The Place Beyond the Pines

a gritty, grainy "triopic" about fuzzy choices and consequences that span generations. feeling long at times yet cutting straight to the bone in terms of dialogue, this rich character-centric tale (set in the sleepy pines of upstate new york) causes one to question heroes, like in disney's hunchback theme: "who is the monster and who is the man?" there are also elements of a perpetuating class divide ala "rich dad, poor dad", but the movie ends well with an open-ended possibility of breaking the cycle. read more

ryan gosling and bradley cooper are two actors who have really built their names up in hollywood over the last couple of years. gosling has appealed to pretty much everyone with his marquee looks and award-worthy performances while cooper started off with big commercial films like the hangover franchise before diving into an oscar-nominated turn in the silver linings playbook. thee two up-and-coming actors came together for this film, the second mainstream feature from derek cianfrance (blue valentine). cianfrance expands the scope of his storytelling here; where blue valentine told the read more