“What did you watch? A pink film?”
By the late 60s and the beginning of 70s, a number of independent filmmakers frequently mixed fiction with non-fiction while appropriating journalistic materials of well-known media events. Nagisa Oshima and Koji Wakamatsu were two of the most prominent directors in that regard, with “Season of Terror”, which was released just two months after “Go, Go, Second Time Virgin” , being a prominent sample.
In that fashion, the movie begins by presenting a series of press photographs and newspaper headlines, mostly focusing on the student riots and their clashes with the police, along with the military training of what appears to be a rightist group. As soon as the rather impressive montage is finished, we are introduced to the first protagonist of the movie, a former radical leader who has been out of sight for quite some time. Next, we get to meet the other two, with two policemen who have received reports by an informant that the young man is planning to assassinate PM Sato, who is about to leave for the US to negotiate about the return of Okinawa.
To do so, they plant a bug in his apartment and start listening to him through the apartment of a single across the street, whose owner has agreed to let them use one of the rooms. However, what they hear is not revolutionary in any way, since the young man seems to stay in his apartment all day, only being visited by two young beautiful women, who take care of his every need, and have almost constant sex with him. The visit of an old friend is the only moment they gain some info, with the visitor, however, ending up chastising the former activist for abandoning the “struggle”. As he accuses him of desertion and essentially considers him a hippy, the two policemen start to realize how futile the week they have to spend there is. If that was not enough, during the nights, the woman in the apartment the two officers are staying is also having sex.
One of the main and most evident purposes here is evidently to criticize the police, in a way though, that can only be described as intense mocking. Starting from the torturing of the informant, and continuing with the fact their “mission” is relegated into peeping in various forms, the ridiculousness of their actions becomes rather obvious. Their rhetoric, particularly of the younger of the two, since the older one seems to be somewhat more cynic, also moves in the same direction, with him mentioning torture as means to an end and compassion as a completely unnecessary concept. That the woman owner of the house has sex almost every night and essentially treats them as guests in a somewhat forceful manner, barging into their room to bring them tea and food whenever she likes, furthers their ridicule even more.
Where this aspect is cemented, though, is definitely on the finale of the movie, with Wakamatsu presenting it as quite ironic, again in the same mocking path. At the same time, and in a rather interesting aspect, the finale also makes the viewer question the whole movie and what we were seeing until that moment, particularly regarding the behavior and action of the young activist, in one of the best traits of the film, highlighting both Kazuo Komizu’s writing and Wakamatsu’s direction.
While essentially a pinku film, wherein Wakamatsu and Adachi ingeniously utilized the medium’s freedom to make pointed sociopolitical commentary, Wakamatsu found himself compelled to incorporate numerous sex scenes adhering to the genre’s “guidelines”. Consequently, the film brims with erotic sequences, approached this time with a delicate balance between the artistic and the voyeuristic. Wakamatsu strategically situates the camera at a distance from the protagonists for most of the film, minimizing overt titillation, although the recurring threesomes contribute to this aspect. Moreover, within the film’s framework, the voyeurs are portrayed as policemen, further enhancing the underlying satire and imparting the sex scenes with a distinct contextual significance.
In that regard, Hideo Ito’s black-and-white cinematography is excellent throughout, with the way he presents the two apartments as completely different spaces, with the one of the police being claustrophobic and the one of the revolutionary, a place of sex, being truly impressive to watch. The editing, with the exception of the rather fast introductory montage, results in a leisure pace, with Wakamatsu lingering intently on the sex scenes, and passing the rest in faster fashion. The buildup to the finale, though, which comes at an ideal moment in 78 minutes of the movie, is rather competent, with the splash of color also working well.
The acting definitely has a secondary role here, with the women appearing almost exclusively in sex scenes, and the men playing archetypal roles, even through this radically unusual approach Wakamatsu implements here.
“Season of Terror” is another testament to how Wakamatsu could take the sex film and make social comments and political statements through it, and a movie that has definitely stood the test of time
1 of 5 | Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt star in “The Fall Guy.” Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures
LOS ANGELES, April 30 (UPI) — The chemistry between Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt powers The Fall Guy, in theaters Friday, despite a shaky script. Whenever they’re not on screen it becomes apparent the film is nothing without them, but they are in it enough to keep it fun.
