It’s been nearly a year since Ryan Gosling’s directorial debut Lost River premiered at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival to mostly negative reviews (including one from Way Too Indie). It’s also been almost a year without many new developments or newly released footage following that bizarre first clip featuring Matt Smith chanting, “Look at my muscles!” over enigmatic images. That dearth of updates came to an end recently, with the announcement of a SXSW screening, an April 10th release date, and the debut of a new trailer for Lost River.

The most striking thing about the trailer to Gosling’s film are those distinctive visuals. Lost River‘s look feels heavily influenced by the actor’s recent work with director Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) although several writers have pointed to Terrence Malick as another reference point for the upcoming movie (Gosling stars in an upcoming Malick project). It’s easy to forget with the star power behind the camera that Lost River features several recognizable faces as well, including Christina Hendricks, Saoirse Ronan, Matt Smith, Ben Mendelsohn, and Gosling’s partner Eva Mendes.

Check out the new trailer & poster for Lost River below:

Lost River trailer

Lost River Movie Poster

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.

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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:

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:

A few writers from Way Too Indie sit down to discuss, analyze and break-down some of the elements found in Holy Motors. This is a film that can be difficult to fully interpret because there are many possible meanings behind what goes on. The purpose of this feature is to present a unique format that is personal, colorful and informative. Reactions from the staff below may contain some spoilers but Holy Motors is a film that is hard to spoil.

Discussion and Analysis of Holy Motors

Holy Motors opens in a theater of unmoving bodies, an unseen film plays. A man wakes in a bed on a boat, uses the key he has in place of a finger and stumbles through the wall into the movie theater as a baby and a dog walk up the aisles. Having established strange as the new normal, it’s a bit easier to accept the rest of this film and it’s so-called “story line”.

The film follows a day in the life of Monsieur Oscar (Denis Lavant), who makes his way around Paris from one “appointment” to the next in a white stretch limo driven by Céline (played gracefully by Edith Scob), his dutiful chauffeur. At each stop, Oscar exits from his limo as someone new. He’s an elderly beggar woman, a motion capture stunt man with sensors illuminating his body, a monstrous kidnapper, a hard-nosed father, a dying old man, a thug sent to assassinate his own doppelganger, and the list continues as Monsieur Oscar’s day is long. We watch Oscar between each appointment reading the file on what he is to be next, grabbing a bite to eat, chatting with Celine and transforming himself for whatever is next on the agenda. ‘Behind and in front of the camera’ become meaningless phrases as our actor prepares, meticulously applying fake hair and rubber masks, and puts himself into his scene, changing his entire persona on a dime. He is woman, he is young, he is old, he is two of himself, he is hideous, and he is handsome.

While Leos Carax’s first feature film in over a decade may be trying to sell itself as an ode to the complexity and multi-dimensions of the art of film, it proves most to be an ode to the man on screen. The actor, who carries out each emotion and holds the story in his hands. Denis Lavant, Carax’s longtime favorite actor and star of most his films, proves that his expert chameleonic abilities are the real subject of this film.

Carax imagines a world where the cameras are always rolling and the actor does not choose his parts, he must be ready to be anything. However, he seems to forget that a film works best when those parts are given context, when we the audience are able to see the evolution of those characters, and our day with Oscar gives us no real insight into his life. The only scene where we may be seeing a moment that is truly just Oscar’s story is when he literally runs into an ex-love, played by Kylie Minogue. She implies they may have had a child once upon a time and sings a haunting song wondering aloud what if they had done things differently. While the scene was a great reminder of the emotional impact music has inside film, it’s over all too quickly and we’re left to wonder what was the rest of these two old lovers’ story? Or was this another scene and we’ve been duped into thinking it may have been real? Lavant is credited to have played 11 roles in Holy Motors, though Celine says he has only 9 appointments that day. What’s real and what isn’t? And so Carax checks off the musical genre among his references in the film and we move on. Though, on the note of music, the intermission of the film, a sweeping harmonized accordion number almost makes the whole film worth the cost of admission. Almost.

Carax’s film has laugh out loud moments, beautiful tableaus, and a truly versatile actor but it falls short of a being a thoroughly realized film and thus isn’t believable as a sincere celebration of the art form. At least Carax does acknowledge that most essential cog of the movie experience motor: the audience. Oscar’s mysterious boss tells him in one scene, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”, and Oscar asks, “What if there is no beholder?” reminding us that without the audience the actor works in vain, his existence holds no meaning. Filmmaking has evolved consistently throughout the years, and one day the cameras may indeed be invisible, but the actor and his audience will always be essential. If Carax had been a bit more mindful of the audience’s needs, he may have made a true masterpiece and not a disjointed glimpse at a great actor.

If there is one consensus critics are saying about the film Holy Motors at Cannes Film Festival, it is that it’s a one-of-a-kind film. The critical assessment of the Holy Motors seems to be an even split, some saying it is one of the best films in two years at the festival, some said the film is obtuse. One thing is for sure though; the trailer has caught our attention. If “out there” films are what you are into, this may be one to keep an eye on (no pun intended, watch the trailer).

Official trailer of Holy Motors:

The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans is an indie intelligent “cop movie” that is really much more. A little worried it was going to be a typical cop movie, I was a little hesitant to watch it, but I was glad I did. Digging deep into both addiction and morality, this thriller will keep you wanting more and it delivers.

As you would guess from the name of the film, it is about a bad lieutenant named Terence McDonagh (Nicolas Cage). Situations he gets into as a cop he uses to his advantage for drugs. When he busts a drug dealer, he will score some of the drugs from himself. He prefers to do a lot of his work off the record especially when it comes to collecting evidence.

He has a lover named Frankie (Eva Mendes) who is a prostitute and together they work as a team for money and drugs. But drugs aren’t the only thing Terence has gotten himself into, gambling is also a big part of his life. He begins to dig himself deeper and deeper with drug dealers and bookies that eventually make Frankie’s life in danger.

The Bad Lieutenant is riddled with twists and new sequence of events, the two hour run time seems to end in no time at all. It is gripping and keeps you wanting more and more until the very end. Without divulging too much of the film way, the film does come full circle at the end in way you almost can’t help but applaud to show your appreciation at the conclusion.

Nicolas Cage played the character superbly. You almost couldn’t imagine anyone else playing the part. You can see him physically and mentally deteriorating and heading into a downward spiral as his character was. He really played the character with full conviction. I have always respected the work Cage has done and this performance validates my respect. He rightfully won the Toronto Film Critics Association Award for Best Actor.

Many times throughout the film, whether it was a hallucination shot from the drugs or what would seem a normal shot seemed to be captured in an unorthodox way. It really portrays New Orleans beautifully. Untraditional angles and great use of the camera would earn a nomination for Best Cinematography at the 2010 Independent Spirit Awards.

The Bad Lieutenant is an indie film that I think everyone can enjoy. The plot seems to grow with every scene and there doesn’t seem to be a dull spot in it. The storyline is captivating and the cinematography is excellent. It’s truly a thriller that you must see.