David O. Russell continues establishing himself as a top name in mainstream prestige fare with Joy, albeit in a different direction compared to his last three features. The Fighter, Silver Linings Playbook and American Hustle showed off Russell’s strengths when it came to working with ensembles, whereas Joy prefers to keep its focus on one character. That means a more streamlined narrative compared to, say, American Hustle, although Russell’s own formula since his career’s resurgence is still here, even if it doesn’t cast as wide of a net. So it shouldn’t come as a surprise that Joy is a rather simple and entertaining film, a biopic of sorts that works best when seen as a strange, unique and slightly true success story.

In a clear case of not fixing what isn’t broken, Russell works with Jennifer Lawrence yet again in her biggest role for him to date. Inspired by the true story of Joy Mangano, inventor of the Miracle Mop and other successful household items, the film starts with Joy (Lawrence) bearing the burden of her needy family. Joy’s mother Terry (Virginia Madsen) stays in bed all day watching soap operas, and her ex-husband Tony (Edgar Ramirez) lives in the basement. Joy’s grandmother Mimi (Diane Ladd) takes care of Joy and Tony’s two children while she works whatever jobs she can to pay the bills, including helping out the business run by her father Rudy (Robert De Niro) and half-sister Peggy (Elisabeth Rohm). On top of all this, Joy can’t shake her own disappointment in not pursuing her dreams of inventing.

It’s only when Rudy starts dating the wealthy Trudy (Isabella Rossellini) that Joy seizes on the opportunity to see her idea of the Miracle Mop through. It’s in this early section of the film that Russell leans on the familial elements that made The Fighter and Silver Linings Playbook so successful. Joy’s family oscillates between being a support and a weight for her, with their individual idiosyncrasies either providing a funny narrative detour or an obstacle to Joy achieving her goals. Russell sometimes likes to start a new scene with only Joy before bringing in her family to overpower the proceedings (at one point Russell frames a meeting between Joy and Trudy as a one-on-one before revealing her friends and family surrounding them in the same room). Russell never goes so far as to paint Joy’s immediate family as villains in the story, understanding the complexities of blood relations. For instance: when Joy complains about needing a good sleep, her family’s response is to feed her a bottle of children’s cough syrup while she lays down on the stairs. They’re not malicious people so much as their best intentions do more harm than good.

The specificity of Joy’s family and experiences goes a long way to helping Russell establish that Joy should not be taken as some sort of symbol for the American dream in action. At first blush, Mangano’s tale does come across as an ideal example of working hard to make one’s own success, but in this film’s reality (Russell embellishes a lot of facts, and not enough is publicly known about Mangano to know just how accurate some of the film’s events are) it’s too bizarre and specific to be taken that way. It’s only when Joy winds up at QVC that a station executive (Bradley Cooper, acting like Russell called him in as a favour to take advantage of his and Lawrence’s on-screen chemistry) starts hammering home the virtues of America as a land of opportunity. The fact that these themes get delivered around artificial sets within giant, empty spaces is probably not a coincidence.

If anything, Russell’s film is more of a celebration of individual resolve. Joy faces constant rejection over her ideas, but she never doubts her own instincts about her mop having the potential to be successful. Russell’s script vindicates Joy through a simple and clever move: the narrative always advances because of a decision Joy makes on her own. Her decision to use Trudy as an investor gets the mop made, her decision to go on TV to sell the Miracle Mop herself gets people to buy it in record numbers, and in the film’s anticlimactic final act—an attempt at a climactic confrontation that fizzles out as quickly as it’s introduced—Joy’s acting entirely on her own. Still, watching Lawrence (who turns in another great performance, although her youth gets the best of her in a clunky flash forward) seize control of her dreams from the hands of those trying to pilfer off of them is fun to watch, and Russell’s unwavering commitment to highlighting her self-earned achievements make it all the more effective.

What if we took a love triangle between Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, and Rachel McAdams, threw in some John Krasinski, and then situated everything on the island of Hawaii?

Could it indeed get any better than this? The new trailer for Cameron Crowe’s Aloha has just been released and we say, actually, yes. Yes it does. And their names are Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin.

