A-STYLE | MEDIA MATTERS
  • News & Updates
  • Current Projects
    • Past Projects
    • Behind the Scenes >
      • About
      • FAQ
  • For Patrons!
  • Editorials
  • Reviews
    • My Grading Scale
    • Top Lists
  • Fan-Works

the Fall Guy | Movie Review

11/6/2024

0 Comments

 

​Ryan Gosling has been one of my favorite actors for a while, and the last few years have just been AWESOME. Between the Gray Man (2022) and BARBIE (2023), this has just been an absolutely glorious era that is continuously getting even more amazing.

The Fall Guy is an Epic Rom-Action Comedy that utterly solidifies the genre into a staple of the cinematic ecological system. It is an ode to the art of film-making, a call-to-action on the front of respecting the unsung heroes of movie-making that go unappreciated at the Oscars, and a delightful romp through the genres of murder mystery, love story, sports-redemption saga, and meta-media philosophical dialogue.
​

Directed by David Leitch, Written by Drew Pearce, and based in spirit on Glen Larson's 1980's TV series, The Fall Guy stars an excellent mix of Big Names from the present, Key Figures from the past, and several up-and-coming stars. Ryan Gosling and Emily blunt are the two primary figures and they are glorious. They have fantastic chemistry and both bring such skillful talent and excellently playful attitudes to the process that sticking them together and letting them riff for a while inevitably ends up with a plethora of eminently useful material.

Picture
The story follows Colt Seavers, Stuntman, in a comeback after having been taken out of the game by a traumatic injury following a stunt-gone-wrong. He'd been in a relationship with the wonderfully supportive Jody Moreno, whom he basically ghosted in the aftermath of the accident due to the kind of culturally ingrained machismo that makes male-weakness into something abhorrent and meant to be hidden (especially from a man whose literal job is to be stoic and strong in the face of getting beat-on). In the midst of trying to do his action-hero stand-in day job, Colt is trying to win back the love of his life, save her movie from catastrophic collapse, and figure out what's happened to the man he is meant to double.

Literally everything about this movie is spectacular.

It is the first movie in.... years that has prompted me to buy a physical copy. There's an extended edition and I just NEEDED to see it. (Honestly, the Theatrical Cut is genuinely better, and unless you're a hyper-focused weird little obsessive like myself, you might not even notice most of the tiny changes, and the 2 big sequences left in are really better cut. But I quite liked it.)

The plotting and editing of the final Theatrical Cut is just SO tight and beautifully structured. It's seriously amazing, like Chekov's Nesting Doll of Knives at a Gun Fight level setups and gloriously satisfying follow-throughs. Every shot, every prop, every line of dialogue is a reference, a setup for a later twist, or an astute moment of character/relationship building, and most of them are more than one of those at once!

The acting is FABULOUS. It's basically a Ryan Gosling Epicness Vehicle, with some shiny stunts and plot on the side. His performance here is truly spectacular, deeply believable, and intimately moving as the blithe introspection of self-deprecating humor Colt Seavers embodies is forced into a more genuine reflectivity and honesty. Gosling nails it, every single second of it.

Emily Blunt is being less praised, and even my own friend-group is split, but I found her DELIGHTFUL. She's an excellently accurate and subtle depiction of Neurodivergence in action, and I firmly believe in the intentionality of that depiction due to the visual references of Gretta Gerwig (which Blunt & Leitch have both confirmed as being intentional, most people have called it a throw-back to Barbie for Gosling's other recent big hit, but there were easier ways to do that, and Gerwig is openly AutADHD.) I found her to be believable and honest in her depiction and I think the representation of it specifically ought to be split into an entirely separate essay...

ANYWAY. The 2 stars are spectacular, the supporting actors are all equally delightful and gloriously effective in their roles of elevating the main 2, and even the bit characters are truly charming.

The lighting design is spectacular, swinging wildly between varied arrays and color palette-highlights to suit each and every classically defined genre it sticks its toes into, while somehow magically remaining perfectly consistent (yellow, blue, orange, green, and purple can obviously be used a staggering number of ways, but I've never seen it done with so many radically varied implementations in a single film).

