2015 is wrapping up and looking back on the year there have been a fair amount of films that have been emotionally provoking, but The Big Short is in many ways at least equal to Mad Max in blood-pressure-raising cogency. The nearness of so recent a catastrophe combined with Adam McKay’s blended fact-driven drama and absurd-because-it’s-true comedy, ensures a righteous resentment. The film moves quickly introducing a lot of people and breaking the fourth wall often to explain terminology and provide a high level of self-awareness as characters explain when the film is being truthful and when it’s taking liberties for the sake of moviemaking. This candid storytelling builds a level of trust that feels akin to watching a documentary. The roller coaster ride of not being sure when to laugh at the preposterousness and scope of the events unfolding, or when to cry whenever the realization of their truthfulness sinks in, by far makes for one of the most peerless filmgoing experiences of the year.

Based on Michael Lewis’s bestselling nonfiction book of the same name, the focus of this expose is on the unlikely people who not only predicted the collapse (or bursting, if you will) of the credit and housing bubble that led to the crisis of 2008 and contributed greatly to the longest recession in U.S. history, but who also profited greatly when it happened. There’s the awkward Asperger’s-savant hedge fund investor, Dr. Michael Burry played by Christian Bale, who crunches the numbers and predicts the future, pretty much to the month the collapse will happen. He starts investing his clients’ money, betting against the banks, who happily take it thinking such a thing could never happen. His clients are understandably unhappy with the risk.

Word spreads of his crazy actions and soon Wall Street banker Jared Vennett (Ryan Gosling doing what he does best, faking a New York accent and being as shmarmy as can be) catches wind and wants in on the potentially huge earnings involved, he manages to enlist outspoken hedge fund manager Mark Baum (Steve Carell) and his team. Baum operates under the umbrella of Morgan Stanley but actively despises the practices of big banks. After doing his research—part of which hilariously involves interviewing strippers on their financial practices in Florida—Baum realizes the truth of the housing bubble and invests. The remaining morally ambiguous underdogs are small timers Jamie Shipley (Finn Wittrock) and Charlie Geller (John Magaro) who started an investment firm out of their garage and are looking to get into the big leagues, without any clout they have to get retired investor Ben Rickert (Brad Pitt) to do the deals for them. He also agrees out of spite for corporate America and the rest of the film is watching the wool unravel as the banking world parties and denies that anything bad—at least, related to mortgages—could ever happen to them.

It would be easy to focus on the moral ambiguity of the individual men who gained from America’s huge downfall, but the spotlight of The Big Short can’t help but fall on the banks and governmental entities who tried (and in almost every way succeeded) to deny their fraud and negligence. McKay highlights the deceptive nature of the industry even as he pokes fun at it. For instance, the complicated lingo of the banking industry, while possibly useful to those on the inside, is beyond confusing to the layperson, especially when reduced to acronyms. McKay brings in celebrities playing themselves to break down these terms and provide visual explanations. Anthony Bourdain, Selena Gomez, and a naked Margot Robbie explaining terms like “CDO” and “subprime mortgage rates” is as entertaining as it is informative. That said, a film like this would require multiple viewings to fully grasp the full extent of the economic and fiscal theory playing out and the sheer mathematics that explain all that happened. But this isn’t a documentary, and it’s not meant to be viewed as such.

McKay seems to respect that viewers know how this story ends and that as wrapped up as we get in the characters’ schemes to make it rich off of the evil banks, rooting for them is, in fact, rooting for the failure, financial ruin and catastrophic misfortune of the American people. Any criticism of the film would have to be that very little time is spent focusing on what that misfortune looked like for people. Only one shot depicts a family, met earlier in the film, now homeless and living out of a van. But this seems a smart move as the point isn’t to focus on the sadness invoked by such imagery, but instead to hang on to the infuriation that bubbles up as the full extent of awareness and collusion of the banks and the government is revealed. It’s an unprecedented circumstance in American history and the film spells out just how few consequences there were for those responsible.

The star power of the film is overwhelming, even with Pitt providing the least amount of screen time. Carell is the most impressive, proving once again he has depths barely yet tapped. He brings to Baum all the social disregard of The Office’s Michael Scott with the intensity of Foxcatcher’s John du Pont and adding a moral anger that ties it all together amazingly. Christian Bale—never one to go halfway on any character—combines aloofness with the burden of genius to make his detached character perhaps the most sympathy-inspiring. But the real star is by far the director, who almost retroactively makes his comedies like Talladega Nights and Step Brothers seem even more astute now that we’ve been given such a clear example of how deftly he can comically reflect on true-life drama.

