In the opening pre-show to The Fall Guy , a standard now for any blockbuster movie playing in theatres it seems, director David Leitch characterized the movie as a tribute to stunt performers, among the most under-appreciated artists working in Hollywood. In the bit, Ryan Gosling even made the now fairly common appeal for a Stunts category at the Oscars -also brought up in the movie itself. And if nothing else, the movie is dead-set on making that case, on emphasizing just how important stunt performers are to the movie industry and how thankless the job can seem -given the pain involved and lack of recognition. Leitch knows it first-hand, which is why though he didn’t write the movie, he was absolutely right to direct it. And indeed The Fall Guy is the best movie in a while from the man who got his filmmaking start co-directing John Wick -probably owing to the palpable affection he has for the subject matter. The film is loosely based on a TV show from the 1980s your dad will rememb
I wonder if one of the repercussions of the unexpected success of Everything Everywhere All at Once might be a new subgenre of frenetically shot action-comedies based around gonzo premises. The movie business is often one of witnessing rare original ideas take off and then expounding resources to copy it in both style and success as thoroughly and frequently as possible. It definitely appears that such thinking played some part in the creation of Boy Kills World , a wildly energized and flagrantly weird dystopia movie that might secretly be an attempt to adapt a new Street Fighter movie without having secured the rights. Certainly it makes no secret of its root inspiration in arcade fighter games, and sticks to that kind of general action apparatus in as competent a way as it can. But beyond that there’s definitely the sense of it trying too hard to capture a particular vibe that the movie itself can’t wholly define. Directed by German filmmaker Mortiz Mohr, Boy Kills World is set in