The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

The Place Beyond the Pines was released into the world way back in spring of this year, a kind of dramatic epic that sprawls across its 140 minute runtime incorporating three distinct acts and time periods. The first sees Ryan Gosling in his usual reticent role choosing to look stay in Schenectady to watch over his son Jason, who lives with mother Eva Mendes. But he approaches the issue of financial support in a demonstrably non-lawful manner and is shot by the policeman Bradley Cooper, who is subsequently wracked with guilt. Cooper has a son called AJ, the same age as Jason. The third act concerns their volatile, dysfunctional friendship which is ignorant of the morbid connection between their respective father's.

Director Derek Cianfrance (who also co-wrote) has constructed a very tender story set in rural town America spanning nearly two decades, infusing the stories with effervescent cinematography (by Sean Bobbitt who I am a big fan of) that furnishes every image with a staccato pungency that bristles with colour, life, deliberation, spectacle and a soundtrack that, with the aid of Suicide and Bruce Springsteen and Salem, reaffirms that.

Gosling's Luke Glanton is a stuntman attached to an itinerant circus with a talent for motorcycles, though he's limited in other areas like subtlety and job prospects; the responsibility of a son is thrust upon him by Mendes, a local girl from Schenedactady (however the fuck you spell that). Lured by the quick fixes a bank robbery could supply him and his son, Luke with his friend Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) become successful at their heists. Luke goes one job too far. He is face to face with Cooper's Avery Cross and the story is transposed to him. Cianfrance's introduction of Cross is sneaky and well executed, shifting the focus between the two characters in a convincing manner.

Cross becomes a public hero after his exploits against Glanton though he faces moral dilemmascorruption from within his own police force

Those two stories though are, in fundamental terms, the prologues to their teenaged sons Jason and AJ, played by Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen. They're both fucked up druggies with daddy issues and frequent the local police stations though Avery Cross, now an attorney or something, using his political influence to keep an eye on both of them. Self-discovery, good acting and debauched parties ensue and young Jason is left liberated yet stultified with the truth of his father - he disappears to find himself.

Whilst it may be a little length for those with shorter attention spans The Place Beyond the Pines is a very appealing movie, visually - and style is enough to keep me going for hours; in that sense I guess I'm pretty easy to please. But there is a veracity and vigour of content in here that puts a level above other style heavy pictures like Malick's To The Wonder or anything by Carlos Reygadas. I'm sorry for this review being not very good, but I'm just really tired right now. In a conventional sense it's not really finished, but I'm just going to call it postmodern (or metamodern) and publish it anyway. I ducked out a bit on the story because it's an arduous re-telling and spoiler aplenty; there's good stuff on the cinematography though... but then you don't have to like it