It’s easy to dismiss the complicated mess of the housing crises and collapse, shaking our heads at the math and economic intricacy, and McKay seems to know that his film isn’t going to incite retroactive punishment or propel a revolution. The significance of a film like The Big Short isn’t just a much-needed reminder that we the people should always take the time to understand and reflect on how hardships like this occur, but that comedy is a sharp weapon in shaming those who deserve to be called out.

In a drastic, surprisingly smooth departure from his typical work directing major studio comedies, Adam McKay tackles the dense subject matter of The Big Short, a screen adaptation of Michael Lewis‘ best-selling book about the devastating financial collapse of the mid-aughts. A heavy drama boasting an all-star ensemble (including Steve Carell, Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale, Brad Pitt, and more) playing men who watch the world burn to ashes around them from a credit and housing disaster only they saw coming, the film operates in a dark world of complex real estate jargon and impending Wall Street doom. Nevertheless, the film is imbued with a crackling, unpredictable energy a filmmaker with McKay’s comedic and improvisational background naturally brings to the table.

We spoke to McKay in a roundtable interview about the film, which opens this Friday in select cities and expands wide on December 23rd.

As a filmmaker, how hard or easy was it to maintain the balance of making sure your audience understands all of the Wall Street terminology while also being entertaining?
I think what we did with breaking the fourth wall was inspired by Lewis’ book. If you look at his book, he does a lot of footnotes where he says, “You’re still keeping up with what I’m saying. You deserve a gold star.” He kind of talks to the reader a little bit. That inspired us doing that in the movie. I just felt like the movies had to be inclusive. One of the ways the banks get away with ripping us off is by making us feel stupid or bored by financial talk. I wanted to open it up in a fun way because, once you get it, it’s a really energetic, exciting world. I figure if a college dropout who directed Step Brothers can understand it, the rest of the audience can. That was my operating premise. This isn’t that hard—it’s just moving dead money around and giving it weird names.

The balance is a different question. Ultimately I felt like this movie had to be driven by those characters. That’s what drove me through the book—Dr. Michael Burry, Mark Baum, Jared Vennett, the young guys. That’s the meat of this story. They’re us. They’re the people that the rest of the banking world doesn’t respect—they’re obnoxious, they’re weird. There’s also the big question of why they saw [the crisis] when no one else saw it. In the edit room, that was a big thing we looked at, balancing, trying to get the audience to have enough information so that you can go for the ride. But sometimes I’d have to stop the movie and go, “What the fuck is a synthetic CDO?” For the most part, the audiences really love it and feel like it pulls them into the movie more. The only people who have been bitching about it have been super stodgy film formalists.

You come from a theater/improv background where addressing the audience is quite common. Why do you think it’s considered such a radical idea in movies?
There’s definitely a snobbery about it that I’ve noticed. It’s a film school thing. In film school they teach you “show, don’t tell.” They literally do exercises with it. Friends of mine who were in film school talk about how you’d get in trouble if you’d tell and not show. I think it’s become this sort of unspoken rule. But some of my favorite movies of all time involve breaking the fourth wall or using narrators, like 24 Hour Party People. That’s a movie that I love. There’s such an energy to it. American Splendor. Scorsese’s done a bunch—Goodfellas, Casino. You freeze the frame, you talk. That new show, Narcos, does it a lot. I think it’s kind of changing. Early on, there was a power to film in the ’30s, ’40s and ’50s where they’re showing. They’re showing a lot. I think now, because there are so many mediums going on, we can blur it a little more. I’m less precious about it. I find it really exciting to [break the fourth wall].

You worked with four A-list actors on this movie. How much direction does each of them require, and are there different techniques you have to use with each of them?
You kind of dial into each actor and what they need. In the case of Bale, he comes to set and he is the character by the time he arrives. But he’s sort of internalized all of the guy’s physical tics and emotional outlook, but we’re trying to find the right pace for it and how much [he] lets out. Do you want to see a full tour de force of what the guy is in every scene? He and I worked a lot on when to use different aspects of the character. We were constantly having a discussion about that. Occasionally, the real Michael Burry’s voice will just get loud for no reason when he’s talking to you, so we talked about when to use that. It’s a constant checking-in with Christian. He’s completely grounded in the guy, but you try to find the right times and places and make sure it feels real.

