I packed in a lot of new movies this weekend, including a George McKay double-feature!
The Fall Guy – Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt in an action rom-com – what more could I ask for?! They are both charming and hilarious, and as a David Leitch fan, I knew the action wouldn’t be lacking. And all of the parts really did work well together. I never found myself itching to check the time even once. With that being said, I felt this movie was kind of forgettable, whereas I’m still thinking of Leitch’s last film, Bullet Train, to this day. Anyway, I think this is a universally pleasing film about a stunt man who’s getting back on the horse and hopefully back into a relationship with the cinematographer, now director, played by Blunt.
Parachute – Sadly, I missed this film at both Sundance and the Cleveland International Film Festivals, but it became available much sooner to rent than I could have hoped! Knowing this was Brittany Snow’s first feature directorial effort, it was neat to see a couple of old co-stars pop up in the likes of Chrissy Fit and Kid Cudi. To me that says a lot about her as a person. As for the rest of the cast, she snagged some real winners, too. I think at this point I’ll automatically check out anything Thomas Mann is a part of, so this was no exception. The film centers on the years-long relationship between Riley and Ethan. Riley’s just gotten out of treatment for eating disorders when she meets Ethan. He may seem normal on the surface, but he just cannot let people go, and so you see him hang on way too long to Riley even when they both know they might not be any good for each other, regardless of how much love there is.
Femme – Woah. What a thrill this was! I first heard about this film last year and saw it was playing at a film festival in Sydney, but the stars couldn’t quite align for me to see it then. Thank goodness for my local indie theater! The film follows Jules, a drag performer who is brutally attacked after a show one night. Many months later, after secluding himself from the world, he encounters his attacker, Preston, at a gay sauna. It’s clear that Preston doesn’t recognize Jules out of drag, so Jules plans to seduce Preston and exact some well-deserved revenge. What he doesn’t anticipate is catching feelings for this aggressive thug. There’s plenty of sex in this film, but it helps illustrate the ways their relationship changes. By the end, I was as conflicted as Jules about what I wanted the outcome to be. I personally felt it ended on an ambiguous note for the audience to make that decision for themselves. I think one of the actors said it best: this is a rom-com meets neo-noir. A must watch!
The Beast – I think Lea Seydoux is officially too French for me. In what was supposed to be a fun George McKay double-feature along with Femme, turned out to be absolute misery watching this never-ending sci-fi romantic drama. I guess you could call it those things. From a high level, we meet Gabrielle over the course of three different lives. In the most recent (and future) one, she’s attempting to get a better job amidst AI employees and chooses to get her DNA scrubbed to rid her of any emotions. In the process she revisits two past lives where she encounters the same Louis. In France in 1910, she strikes up a bit of a forbidden romance with Louis only to die while trying to escape a flooded building. In America in 2014, she meets Louis as an incel while she’s housesitting for the mega-rich. Still here she ends up dead. The ending finds Louis’ DNA successfully scrubbed, so she’s missed out on love once again. I can see how it correlates to the short story this was inspired by, but what a serious drag.