Bradley Cooper plays a disgraced weapons consultant who is called in for a special operation in Hawaii, giving him a chance for redemption, new (or old?) love, and reclaiming the name he had once made for himself there. Emma Stone is the soldier assigned to guide and guard him (from himself, mainly) and Rachel McAdams plays the love-torn ex trying to find contentment in her own reclaimed life as wife of John Krasinski and mother of 2. Bill Murray and Alec Baldwin are the two opposing bosses of said military and contracting companies with vastly dissimilar leadership tactics.

Columbia Pictures’ Aloha is set to be released in theaters on May 29, 2015.

Over four tours of duty during the Iraq War, Navy SEAL Chris Kyle became the most legendary sniper in U.S. history, racking up 160 kills (earning him the fitting nickname “Legend” among his fellow soldiers). Clint Eastwood‘s haunting  American Sniper at first chronicles the damage Kyle (played by a bulked-up, Southern twangy Bradley Cooper) inflicts upon enemies centered in the scope of his rifle, playing out like a slightly less-suspenseful Hurt Locker. But as the film drifts into its second half, it does something better than Hurt Locker did: we see the damage those 160 kills have on Kyle’s psyche, as Eastwood’s ground combat thriller transforms into a riveting paranoia piece and an intimate cautionary tale about the dehumanizing and mentally deteriorative effects of the horrors of the battlefield.

Cooper at first plays Kyle (who died before the film’s completion) like a big, burly bundle of stereotypes; he’s a beer-swiggin’ rodeo cowboy, a Southern charmer (we see him pick up dubious girl at a bar, Taya, played by Sienna Miller, later his wife), and a bigoted patriot (he calls Iraqis “savages”). He’s the poster child for down-home Americana, but what’s interesting about Kyle is how all of these traits inform his role as a sniper. We follow him from the moment he enlists in the military, and what’s immediately evident is that his single-minded dedication to his country makes him perfect behind the rifle; his scope is as unshakeable and narrow as his worldview and patriotism.

The series of raids, gunfights, and rooftop stakeouts that make up the first half of the movie are well-made, if a bit repetitive. Several times we see Kyle line up victims in his sights as the question of “to kill or not to kill” chews up his insides. Cooper is fantastic at communicating the unbearable weight of playing god with people’s lives; on two separate occasions he’s finds a child at the end of his barrel. He spares one, pulls the trigger on the other. He trembles and holds back tears for both. A somewhat overarching narrative eventually emerges about a deadly street boss called “The Butcher” and an Iraqi sniper with skills that rival Kyle’s, but the truth of the matter is, everything we see in Iraq is ultimately only meant to set up the real meat of the story, which is what we see when Kyle returns home to Taya and his son.

Eastwood and Cooper’s depiction of post-traumatic stress disorder is superb; back at the Kyle household we see the war-torn soldier sitting in front of his TV, staring blankly at the screen as people bustle in the backyard for his young son’s birthday party. Eastwood cuts to behind Kyle’s back to reveal that the TV is, in fact, not even turned on. It’s a chilling image of a lost soul dismantled. Late in the film we see a massive dust storm  swallowing the streets of Fallujah, an injured Kyle racing to catch up with his comrades as they speed away in a Humvee. In a jaw-dropping shot from the perspective of the vehicle we see Kyle desperately reaching his arm out to his friends, barely visible in the dark cloud of dust. His humanity is hanging by a thread, nearly swallowed up by the void. The effect Kyle’s four tours have on his family isn’t handled as well. The film is told exclusively from his perspective, so while his high anxiety is expressed incredibly well cinematically, Taya’s anguish is communicated through rote dialogue about her husband not really being there, even when he’s present in the household.

As in Letters from Iwo Jima and Flags of Our Fathers, Eastwood explores the complexities and ambiguities of violence and the toll taking lives takes on the mind. Avoided are the intricacies of war politics; this is a story about one soldier, what he did and what he saw. The biggest thing Eastwood and screenwriter Jason Hall get right is how honest they are about the more unflattering aspects of Kyle’s character. He’s portrayed in a less than flattering light quite often, though his heroism is beyond question by the end of the film.

