The Place Beyond The Pines (2013)

Though far from perfect, Gosling makes The Place Beyond The Pines unmissable.

"If you ride like lightning,
you're gonna crash like thunder."

At a glance:

Imbued with all the ambition and class of a modern classic crime epic, Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance reunites with the enigmatic Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines (2013), a flawed but fabulous fable steeped in heavy themes of guilt and redemption. It's the kind of movie you don't take your eyes off for even a minute, as a long take openin trackin shot majestically promises. We're let in on the moral struggles firstly through carnival motorcycle stuntman Luke Glanton (Gosling recallin some touches of Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive), who reluctantly starts robbin small banks with a newfound handyman friend (Ben Mendelsohn) when he discovers he has a year-old son with his one-time fling (Eva Mendes). The decidedly unpolished narrative avoids cheap emotions throughout and the first act especially posits all the hallmarks of an unforgettable story with a lead character so excitin, he deserves an origins sequel.

Bad news on the doorstep:

So Emery Cohen is supposed to be the son of Bradley Cooper & Rose Bryne
while Dane DeHaan is supposed to be the son of Ryan Gosling & Eva Mendes?

Bradley Cooper goes Serpico in The Place Beyond The Pines.

In a clear case of peakin too early, the momentum splutters by the time we meet Bradley Cooper's co-protag in the second act, a cop character with neither the charm nor the complexity to meet the emotional continuity revved up earlier by our ever-so-watchable rebel robber. This is likely to be a miscast than a character exposition problem but by the third act when we're introduced to their respective teenage sons in a 'sins of the father' story arc, things turn weary and even slightly contrived when we realise the actors (Emery Cohen and Dane DeHaan), through no fault of their more than adequate performances, look very little like who they're supposed to be descended from; an unfortunate development that does undo a lot of the magic in this movie, like the breathtakin camerawork and sublime score by Mike Patton. Several set pieces are beautiful and production values are top-notch but one would suspect the director has several regrets he'd admit to himself with the final cut.

Perennial wonderment:

This character deserves an origins sequel.

Are they gonna use Bon Iver's The Wolves (Act I & II) for every movie that seeks to end on a convalescent, resonant note? I'm still high from watchin and hearin its first use, in the closin scene of the beautiful French drama Rust And Bone (2012). Shoegazers forever!

Reminds me of:

Animal Kingdom (2010), A Bronx Tale (1993), and Prince Of The City (1981) come to mind when I think about crime epics with some pedigree.

Ben Mendelsohn can't put a foot wrong.

Watch out for:

Eva Mendes successfully makes herself thin and haggard for her trashy role and Ray Liotta has a more useful run-out here for a change, in one of his usual villainous turns, but Ben Mendelsohn steals the show as the world-weary accomplice and friend. Check out his chops in Beautiful Kate (2009), Killing Them Softly (2012) and Animal Kingdom (2010) if you wanna see what he can really do besides his small part in The Dark Knight Rises (2012).

Only God forgives... if you tattoo a dagger on your face.

Most memorable line:

"If you ride like lightning, you're gonna crash like like thunder."

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Would've been movie of the year if not for a few false notes in there. Still, it's a family affair about honour and duty that's certainly artful and intimate enough for a rewatch. Check out this interview with the director if you wanna know more about the movie and also that incredible openin long take. Movin on, can't wait for Only God Forgives (2013) in summer!★★★1/2
Bonus material:

No woman, no cry... Ryan Gosling style.

The Dead Girl (2006)

Rose Bryne plays a long-grieving sister in The Dead Girl (2006).

At a glance:

Kerry Washington plays a lesbian hooker.
Not a very flattering shot, though.

Sometimes when I'm reminded of Brittany Murphy's sudden demise, I think of two things. One would be her boinkin Eminem at the car factory in 8 Mile (2002). The other would be her titular role in The Dead Girl (2008), somethin that will forever be a chillin irony after her tragic death in December 2009. Karen Moncrieff's The Dead Girl is a disturbingly powerful vignette piece about a dead girl and five women who are connected in some way or another to her. The Stranger (Toni Collette) is the awkward daughter of an abusive mother who finds empowerment when she finds the titular corpse. The Sister (Rose Byrne) is a depressed forensics student who tries to find closure by insisting that the corpse is that of her lost sister. The Wife (Mary Beth Hurt) is the thankless murderer's wife who almost reports her husband to the authorities but for a change of heart. The Mother (Marcia Gay Harden) is a clueless middle-class woman who cannot understand why her dead daughter left home even before she was killed; and finds some answers via a whore who used to live with her daughter. Lastly, The Dead Girl is a young woman who is shown to live a blameless life just days before she meets her grisly end. No - it's not a horror. It's not a murder thriller either. It's a beautifully restrained character study that benefits from a stellar cast and their solid performances. Flyin in the face of the adage ‘the dead tell no tales', this movie asks the questions nobody likes to hear; all through the cinematic device of a motionless corpse. Contrasted against a wasteland of a backdrop, we see characters and their motives - some noble, some ugly; but always unflinchingly realistic. It's the sort of movie that finds appreciation only through what we want to understand and derive from it.

Marcia Gay Hayden

Bad news on the doorstep:
Of course, what we understand and derive from it will always be contingent on the emotional force that drives it. Herein The Dead Girl suffered from the age-old censorship bug when I first viewed it in 2008 under Cathey-Keris' banner in Malaysia. The full texture of the film has been compromised by the cuttin of scenes instrumental to conveying the bleakness of the subject matter at hand.

Perennial wonderment:

What did happen to Brittany Murphy? Widower died at the same house, too. It had somethin to do with toxic mould, they said.

Mary Beth Hurt

Reminds me of:

Jindabyne (2006), The Invisible (2007), The Burning Plain (2008) and Brick (2005).

Amacam joker, berapa bintang lu mau kasi?

Thankfully, the strength of its performances survives this. I cannot think of a single poor movie with Toni Collette in it - this one just improves the statistic. Hers is just one of five characters and the rest of the cast are, pardon the pun, dead solid. Permeatin the emotional undercurrent is also a well-chosen music score to bring out the best in that sun-bleached, dry discomfort of L.A. backcountry. There is little more you can ask from The Dead Girl, except maybe another five stories from this excitin director. Maybe this time we could be spared the veiled feminism though, eh?★★★
The day the music died:

R.I.P. Brittany Murphy
(November 10, 1977 – December 20, 2009)

Brittany Murphy at The Dead Girl World Premiere and AFI Special Presentation
at AFI FEST 2006 / The Loft in Los Angeles, California.