Review: "The Place Beyond the Pines"

This review was originally published in my weekly column at Towleroad

Handsome Luke at the Fairgrounds

The opening shot from THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES, is a stunner. And not only because it starts with a view of a well-muscled and inked masculine torso. The camera follows the man (we don't see his face) as he paces back and forth, plays with a knife and then walks through a fairground where he turns heads and prompts amateur snapshots. Finally the camera catches his face. It's "Handsome Luke" (Ryan Gosling), a daredevil motorcylist about to defy death and gravity in a round metal cage. As soon as we've seen 'Handsome Gosling,' though, Luke throws a motorcyle helmet on depriving us of his Movie Star mug and enters the cage to perform miraculous stunts. As I recall there aren't any edits in this shot and I have no idea how it was filmed unless Ryan Gosling moonlights as a stuntman in addition to his many many other talents (like naming his body parts, and inspiring hilarious fandom and popular internet memes).

This lengthy continuous shot with its 'now you see him, now you don't' movie-star tease is a pretty apt description of the movie to come which is something of a bait-and-switch with a prominent throughline. [more]

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Posterized: Ryan Gosling

This, the Ryan Gosling edition of Posterized, has the cleanest trajectory of any I've done. It's like Young Hercules never put a foot wrong once he left minor teen success on tv for the movies at 20. It's just one steady climb up to superstardom: the showy debuts, the solidifying his rep years, the Oscar nominated and populist breakthroughs and then on to superstardom in 2011.

Hey girl, how many have you seen?

Young Hercules (1998-1999) | Remember the Titans (2000) |
The Believer (2001, Spirit Nom)
Who Was That?

15 More Films & The Gosling Ascendance after the jump...

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Link Be a Lady Tonight

Film.com Excellent piece on the online coverage of Lynne Ramsay's no-show on Jane Got a Gun. There's just so much default anti-woman rhetoric online. Crazy that this rarely ever improves.
Slant Magazine Our friend Kurt recently visited Las Vegas and its glorious gawdy movie memories came with
AV Club Might HBO let people buy HBO Go without a cable subscription? That's such a good idea. A ton of people I know have dropped cable (too expensive) altogether since they use their computers more than their TVs. I would if I could, too.
Film.com strong list of 50 best opening sequences in movies ever. Love the inclusion of Cabaret, La Dolce Vita, and Manhattan. Bonus points: you don't have to click 50 times or even 5 to see the whole list.

MovieLine the opening credits of Oz: The Great and Powerful. I knew these would show up soon. Best part of the movie, easily showcasing charm, creativity, and wit.
CHUD "Hey girl... NO GIRL, PUT DOWN THE GUN!" Ryan Gosling is quitting acting for awhile
Empire Robert Redford could join the Marvel Universe starting with Captain America 2. (He would'a made such a great Captain America back in the 60s)
Timothy Brayton adss another toughtful thumbs up review to No's increasingly large critical pile. Seriously, what are you waiting for? Best movie of 2013 thus far. 
Coming Soon Wentworth Miller conitnues on as a screenwriter post Stoker. He'll adapt the thriller novel Scare Me. 

Art & Toons
Wimp.com a really amazing video about early animation process at Fleischer Studios. It's so crazy how much factory like manpower and technical innovation went in to things that are so computerized now.
i09 a neat very short animated cartoon on Marvel iconography from X-Men to Captain America

And... How webcomix make money, illustrated with 8 bit animation - thanks to Drawn for pointing it out

Happy Oscar Eve!

Is this really happening?"
-Anne Hathaway winning the Golden Globe 

Yes, yes it (finally) is. The Oscars are less than 36 hours away. Eeeee! I'm SO eager for this film year to be over but I'm also just so excited for the Oscar ceremony. It's not that I'm a Seth MacFarlane fan -- the choice of host is always one of my areas of least interest -- but that so many categories are genuine cliff-hangers. Particularly these six (adapted screenplay, production design, supporting actor, director, and both sound categories!). Wheeeee

I was trying to finish up my own awardage but now I'm being yanked away by CNN International for an Oscar segment later this afternoon (stage fright!) so while I make a damn fool of myself talking Foreign Film please to enjoy these links and this video in my absence.

links 4 fun
ABC Australia I did a little segment on Oscar Acceptance Speeches with their host Julian Morrow. 
The Playlist shameless Ben Affleck-related product placement 
Movie Dearest wonders what the Best Picture nominees would have been like in another era. Madonna as Fantine. HEE!
Deadline in 50 years time will Oscars 2012 still look as rich and argument worthy as Oscars 1962?

Today's Must Watch
Ryan Gosling getting embarrassed and giggly when he sees his own face on dish towels...

What Should Ryan Gosling Spend All This Cash On?

Suggest some purchases in the comments... Just don't say "a shirt" because no one needs Gosling to wear those! What would we do without his "pets"?

I'm posting this picture from the upcoming The Place Beyond The Pines because they've cut this scene from the film so memorize it now while you still have the chance. The movie was 140 minutes long at TIFF last year so I'm wondering if anything else was trimmed.

Ooh, I have a suggestion for what he should buy. A new poster for the movie because the one I've embedded after the jump leaves a lot to be desired.

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