But American Sniper questions popular ideas about heroism in interesting ways most military movies don’t. While Kyle’s brothers in his platoon praise him as a hero for thinning enemy numbers, he clearly isn’t proud about that accomplishment; those 160 lives follow him around every day. What’s heroic about Kyle is his refusal to lose himself completely. Prior to his death last year, he had rebuilt himself to where he could be an attentive, loving father and husband, and even offered his services to aid fellow veterans in need of mental rehabilitation themselves. Tragically, Kyle’s life was taken by one of the veterans he was trying to help, a moment we don’t see on screen in good taste.

Originally published on Dec. 23, 2014.

Though we are only a few months away from the Holiday film season, it’s still a pretty foggy picture on which films will be the biggest contenders for this year’s Oscars. Films like Into the Woods and Gone Girl may be considered favorites at this point, but the wide-open field just got another wildcard with Clint Eastwood‘s American Sniper, as it was recently announced that the film will open on Christmas Day.

Though Eastwood hasn’t directed a film that was nominated for Best Picture since 2007’s Letters from Iwo Jima, American Sniper may reverse that trend. His return to the war genre stars Bradley Cooper as real-life Navy SEAL Chris Kyle, whose long military career included 150 confirmed kills, the most in American military history. Based on Kyle’s memoir, the film will most certainly play as a riveting epic with human interest appeal.

With the Christmas release, it should not only get the attention of awards voters, but also audiences — paired against comedies Hot Tub Time Machine 2, The Interview and family films Into the Woods and Paddington, it will fill the blockbuster slot on the schedule.

Most people–hell, most comic book readers–have little to no knowledge of the Guardians of the Galaxy, a team of misfit, cosmic Marvel superheroes introduced in print in 1969. James Gunn, the director of Marvel Studios’ film adaptation of the D-list franchise, has a similar level of notoriety, with his work (Slither, Super) mostly only familiar to indie and indie-horror geeks. Why would Marvel take such a risk, dumping millions of dollars into producing a movie with minimal name recognition?

Well, let’s look at it from this angle: What if all of the scumbag bounty hunters, smugglers, and monstrous brutes from Star Wars got their own movie? What if you infused it with the attitudinal, irreverent humor from the first Iron Man movie, cranked up to 11? And what if you slapped on a bitchin’ ’70s soundtrack on top of it all, just for the hell of it? That’s Gunn’s film in a nutshell, and it’s totally awesome, off-the-wall, sci-fi fun. Marvel knew they had a gem on their hands, and with Guardians of the Galaxy they’ve unleashed on us a hell of a good time at the movies. And a talking tree. And a talking raccoon. And Chris Pratt’s abs.

Pratt plays Peter Quill, an earthling abducted as a child in the ’80s who now thieves, gets laid, and causes a general ruckus across the galaxy in his spaceship, the Milano (named after Gunn’s childhood crush, Alyssa Milano). We meet Quill (or Star-Lord, a self-appointed moniker he desperately hopes will catch on) in treasure-hunter mode, looking to loot a mysterious sphere from a tomb on a seemingly deserted, dusty alien planet. He navigates the rocky terrain with some clumsy of rocket shoes, a bug-like space mask, and his trusty Walkman, which cues Redbone’s “Come and Get Your Love”, the first of the film’s many retro-tastic tunes only Gunn has the cajones to blanket a multi-million dollar movie in. In an homage to Raiders of the Lost Ark, Quill steals the sphere, eludes laser-toting baddies, hops back into the Milano, where he’s startled by a drowsy one-night-stand he forgot spent the night. Whoops.

Quill bands together with all manner of galactic riffraff to protect the sphere from warmonger Ronan the Accuser, the film’s dark, creepy big-bad played by an imposing Lee Pace who has evil intentions of using the thing to destroy the planet Xandar. Quill’s band of outcasts are Gamora (Zoe Saldana), the green-skinned, badass daughter of Thanos, the biggest villain in the galaxy; Drax the Destroyer (hulking WWE alumni Dave Bautista), who’s hellbent on avenging the death of his family at the hands of Ronan; Rocket (Bradley Cooper), a genetically engineered talking Raccoon with a heavy-artillery fetish and a Joe Pesci temper, and his amiable tree-creature BFF, Groot (voiced by Vin Diesel).

