Hello Everyone :-)
The hottest property in Hollywood right now is without doubt Ryan
Gosling. He's super talented, super gorgeous and everything he touches seems to turns to gold. He’s even got his
own Meme and colouring book for Christ’s sake (re the colouring book: it’s my
birthday soon. Just sayin’...).
His latest film is his second collaboration
with Derek Cianfrance (their previous movie was ‘Blue Valentine’, the
brilliant anti-date movie) called ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’.
'The Place Beyond The Pines' has three very clear stories
told in three acts. Luke Glanton (Ryan
Gosling) is a motorcycle stuntman working in a traveling act for state fairs.
While in Altamont New York, Glanton visits his old flame Romina (Eva Mendes)
and learns that he is the father of her son. Glanton quits his job as a
stuntman to stay in town and provide for his child. This triggers a series of
events where Glanton's live intersects with Officer Avery Cross
(Bradley Cooper) who then gets embroiled with some shady, backhanded
police business. The story ultimately involves Cross’s son AJ (Emory Cohen) a
16 year old called Jason (Dane DeHaan).
I knew very little about this film before the screening but I did have quite
high hopes due to the strength of the cast and the strength of Cianfrance’s
previous work with Gosling (I love ‘Blue Valentine’). I was not disappointed.
You have to be prepared to go on a bit of a journey but if you let it, ‘The
Place Beyond The Pines’ will reward you for your trouble.
It is the most beautiful film I’ve seen so far this year. Filmed in
various towns in and around Schenectady, New York the boundless vistas
take your breath away. Tempting as it may be to use the landscape in every
shot, Cianfrance also lingers in close up on the faces of his actors to
devastating effect. The result is hauntingly beautiful, terribly melancholic
and really gets under your skin.
The cast are firing on all cylinders without exception.
Ryan Gosling is the main selling point of the film because (in the words
of Mr Mugatu) he’s so hot right now, but in reality he isn't in the
film for long. The screen time he does have, however, is never wasted. On paper
Glanton is a hard to sympathise with but Gosling is such a talent that your
heart aches for him. This is Ryan Gosling is at his charismatic best.
As predicted Bradley Cooper continues his upward career trajectory.
Building on his success with 'Silver Linings Playbook' in 'The Place Beyond The
Pines' Avery is the most multi-faceted character in the film. His motives are
never really clear and his quiet ambition gives way to a grey morality that I
loved. Cooper has come a long way in his relatively short career but it seems
he’s only just getting started.
My favourite turn was Dane DeHaan as Jason. His character's identity is
a third act twist seasoned movie go-ers will have worked out before the film’s conclusion. This, however, doesn’t diminish his character in
any way. DeHaan is a truly magnetic screen presence; I felt the same when I saw
him in ‘Chronicle’ last year, I find him almost hypnotic to watch.
His section of the film is the least-good (I know ‘least-good’ is
terrible English but I don’t want to say ‘weakest’ because no part of this film
is weak) but it’s totally bolstered by DeHaan and Emory Cohen.
With all its meandering loveliness some of the film’s momentum does get
lost, especially in the second act which is the part of the movie that should
feel most like a crime thriller. The relaxed dialogue and easy aesthetic is
both a blessing and a hindrance to ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’.
What I love the most is the ambition of the thing. Cianfrance has
created something that more closely resembles a Shakespearean tragedy than it
does anything else currently in cinemas. It's a complete contradiction of a
film: vast but small, huge and minute all at the same time. I love that there
are still film makers that dare to pose questions and then credit the audience
with enough intelligence to let them ponder them. The film’s conclusion does
peter out with a fizzle rather than a bang which is a shame but there is still plenty
to love here.
There are no clear heroes and villains in ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’,
this is not a film for those that need their conclusions neatly tied up. It is
beautifully bold cinema and, even if it leaves a few loose threads, this
film is a triumph.
A gorgeous commentary on Fathers, Sons and the legacy that the one
leaves for the other, ‘The Place Beyond The Pines’ is a sweeping tragedy that I
found utterly captivating.
‘The Place Beyond The Pines’ is still hanging around in cinemas but you
need to be quick to catch it!
Well it’s a rainy miserable Tuesday I need some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. I heard some tragic news yesterday. The 5th series
of Horrible Histories will be the last one! Gutted! Weep not dear reader, there
is a silver lining! Horrible Histories regulars the gorgeous Laurence Rickard
and beautiful Ben Willbond have written a film about William Shakespeare! It’s going to be called ‘Bill’ and should
start filming later this year :-)
2. Angelina Jolie has written a
wonderful piece in the New York Times about her recent double mastectomy. No
matter what you think of her career it must have taken a huge amount of courage
to speak as openly as she does about such an emotional procedure. Cancer is a terrible
thing but if this article helps one woman get the help she needs then that can
only be a good thing. From a woman to a woman, she has my utmost respect.
3. Graffiti puns are hilarious :-) I laughed more than I should have at
this.
That’s all
for today. More posts on the way!
Goodbye till
next time :-)
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Hello
Everyone :-)
Before we start, I know I am the worst
blogger ever. It’s been two whole months since I’ve posted something because I
am totally rubbish. I’ll try harder I promise!
Anyway…
‘Iron Man 3’. Let’s do this business.