Carell is very different. Carell almost hunts down the truthful moment like he’s got a pack of dogs. When he doesn’t have it, he gets very pissed at himself. He’s just chasing it and chasing it. When I do comedies with him, it’s not like that, but with this I realized my job was to be like his hunt-master. The two of us would just chase it down. You’re just nudging it and pushing it. When you get there, it’s very cool because he’ll never say “we got it,” but then suddenly, he’s silent. I’ll say “we got it,” and he won’t say anything and we’ll move on. He’s really, really hard on himself in a great way.

Gosling had an odd role in this movie. He’s both inside the movie and outside the movie. He can talk to the camera. So he was closer to a writer-director. The way we’d talk was closer to the way Will Ferrell and I talk. He’s a super collaborative, funny guy. Brad Pitt just came in with this fully formed character. He had the hair, the beard, the look. He knew exactly who this guy is. I was like, “Hey, I want to do this scene in the kitchen.” He was like, “Yup. I want to talk about saving seeds in Monsanto.” Melissa Leo lands, gets off the plane, smokes the scene in fourteen takes, says goodbye, gets on the plane and leaves. It’s like, “Where did that come from?!”

Coming from the world of making really big studio comedies, how easy or difficult was it to pitch yourself to take on a very different project?
You’re one hundred percent right. I’ve tried to make other movies. I tried to make Garth Ennis’ The Boys at one point, and I couldn’t get anyone to make it. That was a case where I went to all the studios in town and I could feel when I was pitching it [them thinking,] “Oh, he’s a comedy guy.” It was a tricky, ambitious project, but it didn’t help that I was a comedy guy in their eyes. In this case, I got very, very lucky. The company that I went to, Plan B, are the coolest people in the world. Really open-minded. The second I pitched my take they were like, “Why didn’t we think of this? This is perfect.” They were one hundred percent behind me from the beginning. And at that point, you have to put up or shut up about the script. When Paramount got the script, they actually liked it. Then we got this incredible cast, so we were good to go. I give all the credit in the world to Plan B for being open enough to talk to me about this. Not only open, but excited to talk about it.

How deeply involved were you with Michael Lewis in translating his book to screen?
Basically, I had lunch with him before we were going to get going. He said to me, “The book was my baby. You take the baby to college now.” He really loved the script. The greatest moment was when he saw our third-to-last screening and just went on and on about it and effusively loved it. Of course, we all reacted like giant geeks!

As a moviegoer, Steve Carell continues to surprise me as his career goes on. He’s always revealing new layers to his gifts. You’ve known him for years—has he always had these dimensions to him or is he really evolving with every project?
I think he’s definitely evolving. He’s got a little bit of Peter Sellers to him in the sense that he’s very meticulous and mathematical in the way he goes about comedy. It’s all very small, precise choices. I always knew he was a very detailed technician. But I don’t think I started thinking, “Oh, wait a minute—he can play these other ranges!” until Little Miss Sunshine. He was pretty frickin’ good in that, but then I thought, “Alright, he’s a good actor, but I’ve always known he was a good actor.” But then he did The Way Way Back. That was the first time I thought, holy shit—this guy’s really good. There’s this anger there and all these emotions. And then, of course, Foxcatcher blew me away. That’s how I ended up casting him in this role. I thought, son of a bitch, I think he can do this. He’s got the anger, he can transform enough. I was knocked over by what he does in this [movie].

What’s it like not working with Will Ferrell?
I can say this: Life is twenty percent less enjoyable. He came and visited us for, like, three or four days on set just because he wanted to hang. We had the best time with him. I always miss him. He’s the best! But I think it was good that we did something separate, you know? I actually was talking to him about doing a cameo, and he was like, “McKay, go do one without me!”

Talk about the pressure cooker of working with Paul Rudd on Ant-Man to craft what that movie became.
I gotta tell you—it didn’t feel like a pressure cooker. It felt like I was in heaven. I grew up on Marvel comics. I met with Kevin Feige and I could tell, “This guy gets it.” Sometimes you meet with these executives and it’s like, “They kind of get it…” The bummer of that is when you write something really cool and they don’t get it. It was so much fun knowing that, if we wrote something cool, Feige was going to get excited about it. We just had the best time, man. It was Rudd and I holed up in a room for two straight months, writing giant action sequences. Everyone assumed I was just doing the comedy, but we rewrote huge parts of that movie. [We got to write] the whole Falcon fight at the Avengers [base]. It was so much fun. I told Feige afterwards, “Any time you need me, give me a call. That was a blast.”