The sound design is just as impressive as the lighting design. Dominic Lewis is the man behind the score. I'm only very tangentially familiar with him, but I'm exceedingly pleased with this movie and will be following him closely in the future. The score for the Fall Guy keeps close to the 80's roots, with key themes and samples coming from Kiss and Journey, with a bit of slick modern spy-thriller and cutesy Y2k rom-com tossed in for good measure.
And the licensed music? * chef's kiss *

From Taylor Swift to YUNGBLUD, every genre of modern music culture gets touched on. AND there's a car-chase / epic fight-scene supported by the dulcet tones of Phil Collins, which is spectacularly well played off as being perfectly normal and not at a radical choice in any way (and is also one of the VERY best chase/fight scenes I have ever seen).


The cinematography is breath-takingly gorgeous in every respect, and much of it is actively discussed within the film itself without even needing to break the 4th wall.

The special effects, covering stunts, SFX & VFX, and editing tricks and choices, is all exceedingly well executed. The fight scenes are all beautifully choreographed, arranged into narratively functional sequences, and just brilliantly executed and spectacularly well-captured. The action-y climbing / falling / creative transportation / chase scenes are all deliciously unique and excellently showcased. It definitely sings through clearly the entire film that David Leitch is a former stuntman himself. All of it is lovingly arranged and captured with care and creativity.

This film is truly a love-letter to movie-making with special reverence given to all the elements of a movie that don't get the kind of love and fan-support that the lead acting talent does.

​Honestly, this movie is just brilliant.

It raises awareness of the plight of Stunts teams, it explicitly addresses the persisting problems of the Patriarchy, it depicts a thoroughly engaging love-story with diverse personality (and neurodivergence) representation within the romance and among the friends / support-system), AND it's hysterically funny while directly engaging with the utterly tragic way that Capitalism functionally mandates that some people will be treated as expendable.
It passes the Bechdel Test, it passes the Reverse Bechdel Test, it passes the Mako Mori Test...

AND it passes the Ellen Willis Test, the Pierce Test, the Sexy Lamp Test, the Villarreal Test, the Tauriel Test, the Maisy Test, the Tourist Test (definitely for LA, and less definitively, but still passing, for Sydney) and it even measures up to Deggan's Rule (if only by default in that more 25% of the 'main cast' is person-of-color in a non-race-focused narrative, 2 out of 7 isn't great representation, but there's plenty of representation in the smaller parts and technically 29% of the main cast is PoC, and there's an argument for it being 3/8 depending on your definition of 'main').

(It, admittedly, does not pass any significant LGBTQ+ benchmarks, but like it's doing a helluva lot of work on other fronts and while I think LGBTQ+ rep is intrinsically important to a healthy media ecosystem... a single movie should not be held responsible for forward progress on literally everything... And it doesn't not pass some of them, it just doesn't have time to explore or address them directly. I would argue that Gail's PA is Queer Rep... what kind of queer, idk, but that person is present in a visibly significant role that is narratively infinitesimal... Along with that person, there are plenty of other blink-quick opportunities for fanwork to have a lot of play in expanding upon.)

((It also can't pass things like the Waithe Test or the Villalobos Test, because there simply aren't enough characters to make addressing such requirements viable, let alone doing so within the context of an already wildly complicated narrative.))

Considering how it's just a single movie and there's only so much one can expect from a little over 2hrs of media content, it achieves a helluva lot towards promoting equity, equality, and excellence in pop-cultural storytelling spheres.

THERE'S EVEN A DOG, who LIVES, and has a pivotal role in being both action hero side kick and rom-com set piece.

In short, I cannot recommend it highly enough. 

Seriously, EVERYONE should go watch this movie ASAP.

