Movie Review - The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Bruce Greenwood, Harris Yulin, Ben Mendelsohn, and Ray Liotta

Directed by Derek Cianfrance

There's a grandness to the scale of The Place Beyond the Pines that isn't often seen in cinema.  Director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance takes his time building his characters and their arcs.  Some might even say he spends a bit too much time as the three intertwining stories he weaves here slowly unfold in their layers of connection to one another.  While the film isn't perfect, to me The Place Beyond the Pines features storytelling that you typically only get from a great novel and it's a welcome change of pace.

Now, this may seem like a cop out (and it sort of is as I'm trying to get this review done quickly), but I'm not really going to divulge much of the plot here.  If you're not aware of what the film is attempting to do, it's better that you stay in the dark and let things unfold scene by scene.  This isn't to say that The Place Beyond the Pines is particularly surprising or holds twists and turns, but it is told in a unique fashion that may be best kept secret if you're unfamiliar with the director's overall concept.

I will, however, simply state that the film tells the tale of two men -- Luke (Ryan Gosling), a stunt motorcyclist who discovers that he has a young son with Romina (Eva Mendes), a girl he had a fling with over a year ago; and Avery (Bradley Cooper), a first-year cop who also has a young son the same age as Luke's.  Luke and Avery's lives will become interwoven as will the lives of their sons as they grow older (played by Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen as teens).

I mentioned a "grand scale" in my opening sentence of this review and you shouldn't misinterpret that as being a multi-million dollar Ben Hur-esque special effects-driven type of scope.  Instead, the grandeur comes from the fact that we follow Luke, Avery, and their families over the course of two decades, seeing how their lives change, and how even a spur of the moment decision can affect those around them years down the line.  It's this concept of following multiple characters across generations -- a la Steinbeck's East of Eden -- that makes this movie unique and stand out from the crowd.

With a nice performance from Bradley Cooper anchoring the film [and kudos to Cooper for changing my opinion on him within this past year...he's becoming quite the actor], The Place Beyond the Pines is absolutely worth watching assuming you're ready for a slow-burning type of film.  Then again, Derek Cianfrance's Blue Valentine could've been described in a similar fashion.  While Pines can't hold a candle to the masterpiece that is Blue Valentine (my number one film of 2010...which is also streaming on Netflix, FYI, so watch it immediately), it's still a fine piece of cinema that admittedly sinks into a bit of hokeyness at times (to the detriment of the rawness it's trying to convey), but is still worthy of a watch.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - Holy Motors

Holy Motors (2012)

Starring Denis Levant, Edith Scob, Eva Mendes, and Kylie Minogue

Directed by Leos Carax

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

What the f*** did I just watch?

The RyMickey Rating:  C-

Alright.  I guess I'll elaborate a little on the profane words above.  Since profanity doesn't usually flow freely on this website, my gut reaction immediately following the movie of those words above must mean that Holy Motors is one odd cinematic journey.  Perhaps if I was French or was well versed in French cinema or was someone who was actually paid to pen film criticism, I'd have thought this was absolutely fantastic.  But seeing as how je ne suis pas français, am not familiar with old-school French cinema, and am not making dough from this website, this film just had me shaking my head most of the time in disbelief that something so surrealistic could be so lauded.  As I sat watching, I clicked over to RottenTomatoes and discovered that 90% of the critics polled rated Holy Motors "fresh."  Quite honestly, that "fresh" rating was just flabbergasting because they only reason to like this film is if you want others to think you're really smart thereby boosting your own ego.  I'm sure there are insanely deep meanings or heartfelt homages in every scene, but this isn't a film that a typical filmgoer can go into and become entranced.

Now, these criticisms aren't to say that Holy Motors isn't well-made.  It's oftentimes very pretty to look at and the production values from the costumes to the make-up to the set designs are top notch.  Even the acting by Denis Levant is fine (getting surprisingly moving towards the film's end)...but the tone is just all around too odd to comprehend what the hell is going on.  Director and screenwriter Leos Carax has created something incomprehensible.  That in and of itself isn't a reason the film doesn't work.  The problem is that the cinematic journey just grows tiresome after a bit as the insanity of the "plot" simply wears down the viewer.

From what I can make out, Holy Motors is about this guy Monsieur Oscar (Denis Levant) who is maybe kinda sorta an actor.  He's picked up one morning at what is presumably his ritzy house and he's chauffeured around in a fancy white limo all day by some older lady named Céline (Edith Scob).  As Céline drives him around Paris, Oscar changes into various costumes, gets out of the limo, and acts out scenes with people.  Except I don't think the people he's "acting" with know he's an actor.  Or maybe they do.  Who the hell knows.  As an example, in one scene, Oscar dons a motion capture suit (you've seen those full-body lycra things with little balls on them so the camera can pick up on an actor's movements) and then proceeds to simulate killing someone with swords followed by simulating having sex with something which later turns out to be some sensual dragon.  Um...yeah...And then we follow that scene with Oscar dressing up like some vagrant who kidnaps Eva Mendes (who is playing some vapid model) and takes her to the sewers below Paris where he strips for her and then lays his head on her crotch and falls asleep.

