The Place Beyond the Pines (Derek Cianfrance)

[Boner M]

IMDb

[Ezee E]

Saw the preview. Looks great. Can't wait.

[MadMan]

That cast...wow. That trailer was excellent, too. This movie feels like its the brother to Drive, The Town, and other recent crime epics. I can't wait.

Gosling is one of my man-crushes at this point, and I'm glad that Cooper is going beyond the whole stupid comedy guy bit and making some interesting movies.

[plain]

eager to see it again, but the second half is a mess.

[ContinentalOp]

Loved that first act. An intense Gosling and a charming Ben Mendelsohn are worth the price of admission.

[Ezee E]

Good stuff, even if it falters slightly in the third act, I applaud the movie for actually surprising me and some brutal performances. It's one of those ensemble pieces like You Can Count On Me, Little Children, and Snow Angels that I just love to see. There's some especially good cinematography here too, with lots of tracking shots simply following the leads as they head into their fate.

The cop corruption is handled better then most movies. Entirely obvious, but easy to see how it slides on by. Felt incredibly uncomfortable and sleazy as it was happening. Fantastic work by Liotta and the team there. Wow.

[Watashi]

Yeah, after the brilliant first act it all just goes downhill. Like father like son amirite?

A shame, because the performances are good.

[DavidSeven]

Derek Cianfrance tries to pull a Coen/McCarthy, but he probably needs more experience and skill before attempting structural subversion with such ambition. The film starts fine, but each subsequent act feels a bit deflated from the one that came before it. It doesn't help that the most far-fetched storytelling is saved for last. It's still very watchable, but the underlying stories lack creativity and depth. The filmmaking is good, but not standout. Essentially, Cianfrance doesn't elevate the material to the extent that James Gray did with a similarly trite narrative in We Own the Night. The craftsmanship and performances are still good enough to warrant the film a look, but expect an overall experience that's several notches below Cianfrance's raw and honest Blue Valentine.

[TGM]

This isn't a perfect movie, but it's one that definitely sits well, headed by phenomenal performances from Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. I originally didn't have much to say about this movie, but then I got suckered into reviewing it anyways for a guest post on another film site. So check it out if you would: Full review

[Boner M]

Wow, 5 stars from Melville. Thoughts, Melville?

[Henry Gale]

This really struck me in ways I wasn't expecting, and I'm sure I'll be thinking of it for a long time, all enough so that I'm not sure it matters if all of its efforts don't exactly result in fully formed achievements.

I won't disagree that it becomes a bit more formless as it goes along, but I was also well aware that was the general critical sentiment going in, and I was spoiled by certain cast interviews as to what the structural conceit of it was, so maybe I more prepared for how the film was going to unfold than those that went in fresh, and as for the quality of the film itself, it probably doesn't help that the film beautifully develops the dynamics in that first section for the audience to invest in before deliberately messing everything up, beginning to conjures a narrative direction predicated on guilt and dread for us to blindly trust without previous warning. But it's still such a consistently engaging, strangely hypnotic, raw, sprawling character piece done so unlike anything else I can think of that I still couldn't help but admire it every step of the way.

It's ballsy, and even if it isn't perfectly executed, the core character material, the performances and all of Cianfrance's other directorial instincts are so strong that the overall experience of the film moved me enough that it never quite felt like it underwhelming itself on its own ambitions.

It's enough of a success that it's easy for me to dismiss the gaps it might not fulfill, and it doesn't slow down Cianfrance from quickly becoming the sort of director that I'll closely pay attention from one project to another. I can't wait to see what he tackles next, especially since between this and Blue Valentine, it'll likely be something radically different, and something profoundly, beautifully challenging.

***½ / A-

[number8]

Man the writing is so rote in this thing. Every single plot point is telegraphed from eleven miles away.

Still, intense suspense in some scenes, and very fine work from everyone. Cooper's slightly better here than in Silver Linings.

Emory Cohen as his son was incredible. Can't believe that's the same kid in Smash. He really disappeared into that role.

[number8]

Have you guys seen this commercial directed by Cianfrance?

[Melville]

Wow, 5 stars from Melville. Thoughts, Melville?

Probably more generous than my actual reaction. All the contrivances in the third act are certainly awkward. But overall, it's great.

I always like movies that clearly engage with ethical issues and problems of forgiveness and atonement (except Atonement. Screw that movie), and this one does a great job of creating a web of relationships between people in order to examine basic questions of "How should one live? How does one do right?" The characters, even if they're cast in schematic roles, are real enough to give that question nuance and increasing breadth as the movie progresses. The performances, the tension of the robberies, and the kind of earthy etherealness of the cinematography also add weight to the questions by creating both a feeling of reality (in the sense of lived experience, not barren objectivity) and an almost biblically meditative tone. And I like how the sins and atonements of the fathers are borne not just by the sons, but by objects: the cash and the photo take on ethical significance by their roles in people's lives.

I also tend to like movies where people dig themselves into desperate, inescapable situations, and I was interested in how the first two acts of this one contrast two digging scenarios: Gosling just keeps digging deeper until there's no deeper desperation to dig; Cooper resolves, as best he can, to alter the problem of digging entirely. For those reasons I liked the overtly structured plot. I've criticized less schematic movies for their schematism, but in this case it worked for me.

[Qrazy]

B-

[Irish]

Mixed. Voted nay & 3 stars.

My reaction went from a yay to a mild nay to oh my God this fucking movie is never going to end.

I liked the questions this movie raised, but found the mechanism by which it raised them to be trite. This is TV-movie-of-the-week material shot to arthouse specifications. It doesn't help that each scene is played with a deadly earnestness while every other plot point is contrived and artificial.

Liked the minimalistic approach in tone and action, but why is this thing so goddamn long? It seemed excessive and overly ambitious given how shallow the story actually is.

[slqrick]

Finally got around to seeing this. Give it a yay just on the first act alone, I loved everything about it. The opening shot following Gosling's character was amazing, and loved the climax. Unfortunately, like others have already said, everything falters after that. I might be in the minority, but I just can't buy Bradley Cooper as legit leading man in a role like this just yet.

Felt like a real missed opportunity.

[Grouchy]

Gave it a Nay. This doesn't mean that it's a terrible movie, simply that it was overlong and the plot mechanics too transparent. It tells three different stories. The Gosling one I found kind of aimless, the one with police corruption was by far the most interesting part of the film and the one with the sons was interesting but came into play too late.

All the actors are fantastic and Cianfrance a skilled director. Even though I gave it a Nay, I didn't dislike it. I just thought it was flawed.

[eternity]

It's both ambitious and essentially pointless, which makes the whole thing seem weirder than it actually is.

[Sxottlan]

Yeah, going with a nay. Everyone else has pretty much nailed it. Rambling, mildly interesting, but lots of unbelievable and contrived moments i.e. the vice cops, the sons meeting.

I will say the chase after the last bank robbery was exceptional. Incredible "you are there" feeling by shooting from inside a speeding police car. And through a cemetery too. Production must have paid the town a lot to do that.

And I did like the reference to Rochester and how "you're going to go into a place and eat something called a 'garbage plate.' You'll want to be ready for that."

[Peng]

First-watch sheen wears off quite a significant bit this time, although I'm still mostly taken with it, especially the Gosling-centric first section (now with retrospective duh at his rapport and chemistry with Mendes), and I underrated Mendelsohn last time, whose brief screentime leaves an impression. However, I remember having some third-act problems like everyone else, but back then not pre-Brooklyn Emory Cohen giving such a jarring, almost storyline-ruining performance among them somehow. 8/10