Clockwise from top: The Fall Guy, Hacks, The Idea of You, and Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photos: Universal Pictures, Everett Collection, Hilary Bronwyn Gayle/Max, Alisha Wetherill/Prime
Not to speak for Mother Nature, but according to the movies calendar, it’s basically summer. Originally, a Marvel movie would kick off the month of May, but in the behemoth’s place this year is a throwback-feeling action-romance flick starring Ryan Gosling and Emily Blunt. The rest of your film, TV, and streaming options this weekend aren’t too bad, either, with an Anne Hathaway rom-com, Jean Smart back on our television screens, and a little bit of Star Wars.
At the premiere of The Fall Guy at SXSW, Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling rolled up in the bed of the 1981 series’ brown truck behind motorcyclists revving down the street doing tricks. And this week’s L.A. premiere had stuntmen crashing through glass, pulled through walls, and Beavis and Butthead. All these tricks have been as pulpy and delightful as the movie itself. An ode to stuntmen, Gosling stars as the suave stuntman Colt Seavers, who, after a gnarly accident, finds himself back on the set of his ex’s (Blunt) new sci-fi movie. It’s a fun blockbuster packed to the brim with practical stunts. Even when the story starts to feel ridiculous, at least there’s plenty to look at.
➽ A Fall Guy stuntman broke a Guinness World Record for rolling his car multiple times, and I can’t even parallel park.
Anne Hathaway is an absolute star. The premise of The Idea of You could surely have people thinking it was just another Harry Styles–inspired fan-fic movie — a woman having a chance encounter with a boy-band member that leads to love — but the film’s loving tact with women finding love in their 40s paired with Hathaway’s vulnerable performance makes The Idea of You worth taking a bit seriously. It’s still romantic, sexy, and fun as Nicholas Galitzine’s and Hathaway’s characters sneak off into hotel rooms and European countries. My SXSW audience, while prone to high energy, squealed and gasped as the two shared their first kiss. This is all to say, plan a movie night and invite your friends.
Last season, comedy legend Deborah Vance (Jean Smart) threatened her joke writer, Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder), with a lawsuit and eventually fired her. So Ava is going to somehow end up working with Deborah again, right? (Hint: yes.) —Jen Chaney
➽ Hacks, the antithesis of a work-life balance.
Time is truly a circle, because ten years after The Fault in Our Stars comes another John Green tear-jerking teen romance that’s prime Tumblr fodder — if we were still in 2014. Fresh off of Madame Web, Isabela Merced leads as a teenager with obsessive-compulsive disorder, finding it incredibly difficult to have a relationship with an old crush and friends.
An incredibly charming Apple TV+ series! Seeing the staff of Las Colinas, including Enrique Arrizon and Glee alum Chord Overstreet, run around a candy-colored hotel is so much fun.
Creator-writer Steven Knight has been busy this year: first with music-scene drama This Town, now with thriller The Veil, in which Elisabeth Moss plays a secret agent whose latest assignments sends her to the Middle East, where she trails a woman (Yumna Marwan) seemingly tied up in a terrorism plot. Tiring stuff, but let us reserve judgment. Josh Charles and Dali Benssalah round out the cast. —Roxana Hadadi
The Phantom Menace is entering its quarter-life crisis era, and to celebrate, Lucasfilm is rereleasing the prequel-series starter in theaters. This could very much spark a rewatch for you — along with Phantom Menace, there will also be a 20-hour Star Wars marathon in select theaters on May 4, godspeed — so here’s Samuel L. Jackson on why your watch order should be 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6.
Photo-Illustration: Vulture; Photo: Neil Janowitz
➽ Also, our Star Wars movie ranking, you will see.
Savannah Salazar: Hey, Choire, I heard you’re basically the only one still watching Wrexham, so please tell me why.
Choire Sicha: LMAO, I finally gave up.
S.S.: Well.
C.S.: I was so into the show because it was really soothing. It was like watching a documentary without having to learn anything.
S.S.: Real.
It’s no surprise that Anne Hathaway is a rom-com queen, but if you needed an excuse to watch one of her most beloved movies, we grant it. Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement is not only our introduction to heartthrob Chris Pine, it’s just a fun fantasy fulfillment of falling in love with princes and lords, which is basically what The Idea of You does with boy-band members.
Want more? Read our recommendations from the weekend of April 26.
