Oscars 2022: Free Guy

‘Free Guy’ reminds me of many films that I have already written about here. For example ‘The Truman Show’ (the border of the protagonist’s world is the sea) or ‘Donnie Darko’ (rabbit suit).

Free City is just a game but for the main character called Guy it’s a paradise. It’s his whole world. But to us, the viewers, it seems like a utopian place from the superheroes movies. Except that the superheroes here are ‘sunglasses people’ – players of the game. The rules of the world do not apply to them and they can do things which to Guy seem extraordinary. He falls in love with one of the players, Molotovgirl, who is obviously out of his league. She is a badass woman so he needs to level up to get her attention and become a hero. She tells him to be the good guy and that is exactly who he becomes.

He wants to try something new and by changing himself he starts changing others. The coffee lady starts making all kinds of coffee and blond Bombshell decides she doesn’t need to be with any man and writes an autobiographical book against patriarchy. Guy changes his life pattern like a shirt. He knows that there must be more to life than just going to bed, waking up, having his coffee and going to work. Over and over again. Thanks to the sunglasses he starts to see the Truth about his reality. But not everybody wants to see it. For example his best friend Buddy is too scared at first.

Guy and Molotovgirl bond over the same favorite things and it seems weird to them. When you meet a person you just click with like that, it does seem supernatural. In their case it’s because he is programmed that way and she is his encoded dream girl. They share their first kiss and it’s a magical moment. And then everything starts falling apart. He finds out that his entire world is not real. But Buddy persuades him that even if they are not real, the moment they share is: ‘Right here, right now. This moment is real. If that’s not real, I don’t know what is.’

Both Guy and Antwan, the boss of the Soonami Studios, behave like little boys. Actually, most of the players of the game are very immature. They kill and punch people for fun until Guy makes them rethink their actions. They start caring for NPCs (non-player characters) even though before they were treating them as subhumans. We also see that people can achieve great things if they create a community and stay strong together. Only Antwan, who calls his workers ‘sheeple’, doesn’t understand how anybody can appreciate love or friendship more than digits.

In the end of the film the middle aged man (Guy) doesn’t end up with a younger girl (Molotovgirl) like it often happened in Hollywood films of the past. He is just the messenger for the younger guy. Or a love letter to her, as he calls himself. How refreshing! And full of spiritual messages.

‘Free Guy’

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