It is a little dicey on the kid-friendly front. There's no sex or anything worrisome on that front. And there's an argument that it's a fairly realistic look at the physical cost of being an action-hero so there's some merit potentially in showing the injury-inevitable side of things to kids who might be a bit too wild? There are drug dealers (who are represented as the bad guys), drug users (also bad guys), a wee bit of off-screen torture, and some cursing (but, like, all in very reasonable circumstances). The PG-13 rating is perfectly suitable and put in place with cause, but I do think that there's an awful lot of room for parental discretion, more so than on many other PG-13 films.
0 Comments

Rage & Ruin - Jennifer Armentrout | Book Review

7/23/2021

0 Comments

 
             This is the sequel to Storm & Fury and it's a decidedly well-built follow-up. It didn't quite capture me, but it wasn't difficult reading either, so I managed to get through it nice and quick. There weren't any points that felt like a slog and the romance did get turned up to a nice sizzle. Over all, I was quite pleased.
Date Read: June 28th, 2021
Picture
Final Score: 6 / 10 !

            Honestly, there was nothing about it that had any solid development in it for me, other than the Romance and then a small (but admittedly significant plot point). For the most part, this sequel feels like that it is: the middle bit bridging the way between Book 1's intro to the work and Book 3's theoretical conclusion of the story.
          I think (or at least I hope) that a lot of the lack in the world building aspect of this story comes from the fact that from the author's point of view, it's a spin-off series. I'm guessing (again, more hoping) that a lot of the world building was packed into the main-series and simply left out here because it was considered over-kill. I do no ascribe to that sort of school of thought where world-building is concerned, but I know many people (including editors) who do.
      All we learned new about the world in this installment was that some angels are more involved with the evolution of Fate than others. Plot wise, a couple of significant discoveries occurred, but nothing that really should have taken a whole book to cover. The real point of this novel was to increase the pressure on the romantic leads, to bring their developing relationship to a tipping point. It was an alright thing to focus on, but not enough to have caught my attention. 
             Actually, the constant poor-decision making and the abject refusal to sit-down and talk about things like half-way reasonable humans (which, I can admit, is something teenagers really can't be expected to be) got really annoying. I can understand a few badly-chosen comments and decisions to repress rather than examine (even introspectively, without confessing to the partner they're supposed to be valuing), but it got to be WAY to much after like Badly-Handled Conversation #6...
          The inexplicably fierce and fast-rising devotion to each other is explained away by the whole Soul Bond guardian thing, but it's still awkwardly unrealistic in a way I dislike having present in Teen Media. The way these two feel about each other is NOT an example of any sort of half-healthy relationship and that bothers me... But it's not problematic to a truly uncomfortable degree, it was just irksome that this book only focused on the unhealthy relationship without giving me much plot to fixate on while ignoring the over-done romance-y bits.
           All in all, it wasn't a great book, but I'm still likely going to pick up the next one in the series in the near-ish future. It's still definitely worth a quick weekend read.
          (And again, I do still LOVE the whole Gargoyle concept!)
0 Comments

That Inevitable Victorian Thing - E.K. Johnston

6/16/2021

0 Comments

 
Date Read: May 7th, 2021
Picture
Final Score: 5 / 10 !

​
           Well, this was an odd one. The premise was super intriguing, namely how the world would look if the British Empire never collapsed (and within that, the idea of how different things might've been if the Brits weren't racial purists in the way that they were... and if they were a helluva lot less in-bred and sickly as they've made themselves)... It was definitely an intriguing experiment in thought-exercises.

​            Unfortunately, 'intriguing thought-experiment' is really as far as this one went in terms of interest-value. There was a mildly cute love story, and some discussion of the complexities of commerce and the politics of dealing with pirates, but the fixation of genetic compatibility and the overly intense commentary on 'race' as a non-entity just got a little too solid to enjoy much else. It was a valid point, but it definitely got in the way of anything really happening. The story covers about 2 months of time, with far too many days skipped in sweeping, 'things went on like that for x hours / rest of the afternoon /  duration of the week' or such... And the angsts of the characters were laughable.


