‘The Fall Guy’ & ‘The Sin’: Two genre-benders now playing in Malaysian cinemas

MAY 4 — It doesn’t matter what kind of films or movies you’re into, from the highest of highbrow arthouse cinema to the lowest of trash movies, they are all still bound by some sort of formula or rules.

That is simply how the human brain identifies and categorises things. Arthouse films have their own rules, in order for them to be categorised as arthouse films and for the film festival programmers to be able to pick them out for slots in their respective festivals.

Oscar-bait films have their own rules, for them to be able to score the nominations and hopefully the wins that will get the filmmakers and actors the prestige they crave in the Hollywood film industry.

Sundance-bait American indies also have their own little rules and formulas as well, for anyone willing to just take a bit of time to observe their patterns.

If even the more prestigious of films have their own set of rules and formulas for their own corners of the film world, then surely the less respectable world of genre films will have their own rules and formulas as well.

Even as members of the audience, we take comfort in knowing the rules and formula of the particular genre we’re watching so that they can act as signposts to let us know where we are in the movie’s story.

Some of us even get upset when a movie fails to adhere to the rules and formula of the genre that the film is supposed to be in.

So, when by chance, I got to watch two movies back-to-back in a local cinema, where both can be categorised as genre-benders, I can’t help but want to write about them.

Ryan Gosling plays Colt Seavers in ‘The Fall Guy’. — Screen capture via YouTube/Universal Pictures

The Fall Guy

I’m a simple guy. If I see that there’s a new movie from director David Leitch (co-director of the first John Wick, and director of action extravaganzas like Bullet Train and Atomic Blonde) playing in the cinema, I’ll watch it, no questions asked.

And since he also directed Deadpool 2 and Fast Furious: Hobbs & Shaw, I know he’s got it in him to do a bit of comedy as well in between all the action.

But what I simply did not expect was how The Fall Guy turned out to be a rom-com as well, amidst all the action mayhem.

In short, you will find yourself dizzy from trying to figure out what kind of movie this one wants to be, and Leitch refuses to stick to the rules of just one genre, making this one a definite genre-bender.

Based on a TV series of the same name from the 1980s (which I know I’ve watched when I was a kid, because it stars Lee Majors, without recalling anything about its story), The Fall Guy is a love letter to stunt performers and the craft involved behind all those huge action set-pieces we often see in big Hollywood flicks, the movie tells the story of a stuntman named Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling in an all-out charm offensive) and the love of his life Jody (Emily Blunt), initially a camera operator who later gets the chance to direct her first feature.

One day Colt gets involved in an unfortunate accident on set and afterwards withdraws not just from Hollywood, but also from Jody’s life.

All that changes when he’s sucked back into the world of stunts after big-time producer Gail (Hannah Waddingham) manages to get him to do stunts again in what is going to be Jody’s feature film directing debut.

What ensues involves the plotting and narrative beats that meld everything from rom-coms to action thrillers, whodunits and beyond, with a particular focus on big practical stunts.

Set in Australia, which I’m pretty sure is a nod from director David Leitch (who started his career as a stunt double for people like Brad Pitt, Van Damme, Matt Damon and more) to the crazy stunts of 70s and 80s Ozploitation movies like Stunt Rock, Money Movers, Deathcheaters and of course the Mad Max films, The Fall Guy is a wonderfully entertaining piece of fluff that will have practical stunt fanatics squealing with delight.

The Sin

The trailer for this Korean horror flick will have you believing that you’ll be watching a horror movie about some of sort of dance moves that can bring people back from the dead, but director Han Dong-seok has concocted a narrative that’s filled with multiple layers and so many plot twists that you’ll feel dizzy just trying to catch up with everything that’s thrown at you, which is a very good thing if you ask me.

Not being able to comfortably predict what will happen next is a thrill that we rarely get in the cinema, and watching The Sin, which initially started as a sort of behind-the-scenes drama about an actress joining the production of an experimental dance film by a critically acclaimed director before slowly revealing its more unhinged horror aspects when people start turning into zombies and later on going even more crazy with the twists and turns in the plot, is a delightfully thrilling rollercoaster ride.

I really don’t want to spoil your enjoyment of this movie by revealing any more plot details other than the ones revealed in the trailer, but let’s just say that The Sin is almost like an attempt to put in as many genres that Korean films have been famous for into one single movie, except for maybe romantic comedies.

And how crazy is it that we’re getting two genre-benders opening in the same weekend in Malaysian cinemas that can also be categorised as meta-narratives, seeing that both are about the making of films, before veering off into their own loony directions.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.