Pratt is the absolute right man for the job, with the film’s subversive, witty material playing precisely to his strengths. Fans of his work in Parks and Recreation are guaranteed Guardians ticket-buyers, and they won’t be disappointed. Diesel and Cooper (with great help from the talented visual effects team) make Rocket and Groot an irresistibly lovable on-screen duo, and almost steal the show altogether. Bautista surprisingly hangs right in there with his more experienced cast mates, drawing just as many laughs with Drax’s lack of capacity for sarcasm and metaphor. Saldana often gets lost in the noise, as the other Guardians’ unique, colorful personalities make the more conventionally sketched Gomora feel a little stale.

Guardians is refreshingly detached from Marvel’s flood of Avengers movies (though it does technically exist in the same universe), offering up an edgier, funnier brand of superhero action. The film feels even more like Star Wars than J.J. Abrams’ 2009 Star Trek reboot did, delivering big-time adventure while being thoughtful enough to highlight the well-written core-character relationships above all else. The action is sufficiently epic and more brutal than any Marvel movie before, with even the good-natured Groot doling out heaping helpings of bone-crushing violence. (A scene in which the gentle giant pulverizes a group of hapless grunts mirrors Hulk smashing up Loki in Avengers, but gets an even bigger laugh.)

Gunn does a great job of preserving his wacky indie sensibilities and incorporating them seamlessly into a giant, crowd-pleasing blockbuster film, a feat that takes more finesse than his Troma-boy resume may lead you to believe he’s capable of. While it isn’t as out-there as Slither or Super, Guardians feels like a Gunn film through and through.

The film hits a few tonal stumbles along the way, with the heavier dramatic scenes between the core characters feeling slightly out of place. (A tortured existential outburst by Rocket feels the most awkward, though it’s effectively acted by Cooper and the animators.) The myriad supporting characters–Glenn Close as the leader of Nova Corps, Xandar’s police force; John C. Reilly as a Nova Corps officer; Benicio Del Toro, in a brief appearance as the Liberace-like Collector–are good fun, though they’re too great in number for any to make a lasting impression. Michael Rooker’s Yondu, Quill’s venomous abductor and adopted father figure, sticks out amongst the supporters with his wicked volitility.

Visually, Gunn and DP Ben Davis use every color of the rainbow to give Guardians a distinctive sci-fi look, with each detailed environment looking more imaginative than the last. This is an oddball movie that’s as funny as Galaxy Quest and as thrilling as any Marvel movie that’s come before, and it’s cause for excitement for the futures of both Marvel Studios and Gunn’s career.

Guardians of the Galaxy trailer

Well we can thank the Best Supporting Actress category for giving us some sense of competition. Best Supporting Actor is one of the few categories in this race that’s set in stone. Jared Leto, who plays an AIDS-infected transgender woman in Dallas Buyers Club, goes through a physical transformation that’s just as dramatic as Matthew McConaughey’s in the film. Leto is excellent in Dallas Buyers Club, and by now the Oscar is his to lose.

Personally speaking, out of the five performances it was Jonah Hill’s in Wolf of Wall Street that surprised me the most. For a 3 hour film about pure excess, and the most over the top performance in Leonardo DiCaprio’s career, it was Hill who turned out to be the glue that held the film together. He repeatedly stole scenes from DiCaprio and plenty of other great actors, and provided the film’s biggest laughs throughout. It’s the kind of role that will establish Hill as a true talent, and help him step out of the shadow of his more famous friends in the Apatow clan.

As for the others…Michael Fassbender is great at playing the horrendously evil Epps in 12 Years A Slave, but it’s too one-note when he’s in a field of more multifaceted performances. Barkhad Abdi gets the “happy to be here” nomination slot for his debut role in Captain Phillips. Abdi’s rise from limo driver to Oscar nominated actor makes for a great story, but he doesn’t have a chance at getting near the stage on Oscar night. And in all honesty, I completely forgot about Bradley Cooper getting nominated for American Hustle. He’s not bad (I think he did a much better job in The Place Beyond The Pines, but that’s just me), it’s just a slight performance in a slight film.

It’s tough to pick one actor who should have been nominated. I think it was a great year for comedic performances, with James Franco in Spring Breakers and The Rock in Pain & Gain being highlights (also severely under-appreciated: Danny McBride in This is the End). Ultimately, I decided to go with Keith Stanfield in Short Term 12, who felt like a real discovery this year. His arc as troubled teen Marcus is the best thing about the film, and he brings such a quiet intensity to the role that a separate film could have easily been dedicated to his character.