              Only August had any actual problems to deal with but the bulk of the narrative was focused on the two girls who had no real problems whatsoever. And the ending resolved with August's dad swooping into to fix things for him, and his joining the girls in realizing that none of them had any real problems to begin with... The inevitable thing was simply the obvious arrangement that ensured that none of them ever had to deal with any repercussions of a problem that was never really significant anyway.

             As a thought experiment, it was kind of neat.

            As a story? It was pretty lame.

​            I'd only ever recommend it as a low-stakes beach-read / distraction type endeavor with which to while away an afternoon.
0 Comments

the Other Side of the Sky - Amie Kaufman & Meagan Spooner

6/2/2021

0 Comments

 
Date Read: May 20th, 2021
Picture
Final Score: 8 / 10 !

​           I have come to realize that I simply adore Amie Kaufman. I still think it's a little weird that she writes almost nothing on her own. but she seems to pick her co-authors very well and I absolutely love everything I've read with her name on it.
           This one is no exception, in fact I might like it best of all I've read thus far! 
           First of all, it's a gorgeous world, richly imagined and deeply developed with intricate nuance and a vibrant liveliness that makes both cultures feel very real.
           I did wonder about the rest of the world, because surely 2 tribes of humans cannot be the only cultures left on the planet, but at the same time, the limited tech of the one and the utter indifference of the other does very well to explain away the seeming smallness of the world.
           ​I deeply enjoyed the conflation of magic vs technology and religion vs science here, it was laid out very well how similar the two sets of concepts are and why preaching science at someone is just a aggressive an impolite overstep as preaching religion at someone. While respect for science and for academia in general needs to be cultivated in the modern world we live in, accepting the working of science does not make you a better person on any account than someone who does not (and you telling them that they are ridiculous, backwards, and idiotic doesn't help the problem). 
            It's also only a respect for science in the barest terms if you cannot articulate WHY science ought to be accepted and followed in a manner that DOES delineate it from religion. (After all, if you can't explain how an airplane stays in the sky, how is believing that it will any different from someone believing in magic carpets or dragons?)Because the problem with religious dogma and psuedo-religious science is not that one is right and one is wrong, it's that one can demonstrably prove its concepts and can be wholly and fully understood by anyone given the time and genuine effort to do so. The reason people doubt science is largely because the people who accept it cannot explain it any better than a preist or imam or rabbi can explain the Divine. It's not only a problem of ignorance on the side of those who don't accept science, it's also a problem on the side of those who only accept science as a replacement for religion and understand it no better.
               The PROBLEM, therefore, is an over all lack in nuanced education.

            I LOVE when topically simply love stories get at concepts like that. And this one looks at it explicitly and discusses it repeatedly.
            Sadly, it doesn't go into the fact that the solution is a total rehaul on the entire world's educational system, but still, even making the first statement is unexpectedly deep for a YA romance story. ^_~
            And the romance is fun, too! It's well crafted, adorable, and believable in every way... Even if the insta-attraction is still a little over the top and the connection the characters forge comes a little overly quick, there are environmental pressures and cultural reasonings that make such romantic alacrity reasonable.
            I saw the big betrayal coming from a mile off, and while I think it could've been handled slightly differently to make it hit a little harder, I really enjoyed the way that every character fully believed that the all things they did, even the very worst of them, were done for the right reasons.
            I am eager for the the next book in the series, particularly as the last chapter ended with an unreliable narrator dropping a hint that may or may not be a game-changing truth and I am CONCERNED. ^_~
But, I have to wait until January... *sigh*.
            Still, GREAT book, I highly recommend it!

            Fully appropriate for the younger YA crowd and as a transitional for the particularly eager Middle Grade kiddo!
0 Comments

Winner's Curse - Marie Rutkoski (Book Review)

5/20/2021

0 Comments

 

​Date Read: 
November 9, 2015
Picture
Final Score:  9 / 10!

Heart-breakingly wonderful!