Colt Seavers (Gosling) is stuntman to Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). When Tom insists on a second take of a stunt, Colt sustains a back injury and quits the stunt business.
18 months later, producer Gail Meyer (Hannah Waddingham) asks Colt to come back for the directorial debut of Jody Moreno (Emily Blunt). Colt hasn’t called Jody since the accident, so their reunion is not smooth.
The ’80s TV series was about a stuntman turned bounty hunter, which makes sense for weekly adventures. The movie is more determined to showcase the profession of stunt coordinators and performers.
Director David Leitch was a stuntman and his production company, 87 North Productions, is the elite in the industry. So it’s okay if the plot of The Fall Guy movie is a little thin to justify having fun with its homage, but then it should get to the fun more quickly.
Gail actually called Colt to find Tom, who has disappeared, without the studio finding out. The more charming story is the tale of a stuntman and director falling back in love.
The scenes between Colt and Jody are the strongest of the film, whether Jody is using a sci-fi movie’s plot to blatantly address their relationship or whether they are fighting in a case of mistaken identity. The film spends too much time on the Tom plot when it should be about Colt and Jody.
Since The Fall Guy is a comedy, the action outside the movie set leads to more jokes than danger. The film plays Colt as a goofball, not a cool action hero, for which Gosling is totally game.
Colt does use his stunt powers while investigating Tom’s disappearance. Since he knows how to get hit by a car and survive, Colt will literally stand in the way of an escaping suspect.
Colt can use a staircase as a ramp to launch a vehicle during a car chase. The film’s climax on the movie set incorporates the stunt and pyrotechnic departments too.
It was a mistake to Intercut a good chase with a scene of Gail and Jody in a bar, thus ruining the energy of the action scene. But other moments, like Colt and Jody discussing the use of split screen while actually performing on split screens, are impressive.
Colt has almost as much chemistry with stunt coordinator Dan Tucker (Winston Duke) as he has with Jody. Dan helps Colt investigate the Tom mystery while they quote action movies to each other.
The fake titles of Tom’s movies sound believable, except they are apparently all originals and not based on pre-existing intellectual property such as The Fall Guy itself. The script rightfully calls out the fact that the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences still refuses to add a category for a stunt Oscar.
The Fall Guy shows audiences how productions now scan actors and their stunt people so they can put the actors’ faces on footage of their stuntmen performing dangerous feats. So it’s a little disingenuous when the film purports to show closeups of Gosling in action when it explicitly showed how modern movies can fake that.
A behind-the-scenes montage during the end credits does show Gosling’s double doing some of the major stunts from the film, and a few where it was actually Gosling being pulled on wires.
So, given that the mystery of Tom’s disappearance is slight and, without spoiling, only becomes more convoluted, it really should have been relegated to a background subplot. But, The Fall Guy doesn’t take itself as seriously as other movies with even more convoluted plots, so it amounts to more fun than not.
Fred Topel, who attended film school at Ithaca College, is a UPI entertainment writer based in Los Angeles. He has been a professional film critic since 1999, a Rotten Tomatoes critic since 2001, and a member of the Television Critics Association since 2012 and the Critics Choice Association since 2023. Read more of his work in Entertainment.
The Idea of You, 2024.
Directed by Michael Showalter.
Starring Anne Hathaway, Nicholas Galitzine, Ella Rubin, Annie Mumolo, Reid Scott, Perry Mattfeld, Jordan Aaron Hall, Mathilda Gianopoulos, Meg Millidge, Cheech Manohar, Raymond Cham Jr., Jaiden Anthony, Vik White, Dakota Adan, Roxy Rivera, Graham Norton, Grace Junot, and Jon Levine.
SYNOPSIS:
Solène, a 40-year-old single mom, begins an unexpected romance with 24-year-old Hayes Campbell, the lead singer of August Moon, the hottest boy band on the planet.
