Thanks for reading! Please leave a like, a comment, or share this post if you enjoyed it.
During my sophomore year of high school, a little movie called La La Land (2016) came out. Starring Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling, you may have heard of it. I didn’t see it. That movie did not speak to me for a number of reasons that I will list: (1) it’s about jazz, (2) it’s about jazz and there’s one Black person in it (that speaks), (3) it’s a musical (and neither star is a singer), and (4) I didn’t understand Emma Stone or Ryan Gosling at the time. I knew that the two were frequently paired together in movies such as Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), another one I didn’t see, and I knew that Ryan Gosling was known to be a romantic lead in The Notebook (2004), but I wasn’t convinced.
Well, I’d seen The Notebook and it was my least favorite Nicholas Sparks movie. I prefer A Walk to Remember (2002) or Safe Haven (2013), or even The Last Song (2010), but I digress. My overarching point here is that I just did not see Ryan Gosling as a romantic lead. I didn’t get it. I’d seen hotter men (no offense), and I only liked him when he played assholes, like his role as Jared Vennett in The Big Short (2015). I don’t care that I couldn’t understand a word that was said, I love that movie! Truly, what a great film. Anyway!
All of this preamble to finally say that since I was a sophomore in high school my taste has developed, and I now love Ryan Gosling. Consider me a member of his fan club. It was a slow burn, I have to say, and it started with a little 2018 SNL sketch titled “Papyrus.” This sketch was shown to me during a break period at school by one of my friends and wow, I had no idea Ryan Gosling was so funny. A quick little piece of information that was stored away in my brain and laid dormant for years. That is until I stumbled upon a certain interview of Gosling and Harrison Ford by the one-of-a-kind Alison Hammond for ITV’s This Morning.
Please! Do yourself a favor and watch this interview. For 4 minutes and 12 seconds it is nonstop laughter and nonsense, and it can turn the tide for even the most staunch of Gosling rizz deniers. This interview not only establishes the personability of the Canadian actor, but the comedy chops as well. His ability to develop a rapport with Alison Hammond, and then for Harrison Ford to hop in and make the situation even funnier? This is the type of comedy that cannot be taught. And frankly, can only happen when no one involved takes themselves too seriously.
The Alison Hammond interview, which has accumulated 19 million views on YouTube, is second only to Ryan’s moments on The Graham Norton Show. All of these little moments that I stumbled upon here and there really thawed out the ice patch on my heart labeled “Ryan Gosling” and pushed me to try watching some of the movies that I’d so easily cast aside.
I started with Crazy, Stupid, Love, which was just okay honestly. (At this point in time, I had fully bought into both Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, both of whom I now concur are very talented actors and charming people.) The best part is 100% when Jacob (Ryan Gosling) shows up to Hannah’s (Emma Stone) house to find out that the guy he’s been hanging out with at bars is actually Hannah’s dad (Steve Carell). Iykyk. Next up was Barbie (2023) –– wow, I really had a long break here in Gosling content; factor in one or two The Big Short rewatches –– and again, I thought this was just okay! It was a cultural phenomenon, yes, but of all the movies I’d seen that year in theaters, it honestly left the faintest mark.
Fast forward to earlier this month when I finally decided, after watching this very interview, that I will finally watch La La Land. Over the years, I’d been slowly worn down through word of mouth appraisals –– people love this movie –– and critical acclaim to add the film to my watchlist. But it wasn’t until I heard Ryan Gosling say (paraphrasing) that “the biggest point of the movie to him was that you just need one person to believe in you” that I was sold.
So, I watched the movie and I kind of… loved it?? The people were right. I mean, it’s not my favorite movie of all time or anything, but I think it’s visually stunning, the acting is great and the story line is gut-wrenching and painful, but it brings out the hope in the end in such a realistic way! Ugh. I thoroughly enjoyed it. I think I waited the appropriate amount of time to finally watch it. I’m not sure I would’ve liked it in high school as much as I do now.
After watching La La Land, I officially bought my ticket and hopped on the Ryan Gosling bandwagon. I was already sold, but now I was completely on board. What a charming, funny, talented man! After this, I was compelled to finally watch The Fall Guy (2024) on Peacock after watching that Peacock ad with Emily Blunt saying “you’re the stunt guy, and I’m the director,” which finally gave me some insight into the plot of the movie, and guaranteed that there’d be romance. Because, I don’t know about anyone else, but I watched some of the press interviews for that movie and I had a fun time, but I could not for the life of me figure out what else went on in that movie besides Ryan Gosling playing a stunt guy.
Regardless, I would highly recommend The Fall Guy to anyone who loves action movies, or romantic comedies, or Ryan Gosling, or Emily Blunt, or a summer blockbuster. It was so much fun I was beside myself. From the very first scene I was smiling nonstop. They put two of the most charming actors on the planet together in one movie and threw in the best supporting cast possible and made the stakes sky high for everyone involved. What fun! I should’ve gone to see it in theaters!
Last but not least on my Ryan Gosling bandwagon ride was The Place Beyond the Pines (2012). I only tuned into this movie, where Gosling plays a man who learns he has a son and then, in order to provide for his new family, robs banks, because Ryan Gosling has said that he played a pretend family with Eva Mendes on this film and then realized, when it was over, that he didn’t want it to be pretend anymore. I––
Wow. Just wow. It’s made even more hopelessly romantic by the fact that they have like two scenes together where they are in a happy family. My man knew! However, after some lighthearted Gosling movies padded the onramp to my viewing of this movie, I thought it would have a much happier ending. I won’t spoil it if anyone wants to watch, but it is intense! And very realistic in a depressing way, so if that’s not your jam, steer clear. It deserves a rewatch from me in the future, but it’s a very interesting and thought-provoking film for sure.
I feel like I’ve gotten a wide scope of Ryan Gosling’s œuvre over the past month and I’m very excited to see more. I hope he keeps producing films, even though The Fall Guy didn’t do so well in the box office (he was a producer on that), and I’m very excited to see what he does next!