           This is easily the best book I've read in YEARS, and it took me completely by surprise. It took me a bit to get caught up in it, but I'd reached the end of the book well before I'd realized I was addicted. I went out and bought the sequel right away and read that one in a single sitting. It's absolutely enthralling.
            The setting is a wonderful rendering of the traditional High-Fantasy vaguely medieval world with a fresh twist mixed in that's reminiscent of the Roman Empire (one of the best depictions of Ancient Rome I've ever read, honestly). There's not much in it that's truly Magical or Fantastical, so I wouldn't classify it as 'Fantasy' per-se, but the world is developed with every bit of the detail expected of a fantasy creation. The political atmosphere of the reality the characters in habit is intricate and believable, utterly gut-wrenching for its impact on the main characters. Both sides of the story are well developed and relatable and you find yourself torn between sides.
           What really got me is the relationship between the two main characters. It's a romance novel in many ways, and it has the best relationship development I've ever seen, especially in YA Fiction. The narrative is in 3rd person and switches POVs between Kestrel and Arin to give a delightfully nuanced understanding of the situation; both of the developing relationship and of the obstacles keeping the lovers apart.

             It's an absolutely FANTASTIC read.
0 Comments
    If you have Questions about my Terminology, Bias Bands, or any other FAQ click HERE.