Category Predictions

Best Supporting Actor Nominees

Barkhad Abdi – Captain Phillips (review)

Bradley Cooper – American Hustle (review)

Michael Fassbender – 12 Years a Slave (review)

Jonah Hill – The Wolf of Wall Street

Jared Leto – Dallas Buyers Club (review)

Previous Category Analysis

Best Shorts
Best Supporting Actress

For American Hustle, David O. Russell assembles a cast largely comprised from his previous two crowd pleasing films, Christian Bale and Amy Adams from 2010’s The Fighter, and Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence from 2012’s Silver Linings Playbook. His cast selection proves to be a winning formula as the most pleasing aspect of the film is the superb acting. Because the film features con artists at work it is easy to anticipate the lies on top of lies procedure, therefore, the love triangle that forms between the three leads becomes the real emphasis of the story. Regardless of being able to predict what will happen before it does, American Hustle is still a ride despite its many shortcomings.

The film begins circa 1978 at the Plaza Hotel in New York City as an overweight man named Irving Rosenfeld (Christian Bale) is seen gluing hair on his head in an attempt disguise himself as the con-artist he truly is. Irving recalls being surrounded by shady schemes all of his life—first one involved breaking store windows as a youngster because his dad owned a glass business. Since then he has dabbled into a wide range of schemes from stealing art pieces to running a dry-cleaning store that does more than just launder clothes. His partner in crime as well as love is the dashing Sydney Prosser (Amy Adams), who exudes just as much confidence and wit as Irving, only without the comically bad hairdo.

Just as the duo begins to hit their stride in scams the undercover FBI agent Richie DiMaso (Bradley Cooper) busts them red-handed. In exchange for prison time Richie offers them a deal if they can setup a sting to catch four high profile targets. Their biggest target is the beloved yet corrupt mayor Carmine Polito (Jeremy Renner), who sometimes does shady things for good reasons. Everything goes to plan until Irving’s wife Rosalyn Rosenfeld (Jennifer Lawrence) threatens to ruin the plot by running her loud mouth.

American Hustle’s breezy pacing makes the runtime feel half as long, but also makes the out of focus structure even more noticeable. The hard part is telling whether or not it was Russell’s intention to make such an inconsistent film. For seemingly no reason the camera will zoom in on a body part or apply a tracking shot when movement is not necessary. Often the music works brilliantly as a companion to what is happening on the screen, but then there is the out of place “Live and Let Die” sing-along that falls completely flat. The film asks whether it is the original painter or the counterfeiter who is the true master, and it is that fine line that the film itself walks on.

Although most people are likely to remember Lawrence’s flashy and loud performance, it is Adams more understated role that is most impressive. Adams convinces the audience to continuously change their minds on what side she is really on—sometimes faithful to Bale’s character and other times overly flirtatious with Cooper. The one thing all characters share in common is neither one of them have many redeeming qualities.

The individual parts that make up American Hustle work well on their own right, but do not fit seamlessly when assembled together. There are times where the comedy works, the characters are engaging, the cinematography is purposeful, and the soundtrack fits; though it is rare that any of them occur at the same time. The final reveal is remarkably simple considering the layering of lies involved within the film. But despite the overall messiness of the arrangement, American Hustle remains watchable thanks to the wonderful acting performances.

American Hustle trailer

It would be easy to mistake The Place Beyond the Pines as a sequel to Drive as this film also stars Ryan Gosling as a stuntman turned getaway driver who is a soft-spoken badass that beats people with hardware tools. But I am here to tell you that The Place Beyond the Pines is not what you think it is; in more ways than one. Derek Cianfrance makes some interesting storyline decisions that I would consider spoilers if they were revealed, therefore, I will offer nothing more in this review than what the trailer does.

The Place Beyond the Pines contains of one of the best opening scenes that I have witnessed in some time. We see Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) without his shirt which exposes his fully tattooed body as he flips his butterfly knife back and forth. Still continuing in the same shot, he grabs his jacket, steps out of his trailer and walks through the buzzing sounds and bright flashing lights of carnival rides. The camera follows behind the bleach blond haired man while he lights up a cigarette and walks to the opposite end of the carnival up to a large tent. People are congregated outside and are eager to take his photo as he walks by. Just as he enters the tent an announcer introduces the motorcycle stuntman over the loudspeaker. When he reaches his bike we finally see his face for the first time, it also features a tattoo. Luke fastens his helmet before he and two others ride their bikes into a large metal ball cage and proceed to ride their bikes at top speeds past each other. All of the above had to be choreographed and perfectly timed as it happens in one continuous shot, lasting nearly a full three minutes.