Excuse me while I lose my mind. Ryan Gosling is in final negotiations to star in the new Blade Runner sequel, directed by Denis Villeneuve (Prisoners).

Harrison Ford is also attached to reprise the role of Rick Deckard, who we first met in Ridley Scott‘s 1982 sci-fi classic. It’s not known who will be the film’s lead (it could be Ford’s Deckard continuing to drive the story forward, or Gosling’s character could take the reins), but either way, the casting of Gosling is pretty damn exciting.

Blade Runner was a sci-fi thriller that took place in a dystopian 2019 Los Angeles, and the sequel will be set several years after. Scott’s original has been hailed as one of the best, if not the best, sci-fi movies of all time, and that we’re getting a sequel over 30 years later is surreal, to say the least. Right now we don’t know very much about the project, but Gosling’s involvement is a good sign.

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

Fresh off his biggest success ever at the box-office in Iron Man 3, director Shane Black is pursuing an Oscar winner & an Oscar nominee to star in his follow-up film. Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling are in talks to star in The Nice Guys, based off of a script written years ago by Black and Anthony Bagarozzi. While neither actor is officially confirmed, particularly Crowe who is reported to have a schedule conflict with publicity for his upcoming directorial debut The Water Diviner, The Nice Guys producer Joel Silver is reportedly shopping the project to studios and buyers in the hopes that the actors will remain part of the package.

Set in Los Angeles in the 1970s, the story follows Jackson Healy (a muscle-for-hire type) and Holland March (a private eye) after the suicide of a fading porn star; however, the woman’s aunt believes not only that the porn star is alive, but is convinced she saw her niece after the highly publicized incident. Filming would be slated for later this year, although there is no speculative release date as of yet.

Ryan Gosling knew this was going to happen. His directorial debut screened in the Un Certain Regarde category of Cannes and, naturally, packed the house as if it was the most highly buzzed Palme D’Or contender of the year. Two hours later the film ended, and people took to Twitter in disbelief, shock, and sarcasm engaged to the max. Yet, the film already began building a loyal fan base who defend its great aesthetics, originality, and the fact that it’s never boring. But getting your teeth pulled out by rusty pliers is probably never boring either. After making whatever Lost River is, there’s no way Gosling didn’t expect exactly that kind of reaction. Is there a point in even laying out the plot here? A mother (Christina Hendricks) works in a seedy bar and has to take care of two boys, one of whom is nicknamed Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and is sort of our protagonist. After getting news that they’re about to get displaced, she takes another job in an ever seedier bar, operated by her banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn) so that she can pay three months in advance. Meanwhile, Bones attempts to outwit a local gang leader called Bully (Matt Smith) to help with the rent, and gets moral support from a friend called Rat (Saorise Ronan). Yes. Bones, Bully, and Rat.

The actors do a decent enough job and go beyond the call of duty that their names suggest, but it’s Mendelsohn who outshines everyone and truly looks like he belongs in the fucked up world Gosling juke-boxed together. The film spins out of control quite quickly and goes into experimental mode; becoming a lab for Gosling to play around with a Greatest Hits collection of influences (David Lynch, Nicolas Winding Refn, and Gaspar Noe most notably, though the re-occurring image of burning buildings recalls one of my favorite cinematic shots, possibly ever, from Akira Kurosawa’s Ran) without needing to make much sense. The idea is to evoke a nightmarish atmosphere and make the whole thing into some form of parable for the housing crisis in middle America, or you know, he’s just fucking around. Whatever it is, he’s got me cursing for the first time in a Cannes review and that’s because most of the scenes, as great as they look (an image of a burning bicycle, the macabre bar where Hendricks begins to work, and the images of her in the plastic suit are undeniably striking and get etched into your mind, for better or for worse) don’t amount to anything substantial. This isn’t just style over substance, this is style raping substance.

The music deserves a mention, however, because (and this is a direct Refn influence) the electronic notes work in sinister fashion to help the overall grotesqueness occurring on-screen. If there was a Cannes award for Best Soundtrack, Lost River would be a shoe-in. As it stands, it’s nothing more than a first-time director’s messy homage to some of his favorites. The reason it’s getting so much attention, and will most likely go down as a cult favorite in certain circles, is because the director happens to be Ryan Gosling. Thanks to his name, though, he manages to assemble artists like Mendelsohn, Ronan, cinematographer Benoit Debie, and composer Johnny Jewel who elevate this psychedelic bad trip from complete disaster into a twisted kind of entertainment.

