Hi, this is Daniel Garber at the Movies for culturalmining.com and CIUT 89.5 FM.

This week, I have some movies about guy stuff — two documentaries and an action movie. There’s a guy in Sydney not afraid to get his hands dirty, a guy in New Hampshire who wants to know the real dirt, and three guys in Budapest playing dirty with some train tickets.

The Fall Guy

Dir: David Leitch

Colt Seavers (Ryan Gosling) is the stunt double for a heartthrob Hollywood action star named Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson). Tom claims to do all his own stunts but those in the know know it’s Colt falling off buildings, crashing cars, and catching fire. Colt loves the excitement and thrill of doing the undoable — and he’s really good at it, too. Especially at his current film, because he works beside a camera operator named Jody (Emma Blunt). They’re spending time together, on and off duty, trading quips on set or making out behind the klieg lights. It’s his dream job. Until a terrible accident breaks his back, and he disappears from the scene entirely. And from Jody, too. Until, 18 months later, he gets a call from a producer. Gail (Hannah Waddingham), a big shaker and mover, wants him on Tom’s latest flick, a sci-fi action rom-com. He doesn’t want to, until she drops the other shoe: Jody is directing this movie and she specifically asked for him. 

So off he flies to Sydney, Australia, to join a shoot in progress. It’s a shlock-fest about a space cowboy fighting aliens using weapons that look like heavy-metal guitars. Turns out Jody had no idea he’s coming and is still offended he dumped her for no good reason. Then Gail, the producer, asks for Colt’s help. Tom has disappeared with a gang of undesirables and she’s worried he’s in trouble. Can’t Colt find and rescue him? If not they’ll have to cancel the movie… and Jody’s career (this is her first time as a director). Tom agrees, but soon discovers he’s the target of a slew of gunmen, trying to get back a missing video. Can Colt rescue Tom, survive the bullets, catch the baddies and make it back to set in time to woo the love of his life?

The Fall Guy is a combination rom-com and action movie set within the confine of the film industry. So it’s full of references to mediocre movies. I thought the witty banter wasn’t particularly clever, and the plot twists propelling the story pretty threadbare. There are lots of unnecessary jokes written into the script with a nudge and a wink. Like when Jody asks Colt if she should use a split screen in the film she’s directing… immediately after which  The Fall Guy movie starts using a split screen, too. That’s just weak. And yet I walked out of this film feeling totally entertained. Why?

First of all the acting is great, all the main characters well-played, especially Gosling’s Colt Seavers. More than that, though, the action is really good. The chase scenes are elaborate, the fight scenes are like watching ballet, and even the gratuitous explosions — and there are quite a few of them — are just fun to watch. And of course, in a movie about stuntmen, the stunts are all done just right. So if you’re looking for a couple of hours of forgettable entertainment, this one’s for you.

The Ride Ahead

Dir: Dan Habib, Samuel Habib

Samuel Habib is a young man who lives with his parents in Concord New Hampshire. He has tattoos, likes music and sports. He went to public school and is getting ready for college, but realizes he hasn’t yet done a lot of things many high school kids have already done: things like going on a date or having sex. Yes, the media is filled with sexual images and porn but rarely relevant to people like him. Samuel is disabled. The thing is, movies and TV shows portray people like him in one of three ways: get help, get cured or die. He wants some advice that’s relevant to him, preferably NOT from his parents (awkward…) And he can’t stand being talked down to or underestimated by people who only see his disability. So he decides to go to the source and talk with some well-known disabled people, including many of his heroes. He does it — and makes a film out of it.

He meets with musician Keith Jones, co-founder of Krip-Hop, for some basic rules about having sex. Says Jones: “always remember: put a bag on it!”Judy Heumann, the late, great leader of the Disability Rights Movement, says “using a wheelchair means spending a lot of time staring at people’s butts!”

Andrew Peterson who lives with Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder tells how he became a long-distance runner and a sports coach. And Maysoon Zayid, a Palestinian-American

Dan and Samuel Habib, The Ride Ahead at HotDocs, Photo by Jeff Harris

stand-up comic, provides both constant humour and some really tough talk. The film takes Sam (and his father, co-director Dan Habib) across the country, in boats, planes and automobiles, each of which pose separate accessibility issues, especially airplanes; Samuel uses an electric wheelchair to get around and they don’t go well with those tight spaces on planes. He also turns to his own big brother for all-around moral support and inspiration. But will Sam ever move beyond his parents’ house?

The Ride Ahead is a touching, funny and informative documentary told from the subject’s point of view. It helps correct a lot of misconceptions about disabilities, and introduces a lot of other things you probably never considered. The film is made in the form of a dialogue between Samuel, his dad and the people he encounters, often with the camera positioned either facing him or facing out. At times, Samuel’s both the subject and the filmmaker. He can speak, but in the film mainly uses an electronically generated voice whose texts he writes in advance.

I liked this documentary a lot, partly the way it makes people with disabilities the subject not the object. It covers diverse intellectual territory, from disability rights to ableism and disability justice. It also deals frankly with real aspects of everyday life. And the cast and crew, both behind and in front of the camera, from editor to soundtrack, are largely disabled themselves.

The Ride Ahead is a good movie to watch.

Pelikan Blue

Wri/Dir: László Csáki

It’s the late 1980s in Budapest, Hungary and the iron curtain may be rattling but it’s not yet opened. Still, the government is introducing new measures. It’s now legal to keep foreign currency and travel abroad. Everyone, especially young people, are dying to see what it’s like in Western Europe. But train tickets are prohibitively expensive, and no one has any money. When three guys — Rozi, Petya, and Akos — buy a forged ticket on the black market, they are dismayed and disgusted by its poor quality: smudged ink, misspelled words… They’d be caught immediately. They can do better than that using just advanced planning and simple high school chemistry. So they decide to take the bull by the horns, and make themselves some fake tickets. This involves spying on the sellers, stealing some covers, and getting a phony rubber stamp made (not an easy task in communist Hungary). But they also have to buy a cheap ticket, bleach out the ink and carefully enscribe the forgery through a page of Pelican Blue carbon paper.

After much trial and error, they manage to ride a train to Scandinavia for pocket change. But when they get back, rumours leak, and everyone wants a piece of the action. Should they expand their business or get out of it before the police find out? 

Pelikan Blue is a beautiful, animated feature-length documentary that follows the story over three decades, using old voice recordings and new interviews. This is basically a heist movie, but one  involving minimal stakes — just forged tickets across Europe. But what really struck me was the stunning art. It involves the garish lavenders and electric blues of 1980s colours, distinct characters, and simple but instantly recognizable images: a payphone, an answering machines, the brutalist rooftops of Budapest. Backgrounds are brushed with tempera paints, and the faces have squashed noses, and eyes that are tiny green dots. I cannot describe the joy I felt looking at this animation, it’s unique, it’s amazing, it’s handmade, it’s just so cool. There’s also a chill soundtrack of 1990s Hungarian music percolating through the whole film. There are lots of funny parts, and some psychedelic dream sequences, too…I just can’t get enough of Pelikan Blue.

The Fall Guy opens this weekend; check your local listings. The Ride Ahead, Pelikan Blue are two of the many movies playing at Hot Docs through Sunday.

This is Daniel Garber at the Movies, each Saturday morning, on CIUT 89.5 FM and on my website culturalmining.com.