Working as part of the traveling carnival brings Luke to Schenectady, New York where he runs into an old flame, Romina (Eva Mendes). It has been a year since they last saw each other and a lot has happened since. Romina is now dating another guy but the bigger news, as Luke soon discovers, is that she now has a three-month-old boy, and it is his. When Luke realizes that he cannot be a part of his son’s life, he at least feels obligated to provide for his son. The only problem is that his motorcycle stunts earn him more fans than it does income.

While blazing through a wooded trail on his dirt bike, Luke winds up meeting a mechanic named Robin (Ben Mendelsohn) who offers him a job fixing engines and a place to stay. Their friendship grows quickly but Luke’s bank account is not growing at that same rate. Robin feels bad that he does not have the amount of work Luke wishes in order to provide for his son. So he throws out a wild suggestion that even the thrill-seeking biker has to laugh at, which is to rob a bank. But Robin is not kidding around. He explains that he has done it four times in the past with success and knows he can do it again with Luke’s driving skills. The two will have to be clever to outwit the New York Police Department, especially the ambitious cop named Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).

The Place Beyond the Pines feels like three separate films, each containing their own set of main characters, yet all remain connected at the same time. The first act is absolutely heart-pounding. It is focused entirely on Luke’s character and results in several armed bank robberies followed by high-speed pursuits. But then the film pumps its brakes and shifts its focus on the opposite side of the law for the second act. Avery ends up discovering that his own police department is corrupt and must decide whether to expose them or not. I will not even go into what the third act is about, just because it is better to experience it yourself firsthand.

One thing that I found particularly interesting is that everything in The Place Beyond the Pines has justification. The man who is robbing these banks is not doing it for self-gain, he is doing it to care for his infant son. Even the corrupt police department hints some of the shady acts are done for the greater good; such as when they plan to use some of the drug evidence from one case to catch drug criminals on another.

As a whole, the acting performances were all stunning. What may come as a shock to a lot of people is that the most impressive performance was not from Gosling, but rather from Cooper. Granted, Gosling gave a solid performance himself, but Cooper stood out as a smart cop who is stuck having to make difficult moral decisions. Mendelsohn did not have a particularly huge role yet he still managed to be a memorable character as a goofy and over-friendly mechanic. Eva Mendes and Ray Liotta are also good as they both tend to be.

For a film that is nearly two and half hours long, The Place Beyond the Pines seems to fly by. It lures you in with a heart-pounding beginning, keeps you guessing during the middle, and has you on the edge of your seat at the end. The film is a crime epic about how a single split second decision can have life lasting consequences. With the fantastic cinematography by Sean Bobbitt and a score that perfectly sets the unsettling tone of the film, The Place Beyond the Pines stands out as one of the better films of the year so far.

The upcoming film from the director of Blue Valentine, which also stars Ryan Gosling, looks as if he has another emotionally powerful story on his hands. The Place Beyond the Pines explores the bond between fathers and sons as a traveling motorcycle stunt man (Ryan Gosling) attempts to reconnect with his former lover (Eva Mendes) who gave birth to their child unbeknownst to him. At the same time, an opportunity that he cannot pass up arises that has him running from the law.

Way Too Indie is giveaway: a T-Shirt, the Official Soundtrack of The Place Beyond the Pines, and a Poster to two (2) winners.

How do you enter the giveaway?

Simply email me (dustin AT waytooindie.com) your favorite Ryan Gosling film.

Make sure to follow us on Twitter and Facebook for the latest on independent movie reviews.

Details on The Place Beyond the Pines:

Release Date: March 29, 2013
Nationwide Release: April 12, 2013
Genre: Drama
Directed by: Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine)
Written by: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Mahershala Ali, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Ben Mendelsohn, Ray Liotta
#BeyondthePines

Watch the trailer of The Place Beyond the Pines:

Details of Official Soundtrack for The Place Beyond the Pines:

Mike Patton, American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist best known as the lead singer of the alternative metal/experimental rock band Faith No More delivers a sweeping and brooding score. Like a red thread, his music guides the audience through this multi-generational story often linking characters and locations.

