[Nerdspresso] No Shame in My Ryan Gosling Bromance

I have a confession, my friends. I have something of a bromance going on with Ryan Gosling. But I’m not talking about that “Hey Girl” Notebook Dreamboat or that Fractured Blue Romance in the Tall Pines dramatic ACTOR, but the guy who conquered the Oscars with a wink and a smile. Gosling is that goofball hero who wins in spite of himself.

My imaginary celebrity bro just seems like a real good dude. He is an A-Lister that’s totally comfortable with his co-star taking the spotlight. Gosling is the good son who takes his mom to movie premieres and the devoted dad who leaves Tinsel Town parties to put his kids to bed. But even so, it took me some time to warm up to this guy.

He was a child star on The New Mickey Mouse Club with Britney and Justin for Pete’s sake. When you’re mugging for the camera as a precocious preteen in neon jumpsuits, it not’s super relatable, you know? Then he was always playing the charming young murderer in way too many movies that would have been on Lifetime if they weren’t starring Sandra Bullock or Kirsten Dunst. He was a smart aleck punk in that flick about gangsters and that singing and dancing movie was way overrated.

But there were points on his filmography where I lingered. That movie where he had the relationship with the plastic sex doll. Good for him! And then there was that flick where he drove really fast. The one where he did politics with George Clooney. I even liked that movie where he taught Steve Carell how to talk to women. Despite all his “Hey Girl”-ness, there was something really likeable about this guy. He’d learned how to make smarm appealing.

Gosling really won me over when he joined Russell Crowe for a funny tough guy mystery called The Nice Guys. Gone was the preening hottie nonsense, the intense actory BS. He was a hoot as a sadsack private eye teaming up with a leg breaker for hire to solve the murder of a porn star in ’70’s LA. This movie proved Gosling was not averse to shedding his dignity for a laugh or even a few tears. He was the running back who caught the winning pass only to run face first into the goal post. A clumsy but affable hero.

The last few years have seen him really evolve as both an actor and a movie star. Those aren’t always the same thing, but they seem interlinked on his resume. He’s played quirky parts, but in starring roles for big popcorn flicks. He was the replicant detective chasing Harrison Ford and his own desired humanity in Blade Runner 2049. Playing the character like a chain-smoking Pinocchio, Gosling richochets off a stellar cast (Ford, Dave Bautista, Robin Wright, and Ana de Armas). He got beat up by Rick Deckard, but was still the hero in the end.

And then he won our hearts by playing a living doll. When I first heard about Greta Gerwig making a movie about Barbie and Ken, I thought it was the best bad idea that Hollywood had had in a long time. This concept could turn out to be a pop culture masterpiece or go down in flames. Gerwig, who cut her teeth as an actress in indie movies with her now husband, director Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha, Greenberg), had broken out as a director with the caustic and heartfelt Lady Bird and then followed that up with an esteemed remake of Little Women.

She was now directing a script, co-written with her hubby, that would take Barbie and Ken off the toy shelves and onto the silver screen. Gerwig had cast Margot Robbie as Barbie and Gosling as Ken, which was truly inspired. The first photos released of the actors in costume were hilarious, but would the actual movie be in on the joke? I must admit that I didn’t have high hopes. I took my wife and kid to a summer matinee, escaping the midday heat and hoping for a few guilty pleasures. This flick truly surprised me. Barbie is a delicious, frosted cupcake of a movie that has its heart on its sleeve and a song in its heart.

This movie soars thanks to the total commitment of its stars to the concept and their characters. Robbie is luminescent as Barbie and her journey is riveting while Gosling’s Ken is both the essence of brochismo and a total parody of it. By the time he performs his big musical number during the ultimate bro showdown, you realize he’s more than just Ken. He is boy-toy, comic relief, villain, and tragic figure all in the same movie.

What’s next after you’re in the hottest blockbuster of the year? Well, you light yourself on fire. Literally. Gosling’s next move was starring as a stuntman in The Fall Guy, the movie version of the Lee Majors TV series from the ’80’s. Directed by David Leitch, The Fall Guy is a love letter to Hollywood stunt performers and it’s the movie we all didn’t know we needed. I was never a huge fan of the TV show, but this flick is the most fun I’ve had at the movies since…well, Barbie.

Leitch, a former stuntman himself, is fast becoming a maestro of bone-crunching action after helming John Wick, Atomic Blonde, and Bullet Train. He pulls out all the stops to create entertainment that is both a tribute to old-school action movies and a winking satire of them. The Fall Guy feels like the goofy love child of Hooper, that old Burt Reynolds/Hal Needham movie about stuntmen, and Robert Altman’s The Player, the darkly comic Hollywood expose, sprinkled with a little summer movie pixie dust.

Gosling partners with another top-notch cast (including Oppenheimer’s Emily Blunt, Black Panther’s Winston Duke, Bullet Train’s Aaron Taylor-Johnson and Ted Lasso’s Hannah Waddingham) as he rides shotgun down the avalanche of a hilarious maelstrom of pyro and practical stunts. It’s a shame that The Fall Guy faded from theaters so quickly because it really deserves to enjoyed on the big screen. This flick is a popcorn-munching good time. (You can stream it online now, though!)

Some folks think that movies stars are no longer relevant, but I disagree. These naysayers claim that the dream factory can function without its prime workers. People go see movies now for the franchise or the spectacle, not for the names on the posters or the faces in the trailers. But don’t assume that the secret to Barbie’s success was just the IP. It was also the perfect storm of talent that embraced it.

Trust me, Monopoly: The Movie is not going to crush the box office if audiences don’t care what happens to Milburn Pennybags. There will always be a few stars who shine brighter than the rest. You watch them because you want to see what they’ll do. Their presence is big no matter the size of the screen. So I say keep an eye on my pal Gosling. This chucklehead trapped in a matinée idol will likely be entertaining us for years to come.

And the bromance continues…

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