Sometimes it feels like we have this weird, collective cultural amnesia surrounding certain pop culture figures. It happens with actors, with singers, with visual artists and more. They release something, we all heap praise on it, and then they fade away again until their next thing, at which point everyone comes out of the woodwork to say "Wow, so and so is actually really talented, huh? Who knew?!"
In my experience, Ryan Gosling is one the most unfortunate and frequent victims of this particular phenomenon. When Barbie came out, featuring his triumphant performance as Ken, I saw post after post on social media declaring disbelief that Gosling could be so funny, as if The Nice Guys never existed. Now, Project Hail Mary is out in the world, an excellent film which showcases Gosling's versatility and erudition as an actor in many wonderful ways, and the same thing's happening all over again. A certain subset of moviegoers seems flabbergasted at Gosling's ability to carry this kind of film.
To which I will simply respond: Y'all need The Fall Guy in your life.
Loosely based on Glen Larson's TV series of the same name, David Leitch's 2024 film stars Gosling as the title Fall Guy, a movie stuntman named Colt Seavers. Colt was once the best in the biz, until an injury sidelined him, left him working as a valet, and pushed him away from camera operator and aspiring director Jody (Emily Blunt). Colt and Jody had something special going, but they drifted apart in the aftermath of Colt's injury, at least until he gets a call that Jody's specifically asked for him to come back and help make her directorial debut. Is it a happy romantic reunion? Of course not, because Colt's actually been called by an anxious agent (Hannah Waddingham) with a secret mission: Find the star of Jody's movie, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), the guy Colt used to double for, because he's missing and if he doesn't turn up, the whole movie's doomed.
Now, obviously this story, with its Hollywood satire and its epic movie stunts, isn't a sci-fi adventure like Project Hail Mary. It's a mystery comedy in the vein of filmmakers like Shane Black, and when it hit theaters, despite a strong critical response (which I was a part of), it just didn't land with a lot of people. The audience wasn't enough to make up for the budget, and so the film became something of a financial failure.
But if you love Ryan Gosling in Project Hail Mary, the way he's constantly in over his head and just trying to do his best to make it through, you owe it to yourself to check out his performance in The Fall Guy. Colt's not the smartest guy in the room, or the most alert, or even the most invested. What he is, though, is a guy who understands a shot at redemption when he sees it, who throws himself completely into the task at hand, even when it's embarrassing or awkward or likely to get him seriously injured. As with Project Hail Mary, he delivers a performance that blends swagger, nerdy enthusiasm, sarcasm, determination, and much more, with surprising emotional resonance. Throw in a great ensemble around him and it's a blast, one of those movies I'll still put on in the evenings just as a fun companion to whatever else is going on.
So, with Project Hail Mary cleaning up at the box office, now feels like a great time to get more people into The Fall Guy. It deserves to be a bigger deal than it was, and Ryan Gosling deserves to have his excellence in these roles remembered all the time, not just when he has a hit.
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