In addition to Mike’s score, the album features an eclectic selection of music by the likes of Vladimir Ivanoff (Miserere Mei), Arvo Park (Fratres), Bon Iver (The Wolves), and Ennio Morricone (Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri), among others.

Track Listing
1. Schenectady
2. Family Trees
3. Bromance
4. Forest of Conscience
5. Beyond the Pines
6. Evergreen
7. Misremembering
8. Sonday
9. Coniferae
10. Eclipse of the Son
11. The Snow Angel
12. Handsome Luke
13. Please Stay – The Cryin’ Shames
14. Miserere Mei – Vladimir Ivanoff
15. Fratres for Strings and Percussion – Arvo Part
16. Ninna Nanna Per Adulteri – Ennio Morricone
17. The Wolves (Act I and II) – Bon Iver

Movie poster for The Place Beyond the Pines:

We are a mere 36 days until the official winners are announced at the 2013 Independent Spirit Awards, so I will offer my predictions of who the winners will be this year. Last year my predictions were pretty solid, with an roughly 70% accuracy I correctly predicted 9 of the 13 unannounced awards. Unlike last year’s juggernaut The Artist, I believe this year there are two films that could both easily win the top awards. Both Beasts of the Southern Wild and Silver Linings Playbook stand good chances of being winners, making the predictions more difficult this year. I predict that Beasts of the Southern Wild will win the top two awards while Silver Linings Playbook cleans up the top acting awards. In addition to picking the winners for each category, I explain the reasoning behind my picks in detail under the categories.

Watch IFC on Saturday, February 23rd to see how my predictions hold up.

2013 Independent Spirit Award Predictions:

(My prediction for the winners are highlighted in bold red font)

Beasts of the Southern Wild
Bernie
Keep The Lights On
Moonrise Kingdom
Silver Linings Playbook

Wes Anderson – Moonrise Kingdom
Julia Loktev – The Loneliest Planet
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs – Keep The Lights On
Benh Zeitlin – Beasts of the Southern Wild

Fill The Void – Rama Burshtein
Gimme The Loot – Adam Leon
Safety Not Guaranteed – Colin Trevorrow
Sound of My Voice – Zal Batmanglij
The Perks Of Being A Wallflower – Stephen Chobsky

Jack Black – Bernie
Bradley Cooper – Silver Linings Playbook
John Hawkes – The Sessions
Thure Lindhart – Keep The Lights On
Matthew McConaughey – Killer Joe
Wendell Pierce – Four

Linda Cardellini – Return
Emayatzy Corinealdi – Middle of Nowhere
Jennifer Lawrence – Silver Linings Playbook
Quvenzhane Wallis – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Mary E. Winstead – Smashed

Matthew McConaughey – Magic Mike
David Oyelowo – Middle of Nowhere
Michael Pena – End of Watch
Sam Rockwell – Seven Psychopaths
Bruce Willis – Moonrise Kingdom

Rosemarie DeWitt – Your Sister’s Sister
Ann Dowd – Compliance
Helen Hunt – The Sessions
Brit Marling – Sound of My Voice
Lorraine Toussaint – Middle of Nowhere

Breakfast With Curtis – Laura Colella
Middle of Nowhere – Ava DuVernay
Mosquita y Mari – Aurora Guerrero
Starlet – Sean Baker
The Color Wheel – Alex Ross Perry

How To Survive A Plague – David France
Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present – Matthew Akers
The Central Park Five – Ken Burns, Sarah Burns, David McMahon
The Invisible War – Kirby Dick
The Waiting Room – Peter Nicks

Amour – Michael Haneke
Once Upon A Time In Anatolia – Nuri Bilge Ceylan
Rust and Bone – Jacques Audiard
Sister – Ursula Meier
War Witch – Kim Nguyen

Yoni Brook – Valley Of Saints
Lol Crawley – Here
Ben Richardson – Beasts of the Southern Wild
Roman Vasyanov – End of Watch
Robert Yeoman – Moonrise Kingdom

