side, my wife and I caught up with a couple of recent rom-coms. I was wondering if George Clooney had been in a good movie since 2016’s Hail, Caesar! or had a great leading role since 2011’s The Descendants. The answer is: not really. I don’t think Ticket to Paradise will be the first movie anyone thinks of when they think of Clooney or co-star Julia Roberts (although they’ll likely think of it before 2016’s Money Monster, a film I forgot existed), but there is something to be said about two actors who know how to be movie stars. They know how to turn on the charisma, land the witty line, smile at the right time, and the camera always loves them. When so many actors these days feel swallowed up by IP, it’s nice to see a film where you know you’re watching George Clooney and Julia Roberts, and that’s part of the appeal.
I wish I could be as glowing about Anyone But You, but it’s far more uneven. Judging by my friends’ ratings on Letterboxd, I liked the film more than they did, but only slightly. There’s a smattering of good jokes, it was a nice idea to use Much Ado About Nothing as the foundation, and I am completely charmed by just about everything Glen Powell does. But while Powell seems to have no trouble managing a rom-com (see also 2018’s Set It Up), his co-star Sydney Sweeney appears to be at a loss with the genre and material. I don’t know if I’d say Sweeney is a “bad” actor since I thought she was good in Reality, but Anyone But You feels like a poor fit. She simply doesn’t seem like she’s having fun, and if you’re not being playful in a rom-com, then there’s really no point to the movie in the first place.
What I’m Reading
I’m making my way through Alfred Lansing’s Endurance about Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s desperate attempts to survive after their ship was swallowed up by the ice in the Antarctic Circle. It’s a breezy read that I’m enjoying, but I do have to grit my way through the animal death bits. Like I get that you have to kill seals and penguins to survive and that the stranded men aren’t doing it for funsies, but still. That’s before you get to killing the pack dogs because there’s not enough food to go around. Again, it’s the nature of survival in a brutal, desolate location, but that doesn’t make it any easier to read.
In other reads:
The Comfortable Problem of Mid TV by James Poniewozik [The New York Times] - Poniewozik does a great job of explaining an issue I couldn’t quite place my finger on. My wife and I watched the first episode of Mr. & Mrs. Smith. We like the actors. We liked the production values. We liked the premise. So why didn’t we feel compelled to keep watching after that first episode? As Poniewozik explains, we’re now in an era where it’s easy to get highly polished television, but that polish doesn’t necessarily make a show compelling. It simply makes it expensive and present. While there’s still good TV out there, you can clearly see why something like Shōgun or The Bear connects with people while stuff like The Diplomat is just kind of there.
What I’m Hearing
Challengers score is here! Challengers score is here!
What I’m Playing
Because I’m burning out on social media a bit (you can only do so much doomscrolling in a day), I’ve found a welcome reprieve by plugging a Backbone into my iPhone and using PS5 Remote Play for Rocket League. For those who have never played Rocket League, it’s like three-on-three soccer except instead of people you have little RC cars and instead of a soccer ball it’s more of a beach ball. Even though I’m not particularly good at Rocket League (I’ve lost countless online matches to my brother), I find it’s a nice way to unwind since matches are only five minutes long, and if you turn off voice chat for casual online play, you don’t have to hear a child lob ethnic slurs at you, which is typically my experience in online gaming.
Wow! What a column! Learned a lot — as usual.