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This is the movie that saves Hollywood this summer, and deserves to be applauded
"Free Guy" came up directly in theaters and only in them.
His box office success proves that there is still room for improvement in this old-fashioned distribution model, and its quality proves that Hollywood is still capable of making smart and fun hits like never before.
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Ryan Reynolds
Avner Shavit
Monday, 16 August 2021, 08:12 Updated: 08:18
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Trailer for the movie "Release Guy" (Film Forum)
(Photo: Shai Librovsky)
In recent months, Hollywood has been participating in the experiment. Research question: If movies go up in theaters and streaming at the same time, would anyone bother to go see them in the cinema, and more in the midst of a fourth wave? So far, the results are clear and dismal in terms of the big screen. The "suicide unit" turned out to be a box office suicide, and the "black widow" led to a lawsuit.
"Release Guy," which aired over the weekend, examines another question: What happens if a film is distributed exclusively in theaters, just like before, and is not available online? Meanwhile, at least in the United States, the results are better than expected, with an impressive $ 28 million opening, proving that there may still be some future for this distribution model. But as usual in experiments, their conclusions and especially their interpretation may soon change.
Either way, it is only fitting that "Release Guy" participates in the experiment, since he himself is dealing with a person in a test tube. His plot is quite complicated, so we'll try to summarize it,And we will apologize in advance to those who understand the matter if we have oversimplified any professional concept.
Well, the film is named after Guy - a kind-hearted and joyful bank clerk, who is nothing but a video game player, but one who is programmed so that he has the potential to become much more than that.
But it is precisely when our protagonist discovers how to break free from the shackles that he finds himself in a struggle for control between those who developed the game and now threaten to delete it and bring an end to all who participate in it.
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To the full article
A stronger than expected opening.
From "Release Guy" (Photo: Film Forum)
It's complicated to shorten the plot to "release Guy", but it's easy to sum up his character and qualities in one sentence - it's a summer film with a mind, and it explodes with different and weird ideas. On the one hand, it is a film that presents the classic question: Is it possible that one day we will take revenge and discover that nothing is real, and does it even matter?
Stories about people discovering the light are really nothing new. Long before "The Matrix" and "The Truman Show," Plato did so in the cave parable. "Releasing Guy" does not invent the wheel, but it does spin it a little differently and places this story within the contemporary reality in which algorithms run the world. Thus, the film becomes a kind of time capsule, which raises eternal questions and at the same time touches on the most relevant and topical issues.
In time it is also revealed that more than a story about the perpetrator in the video game, it is a story about those who developed it: two young geniuses, who conceived it as a pastoral and peace-loving amusement, until the arrival of a powerful villain who snatched it from their hands and turned it into something much more violent.
Thus, "Releasing Guy" also discusses the violence of contemporary Western culture, the moral responsibility it has and its connection to capitalism, and carries with it a pacifist message.
The thinkers of the game are a guy and a girl, and over time it also turns out that his creation and development help them deal with the unrealized sexual tension between them, which makes "Release Guy" a different kind of film - a romantic comedy for gimmicks.
While most reviews so far have mostly compared it to "The Truman Show" and the like, more so it belongs to the sub-genre of films about writers who fall in love with the characters they have created.
Got it, okay, it's similar to "The Truman Show."
From "Release Guy" (Photo: Film Forum)
With beautiful ideas, beautiful as they may be, do not go to the grocery store and do not break the box office. "Release Guy" succeeds because of the way they come to the canvas. The film does not forget for a moment that it is a summer film, and does well to tickle the various lobes of the brain.
The screenplay was written by Matt Lieberman and Zack Pan, who touched on similar material in "Actor Number One," and unusually relative to a Hollywood blockbuster, it is not based on previous material, so "Release Guy" proves there is more room in the market for such films as well. Sean Levy, a veteran Hollywood craftsman with an uneven career, who also had gems like "The Pink Panther" and "Real Steel" is responsible for his performance. Here, fortunately, we once again fell for his good day.
Levy uses the smart and coherent script, sub-characters that add color, respectable effects and a pleasant soundtrack, and especially the casting. The role of the protagonist is played by Ryan Reynolds, a budding Hollywood empire who also produced the film. His acting display demonstrates his characteristic combination, between impressive physical data, precise comic timing and most of all empathetic charisma, which makes him a hero that everyone loves to love.
Taika Watiti, the director and actor who had already practiced villainous portrayal when he entered the character of Hitler in his "JoJo Rabbit", plays the violent and vile crook here, proving that even a New Zealand accent can sound vicious. Above them all are the two young actors who embody the inventors of the game: Joe Curie, who broke out in "Strange Things"; And Judy Comer, a British actress who was discovered in "Kill Eve" and here does her first film role in such a charming way that we can understand why the characters in the film are willing to turn worlds for her.
Just great.
Judy Comer in "Release Guy" (Photo: Film Forum)
"Free Guy" reveals a film with power, with mind - and especially with heart.
Although it has many topical references, it is reminiscent of hits from the 1980s, a time when commercial Hollywood making was a good way to combine storytelling and entertainment.
It's a movie with a taste of yesteryear, and so was the viewing experience.
At the screening I was at, she sat behind a gang of children, who were so excited and enthusiastic, that at the climax, they cheered for the characters on screen loudly and with applause.
The film is called "Free Guy", but it could also have been called "Save Guy", and maybe it should actually be called "Save Hollywood".
Maybe she still has a chance to survive.
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