Tony Stark (Robert Downey Jr) is living
in a post-Avengers world, a world that has been well and truly shaken up. After
the events of the Avengers (referred to as ‘what happened in New York’) Tony
has been obsessively working on new Iron Man Suits and is using his former
bodyguard Happy (Jon Favreau) to spy on his beloved Pepper Potts (Gwyneth
Paltrow) when she’s at work.
Meanwhile a terrorist known as The
Mandarin (Ben Kingsley) starts making threats to the President and blowing
things up on US soil. One of these explosions pushes Tony into declaring war on
the Mandarin with disastrous consequences.
‘Iron Man 3’ has some pretty heavy
expectations weighing on its red and gold plated shoulders. Not only does it
have to make up for the disappointing ‘Iron Man 2’ but it also has to live up
to ‘The Avengers’ which, in my opinion, is the new high water mark within the
Superhero genre. I’m happy to say it does both these things.
The best thing about the film is its
massive sense of fun. There were fears when the trailer came out that ‘Iron Man
3’ was going to be a much darker episode of the series, happily it isn’t that
film. It’s more mature than Marvel’s previous output, that’s to be expected,
but the Iron Man series is as playful as ever, particularly the dialogue in the
second act between Stark and the young boy Harley (snaps for Drew Pearce's
script).
Iron Man 3 serves up some good action
sequences, there’s a scene where Iron Man has to rescue some people as they are
falling from an aeroplane (that scene has a great ‘bait and switch’ finish that
I LOVED) which fulfils the ‘thrill’ factor that we’ve come to expect from
Marvel. However for me the smaller fight scenes where Tony isn’t in full armour
were the more interesting ones. It’s always satisfying to have a massive action
set piece but the parts of the film where he had to go all A-Team and make
something from the things in a random garage, in my opinion had the bigger pay
off.
Shane Black and Robert Downey Jr’s
excellent working relationship is evident in ‘Iron Man 3’ where I think RDJ
gives his best performance as Tony Stark/Iron Man to date. Throughout the film
Stark is clearly traumatised by his experiences in New York and while this
never reaches The Dark Knight Rises levels of hero decrepitude but there’s still
that shock of seeing your hero with a weakness that's unsettling.
The best thing about the Iron Man films
is, was and always will be Tony Stark. Our favourite Genius, Billionaire,
Playboy, Philanthropist has more screen time in ‘Iron Man 3’ than in any of the
previous pictures in which he’s appeared and the film is better for it. Tony is
clever, resourceful and always ready with a witty comeback.
I’d have liked to have seen more of the
wonderful Pepper Potts, partly because I love her but also because the banter
between Pepper and Tony is always great fun. No spoilers, but, in a
genre that is severely under populated by women, I loved where her story
arc went.
The real gem is Ben Kingsley. I won’t say
anything about his character but the way his character has been handled was a
genuine surprise and for someone that sees as many films as I do, true
surprises are few and far between. I’m hugely impressed with Marvel and the film’s
producers for making the decision to take that character in the direction they
do. It was a ballsy move to make and for me the risk paid off.
One thing that this Iron Man outing has
remedied is the previous Iron Man films’ relationship to bad guys. In the past,
the finale of these films involve someone try to build their own suit and then
being taken to the carpet by Iron Man. In theory that set up works but in
practise it just come off as a loads of metal-on-metal clunk noises. This final
showdown is a lot nearer the mark. I’m still not sold on it (there’s an awful
lot of jumping between Iron Man suits that should cause considerable pain to
the jumper) but by that point I was invested in the stakes and more than
willing to go with it.
The final resolution felt a bit rushed. It’s all very dependent on where they
take the character from here but I didn’t feel like they took the right time to
tie up all the loose ends and have a fully satisfying conclusion.There is also a certain element of ‘why
didn’t you do that in the first place?’ and ‘if you’d have done that an hour
ago you wouldn’t be in this mess’ that springs to mind when certain revelations
are revealed that I found annoying. These are, however, very minor quibbles in
a massively enjoyable film.
Iron Man 3 is everything we’re come to
expect from a Marvel film. It’s big and bold but at the same time has great affection
for the character of Tony Stark and what he’s done to get to this point. Shane
Black is a great influence on the Marvel universe and if he wants to come back
and direct future instalments that’s absolutely fine by me. I loved it.
And if anyone can tell me why the hell this
film was set at Christmas please tell me because I haven’t got a bloody clue.
Right then, that’s all good, let’s have
some…
Reasons to be Cheerful :-)
1. ‘Star Trek: Into Darkness’ is out
today! Honestly, I’m so excited about this I have to stop myself from doing
a happy dance every 5 minutes. This is the international trailer which I’ve
been watching repeatedly in preparation to boldly go!
2. Sherlock series 3 has started filming
and this is the sum of what’s been released so far. We’ve got a new addition to the cast in the form of Amanda Abbington (Martin Freeman’s real life
Girlfriend), we’ve also been given the name of a couple of the episodes but
there’s plenty still to work out. I’m excited!
3. Sweet Lincoln's mullet! James Marsden has joined the cast of Anchorman 2!
4. Do you love Garth Marenghi's
Darkplace? Of course you do. Everyone should because it’s brilliant. Here are
some completely awesome paper versions of Dr. Rick Dagless and co :-)
That’s all for today!
I’ll be back soon. I’ve got a big backlog of blog entries that I need to post.
Goodbye till next time :-)
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