There is no denying that The Idea of You, a romantic drama in which the meet-cute involves a 40-year-old divorced mom and artist unknowingly stumbling into a 24-year-old global celebrity pop star’s trailer under the assumption it’s a bathroom while taking her 16-year-old daughter and her friends to Coachella, is ridiculous. However, co-writer/director Michael Showalter’s film is also a reminder that it doesn’t necessarily matter how improbable a romance is so long as the screenplay does something compelling with the dynamic and would-be lovers.
Admittedly, it takes a while to get to that point since the film is based on what feels more like someone’s fantasy than a novel (Michael Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt adapting the work of Robinne Lee), but once the film confronts the reality of how difficult such an unlikely relationship would be, not to mention how judgmental and nasty society and Internet culture can be, the screenplay from Showalter and Jennifer Westfeldt leans further into a more human, grounded side of these characters that Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine convey with gripping emotion. This also means that the second half sometimes feels like it’s rushing through its thornier, more adult, and engaging material, but there is just enough tackling every subject a film with this premise probably should, barring an unnecessary, hokey epilogue that reverts to something far-fetched.
Even setting those frustrations aside, it is admirable that Michael Showalter is comfortable embracing a romantic comedy formula, aware and confident that such tropes are less irksome when the endeavor is injected with characterization. Once the story goes in a serious direction, moving on from the will-they/won’t-they part of the attraction, one practically forgets the absurdity of how these characters were brought together. That is a true, telltale sign that something is working here. It all leads to several moments of piercing emotion between two people harboring trust issues, trying to make this relationship work.
Solène (Anne Hathaway) sees all the reasons she should try resisting superstar boy band singer Hayes’s (Nicholas Galitzine) charm; he is much younger, and she has a teenage daughter (Ella Rubin) who listens to their music (although Hayes is not her crush). The world, including the ex-husband (Reid Scott) who cheated on and left her, will judge the nature of the relationship.
Is it awkward when the father drops by to pick up his daughter with a much younger man answering the door shirtless? Sure. It’s also amusing. It’s also harmless, but when the gender roles are reversed, this age gap is generally an acceptable celebrity dating lifestyle. Leonardo DiCaprio seems determined never to be caught dead dating someone older than 25, Chris Evans just married a woman in her 20s, and Billie Eilish previously dated a man in his 30s. Even movies rarely touch on the reverse of this age gap, perhaps for several reasons, but I won’t dive into those hypotheticals.
What it does come down to is that people, especially men on the Internet, will always look for reasons to attack and hurl insults at women, as if that happiness threatens them. There is a moment where Solène takes charge, determined to make the relationship work despite that. We desperately hope they are successful, completely ready to be heartbroken if it doesn’t pan out.
For whatever reason, the film sidelines the teenage daughter at a summer camp, actively avoiding this intriguing trauma in favor of watching Solène accompany Hayes on his European tour (smartly aware that music and concerts are not the main attraction of this story) filled with bonding and sex (unfortunately, the PG-13 style despite an R rating, leaving one wishing the direction went for something more steamy and sensual. This section drags on, although there are noteworthy scenes showcasing how much more mature Solène is than these younger men (obviously), as well as how sincere Hayes is with his commitment.
If it seems this review mostly only discusses the second half of The Idea of You, this is mostly a straightforward, corny rom-com until the ideas take hold. As such, it takes a while to get invested properly, but damn do Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine make a great on-screen pairing, age and social class gap be damned. The movie morphs from fantasy into something believably messy and real right before one’s eyes.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=embed/playlist
Shipping firms plead for UN help amid escalating Middle East conflict
ICE chief says this foreign adversary isn’t taking back its illegal immigrants
'Nothing more backwards' than US funding Ukraine border security but not our own, conservatives say
The San Francisco Zoo will receive a pair of pandas from China
Two Mexican mayoral contenders found dead on same day
Brussels, my love? The EU single market is not sexy enough for voters
Republican aims to break decades long Senate election losing streak in this blue state
EU sanctions extremist Israeli settlers over violence in the West Bank