Seriously...what the hell?

The funny thing is, though, that as I sit here typing this, I'm finding myself thoroughly amused with what I'm remembering.  Don't get me wrong...this was a chore to slog through (in fact, it took me multiple sittings to finish this one), but there is something a little fascinating about the ridiculous nature of the whole affair.  And, at times, Holy Motors is rather moving, particularly in a scene towards the end in which Oscar sees a former colleague named Eva Grace (played by Kylie Minogue) and they reminisce about a former love affair they had together.  Perhaps it's this scene (which had an oddly Umbrellas of Cherbourg tone to it) that is making me think more fondly of the film than I should be at the moment.  But, it also pinpoints the problem with the film that a "normal viewer" like me faces.  I could connect this rather moving scene and its intended homage to another film (or I at least could pretend to connect it to something I had seen before).  All the other scenes which must hold some deeper meaning failed to resonate with me because I couldn't comprehend what they were trying to say.

Maybe if you're a lover of francophile cinema, you'll go gaga over Holy Motors, but I unfortunately was unable to do so.

Movie Review - Last Night

Last Night (2011)

Starring Keira Knightley, Sam Worthington, Eva Mendes, and Guillaume Canet

Directed by Massy Tadjedin

***This film is currently streaming on Netflix***

Temptation is what Last Night is all about.  Joanna and Michael (Keira Knightley and Sam Worthington) already seem to be simply going through the motions of being a married couple after only a few years of being betrothed.  After a squabble one night, each of them finds themselves in a position to stray from their spouse -- Michael with his beautiful co-worker Laura (Eva Mendes) and Joanna with her French ex-boyfriend Alex (Patrick Dempsey's Gallic doppelganger Guillaume Canet).  Will Joanna or Michael succumb to the allure of another or will they remember why they fell for each other in the first place?

Considering the fairly decent stars on display in Last Night, it's rather shocking to me that it received a wide release of only ten -- that's right, ten -- theaters back in May.  It'd be one thing if the film was a dud, but director/screenwriter Massy Tadjedin's first effort as an auteur is actually a very nice glimpse at a relationship faced with outside temptations.  While not without a few issues -- Tadjedin has an odd way of editing certain scenes with some pointlessly quick cuts, the first half hour hinges on tedium -- the film is overall quite a success in that it manages to have us root for this couple that we just met ninety minutes prior.

If anything, Last Night shows the public that Sam Worthington may actually prove to be a rather decent actor.  We certainly didn't get a great glimpse at his acting chops in Avatar, but here he proves that without hundreds of millions of dollars of special effects, he's actually a rather thoughtful, subdued, and talented actor.  Keira Knightley continues to act with her chin and lower jaw, trying to convey a tough exterior by moving her mandible around into odd positions.  Still, despite this crutch of hers, her Joanna is a complicated character and she sinks her teeth into probably her best role in a while.  

Add to that, this has got one heck of a final moment that I imagine will end up on the RyMickey Best Scenes list at the end of the year.  It ends the flick on such an interesting note that the mere thirty seconds at the end make up for a bit of a lackluster start.  (I actually rewound it to give it a second glance, I thought it was that clever.)  Last Night is definitely worth an instant watch on Netflix.

The RyMickey Rating:  B

Movie Review - The Other Guys

The Other Guys (2010)

Starring Will Ferrell, Mark Wahlberg, Eva Mendes, Michael Keaton, Steve Coogan, Dwayne Johnson, and Samuel L. Jackson

Directed by Adam McKay

I was a pretty big fan of the previous Will Ferrell-Adam McKay collaborations Step Brothers and Anchorman.  Their latest venture The Other Guys doesn't even come close to those previous flicks.  In fact, this 2010 "comedy" is one of the worst movies of last year.

It's true that comedies are perhaps best viewed with a crowd of others.  As the crowd laughs, you can either laugh with them or laugh at them for finding something humorous.  I watched The Other Guys all by my lonesome and while I chuckled once or twice, that's not nearly enough.  In this bumbling odd couple buddy picture, Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg never seem to mesh with one another in the slightest.  In their quest to uncover the mystery behind some Wall Street stock fraud (did that ever sound funny in the writer's room?), their two cop characters grow to realize they're not as different as they thought they once were.

Ferrell is fine here, but he does nothing special and can't garner laughs.  Wahlberg is just horrendous.  His attempts at humor involved yelling everything and opening his eyes really wide to convey frustration and anger -- it just may be one of the worst performances I've seen this year.  The rest of the supporting cast from Eva Mendes to Michael Keaton to Dwayne Johnson and Samuel L. Jackson as a pair of celebrity-level NYC officers are simply serviceable, but don't add anything to the mix.

All in all, this film wasn't the least bit funny and I contemplated stopping it several times before it was through...I kinda wish I had because I at least would've had an hour to watch something worthwhile.

The RyMickey Rating:  D-