Free Guy, the newest film from director Shawn Levy, is the first of its kind: a movie about video games that runs on video game logic, unlike the others that blend games into reality. Starring Ryan Reynolds as a NPC (for the non-gamers here, that’s “non-player character”) in an open-world video game akin to Grand Theft Auto, this sci-fi action comedy runs on references, and feels like a combination of Ready Player One, The Lego Movie, They Live, and The Truman Show all at once. It’s a digitally aware love story, where Guy meets Girl, Guy falls for Girl, and finally, Guy discovers that reality is a lie and God is a troll. Yet despite this implied disparity, the film holds itself together throughout it all. It’s a very entertaining comedy about video games (and a whole lot of other stuff) that, unlike so many blockbusters of the moment, does not collapse under the weight pop-culture references and forget to make actual jokes.