    Categories

    All
    100%
    1 The K (Loen Ent)
    2ne1
    2pm
    4 Minute
    9muses
    A6P
    AA (Double A)
    Academic
    A Ent Korea
    After School
    Ailee
    A-Jax
    Alice Nine
    AlphaBAT
    Amber
    Amie Kaufman
    AMUSE Inc
    Ann Pachett
    AoA (Ace Of Angels)
    AOMG
    Apink
    Art History
    * Artist Review *
    A-Sketch Ent
    Attack
    Audience: Adult
    Audience: New Adult
    Audience: Young Adult
    Audience: Young Reader
    B1a4
    B2m Ent
    Bangtan Boys
    B.A.P
    Bastarz
    Beast
    Believe Records
    Ben
    Benedict Carey
    Bestie
    B.I.G
    Big Bang
    Big Hit Ent
    Bigstar
    Block B
    BoA
    * Book Review *
    Boyfriend
    Boys Republic
    Brandnewmusic Korea
    Bravesound
    Brown Eyed Girls
    BTL (Beyond The Limit)
    Bugs! Korea
    Bumkey
    C2k Ent
    Can Ent
    C Clown
    C-Clown
    Chrome Ent
    CJ E&M
    CJes
    C-Jes Ent
    Cl
    CLC
    Collabodadi
    Core Contents Media
    *Cover Review*
    Crayon Pop
    CT Ent
    Cube Ent
    Cultural Studies
    Danal Ent
    Debut
    Diaura
    Disney+
    Donghae
    DS Ent
    Dsp Ent
    Dynamic Duo
    Equal Rep: LGBTQ+
    Equal Rep: Varied Gender Presentations
    ESNa
    Eunhyuk
    EXID
    Exo
    F.cuz
    Fiestar
    Fluxus Music
    Flying Dog Ent
    Fnc Ent
    Ft Island
    F(x)
    GaIn
    Galaxy Inc
    G Dragon
    G-Dragon
    General
    Genre: Action
    Genre: Comedy
    Genre: Cultural Studies
    Genre: Dark Fantasy
    Genre: Dystopia
    Genre: Epic Fantasy
    Genre: Fantasy
    Genre: Historical Fiction
    Genre: Literary Fiction
    Genre: Mythology
    Genre: Physics
    Genre: Plain Fiction
    Genre: Realistic Fiction
    Genre: Revisionary History
    Genre: Romance
    Genre: Science
    Genre: SciFi
    Genre: Space Opera
    Genre: Speculative Fiction
    GH Entertainment
    Giriboy
    Girls Day
    Girls Generation (SNSD)
    G.NA
    Gng Productions
    * Graphic Novel / Manga Review *
    Grisha Verse
    H2 Ent
    Happy Tribe Ent
    Henry
    Heo Youngsaeng
    High4
    History
    Hotshot
    House & Home Goods
    Imagine Dragons
    Infinite
    Information
    Instant Records
    Iu
    James Kakalios
    Jang HyunSeung
    Jay Park
    Jellyfish Ent
    Jennifer Armentrout
    Jimin N J.Don
    JinYoung Park (JYP)
    JMS Ent
    Js Ent
    JTM Ent
    J Tune Camp
    Jun HyoSung
    Jyj
    Jyp Ent
    Kahi
    Kang Seungyoon
    Kara
    Key East Ent
    Kim Hyungjun
    Kim Hyunjoong
    Kim Jaejoong
    KO Sound
    Kota
    KT Music
    K.Will
    Lc9
    Led Apple
    Lee Junghyun
    Leigh Bardugo
    Lim Kim
    Lindsey Stirling
    Lion Mascot (สิงโต นำโชค)
    Lunafly
    Madtown
    Mamamoo
    Marie Lu
    Marie Rutkoski
    Mblaq
    Meagan Spooner
    M.I.B
    Minah
    Miss A
    MMO Ent
    Mnet
    Monsta X
    Moonshine
    * Movie / Drama / TV Show Review *
    M.Pire
    Mr. Mr.
    Music K Ent
    * Music Review *
    My First Story
    Myname
    Mystic89 Music
    Nano
    Naomi Novik
    N.A.P Ent
    Neal Stephenson
    Nega Network
    N.Flying
    Nh Media
    Nine Muses
    Non Fiction
    Non-Fiction
    N-Sonic
    NS Yoon G
    NS Yoon-G
    NU'EST
    Odd Eye
    Oh Yeri
    Okdal
    One OK Rock
    Park BoRam
    Pentatonix
    Personal
    Phantom
    Pledis Ent
    Pocket Girls
    Pony Canyon Ent
    Prepix
    * Product Review *
    Psc Ent
    Queen B'z
    Rainbow
    Red Velvet
    Rex. D
    Rise Records
    Romeo
    ~Rookie Debut~
    Sabaa Tahir
    San-E
    Sarah J Maas
    Sean Carroll
    Secret
    Seo InGuk
    Series: Keeper Of The Lost Cities
    Series: Science Comics
    Seungri
    Seven Seasons Ent
    Seventeen
    Shannon Messenger
    Shinee
    SidusHQ
    Simtong Ent
    Sistar
    Skarf
    Sleeping With Sirens
    Sm Ent
    Sony Music & Ent
    Soulights
    Speed
    Spica
    S-Plus Ent
    Ss501
    Stardom Ent
    Star Empire Ent
    Starkim Ent
    Starship Ent
    Star Wars
    Stellar
    Sugarbowl
    SuJu D&E
    Sunmi
    Sunny Hill
    Super Junior
    Swings
    Taeyang
    Tahiti
    T-ARA
    Tasty
    The Ark
    *Theater & Stage Drama Review*
    The Benjamin Ent
    The British Royal Family
    The VIBE Ent
    Timothy Zahn
    Tiny G
    Tnc Ent
    Togeworl
    Top Class Ent
    Top Media
    Topp Dogg
    Toxic
    Ts Ent
    Tvn
    Tvxq
    U-Kiss
    Ulala Session
    UNIQ
    Universal Music
    Universal Studios
    UP10TION
    Urban Zakapa
    Various Artists
    Vibe: Aeronauts & Punk Diaspora
    * Video Review *
    Vixx
    WA Ent
    Warner Ent
    Wonder Boyz
    Wonder Girls
    Woolim Ent
    Xiah / Junsu
    Xiran Jay Zhao
    Year End Review
    Yedang Ent
    Yg Ent
    Ymc Ent
    YNB Ent.
    YNM Company
    Yuehua Ent
    ZE:A[제국의아이들]
    Z.Hera
    Zico

    Email Me!

    Archives

    November 2024
    May 2024
    December 2022
    November 2022
    July 2022
    April 2022
    March 2022
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    September 2015
    August 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    May 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013

    My Tumblr

    RSS Feed

    The name, layout, opinions, analysis, and original media displayed on the Music Matters® website belongs to A-style® and are the intellectual property of Alexandra Swords. 2013©
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.