Wes Anderson and Roman Coppola – Moonrise Kingdom
Zoe Kazan – Ruby Sparks
Martin McDonagh – Seven Psychopaths
David O. Russell – Silver Linings Playbook
Ira Sachs and Mauricio Zacharias – Keep The Lights On

Rama Burshtein – Fill The Void
Derek Connolly – Safety Not Guaranteed
Christopher Ford – Robot & Frank
Jonathan Lisecki – Gayby
Rashida Jones and Will McCormack – Celeste and Jesse Forever

After premiering (and receiving a relatively warm reception) at TIFF in September, we really haven’t heard much about Derek Cianfrance’s new film, The Place Beyond the Pines. Some wondered what would come of the film. A couple months back the studio releasing the film, Focus Features, announced that it would see theaters near the end of March.

I personally saw this as a meaning that the film wasn’t as strong as some once thought. Well now we have a full length trailer and boy does it look to be an emotional experience. The film stars Ryan Gosling as a motorcycle stunt man who starts committing robbery’s to support his family. On the other side of the coin is a cop played by Bradley Cooper whose looks to take him down.

Cianfrance was last seen with the emotionally wrought drama Blue Valentine (also starring Gosling). By the end of that film, it felt like my heart had been ripped out and stepped on. This looks to have the same emotional impact. The film also stars Rose Byrne, Eva Mendes, Bruce Greenwood and Ray Liotta. Check out the trailer below.

Watch the official trailer for The Place Beyond the Pines:

David O. Russell continues his transformation into a mainstream prestige director with Silver Linings Playbook, an enjoyable crowd-pleaser that puts 2012’s other romantic comedies to shame. Russell’s transition from fare like Three Kings and I Heart Huckabees is not necessarily a bad thing either. Just as The Fighter breathed new life into a standard sports drama, Silver Linings Playbook tweaks its genre’s formula enough to make the usual trappings feel fresh again.

The movie opens with Pat Solitano (Bradley Cooper) being released from a psychiatric ward. Eight months earlier he caught his wife sleeping with a co-worker and nearly beat the man to death, a manic episode that got him diagnosed as being bipolar. Now living with his parents (Jacki Weaver and Robert De Niro), Pat spends his time trying to find a way to win back his wife despite her putting out a restraining order against him. As Pat’s attempts to control his condition increasingly fail, he’s introduced to Tiffany (Jennifer Lawrence), a young widow. Everyone around Pat and Tiffany seems to be forcing the two of them together, hoping that they can bond over their collective mental troubles, and despite a rocky start they soon form a friendship.

Russell, who also wrote the screenplay (an adaptaion of Matthew Quick’s novel), spends the first act showing Pat’s attempt to transition back into a normal life. Things quickly turn sour as Pat refuses to take medication and, as he realizes how dire the situation with his wife is, the optimistic philosophy of finding life’s silver linings is constantly challenged. Pat’s violent outbursts, coupled with his sincere optimism quickly make him a character worth rooting for. Once Tiffany is finally brought into the picture, with the two of them hilariously swapping medication stories at a dinner party, her presence feels like a relief.

It’s these sorts of alterations to the formulaic romantic comedy that makes Silver Linings Playbook stand out. Pat and Tiffany’s coupling feels necessary for the both of them to overcome their individual problems, and Cooper and Lawrence’s sympathetic performances along with their excellent chemistry easily sell this idea. The supporting cast only continues to show how Russell’s greatest strength as a writer and director is the way he infuses a sense of naturalism into the characters. Everyone in the film, from De Niro as Cooper’s superstitious sports-obsessed father to Chris Tucker as a psych ward patient who constantly tries to escape, feel like well-rounded and likable characters. By making everybody so enjoyable to watch, the more clichéd elements of the plot aren’t as noticeable and easy to forgive.

There are plenty of other unique touches throughout Silver Linings Playbook. An expected twist late in the second act is surprisingly subverted in one of the film’s more inspired choices. Russell also likes to throw in a few neat ideas, my favourite being a rushed tracking shot on anyone who encounters Pat that looks more appropriate for a horror movie. Fans of Russell’s earlier films might lament his new career path as him selling out, but doing so doesn’t give him enough credit. His work is still subversive, but now it’s getting him better results.