Before the film officially premieres later this week at Cannes, a new clip from Ryan Gosling‘s Lost River has hit the Internet. The clip doesn’t give us much except Matt Smith chanting at Iain De Caestecker to look at his muscles. From what we know of the film, De Caestecker plays Bones, son to Christina Hendricks‘ character Billy, who finds an underwater town. Matt Smith goes simply by Bully, and with his sequined jacket, microphone, and flaming bicycle antics he already appears to be one of what will undoubtedly be some interesting characters. We’re nowhere nearer understanding what this film is all about, but it was on our Most Anticipated Films of Cannes List and this just has us all the more excited to see it!

First Clip of Lost River

Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives is director Nicholas Winding Refn’s most bizarre film yet, even more so than the inter-dimensional Viking picture Valhalla Rising. The marketing for his new film suggests an extension of the beloved Ryan Gosling fueled mayhem seen in Drive. However, that’s a trick. Refn refuses to repeat himself and that is not necessarily a bad thing. During the introduction to Only God Forgives Refn compared both films to drug experiences; that Drive is like doing really good cocaine all night and Only God Forgives is like doing acid in college.

The conflict begins after the elder of two psychotic brothers meets his maker for raping and murdering a young prostitute in Bangkok, where they run drugs together, and their even more psychotic mother arrives screaming for the killer’s blood. Ryan Gosling plays, Julian, the younger brother, who must deal with the complex business of revenge involving a high ranking Thai police captain.

Now that the plot has been described, forget it. Refn focuses the film on Julian’s Oedipal relationship to his mother (she mentions that he killed his own father to protect her) and police captain Chang’s sadistic stranglehold on Bangkok’s underworld. He visualizes this by obsessing over various visual metaphors for each character. Julian’s hands act as his sexual organ and his mode of violence as a boxer. Chang eventually castrates him figuratively, by severely beating him in a boxing match. This motif also makes for some very strange love scenes. Chang, Refn’s villain, rules the screen with long mesmerizing karaoke numbers that symbolize his control over Bangkok’s underworld. The Thai music during these scenes is just as enchanting as Cliff Marinez’s wonderful score. These musical driven sequences dominate most of the film’s screen time that call to mind moments in David Lynch’s early films.

Only Kristen Scott Thomas’s turn as Julian’s deranged mother disrupts the stillness of the film. She proves to be far more of a monster than Chang and steals every scene she’s in. The best moment of the film pits her against Julian who only wants to impress her with his pretty girlfriend. It is one of the few scenes with dialogue. Luckily, cinematographer Larry Smith’s images drive the film and truly establish the hallucinatory tone. If you’re not enchanted by Refn’s strange hang-ups, you’re not likely to enjoy the film, but many of the haunting images and unexpected scenes linger long after the lights come up.

RATING: 6

Lesson of Evil

Takashi Miike’s batshit crazy return to form, Lesson of Evil, will truly appease any fan of bad taste. After a droll remake of samurai classic Hara-kiri, Miike jumps back into the horror genre with his wicked sensibility intact. Lesson of Evil takes place at an average Tokyo high school where teachers grapple with the everyday problems of bullying, cell phone cheating, and teacher-student sexual assault. Super-stud English teacher Hasumi struggles to right all his school’s wrongs as he helps a student extricate herself from a blackmailed sexual relationship with the gym teacher and proposes to install cell phone jammers to eradicate cheating. But soon teachers and students become suspicious of Hasumi’s squeaky-clean persona. Miike masterfully balances a massive cast of students and teachers, while sticking closely to Hasumi’s point of view. In doing so, he establishes a high school drama while exposing subtle cracks in Hasumi’s façade. Much like his breakthrough film Audition, Miike abruptly changes directions mid-film and pulls out the rug from under audiences.

The second half of Lesson of Evil shifts into a psycho-horror comedy with an insanely un-politically correct plot twist that only could have originated from the culturally insensitive nation of Japan. Miike proves himself as a master of tone and character as he shifts from gruesome violence to side-splitting humor all within the pull of a trigger. He efficiently reintroduces peripheral characters, gives them hopes and dreams, and then kills them off with diabolical wit and gallons of gore. The dark humor Miike injects into his film hits even harder because Lesson of Evil is actually a tasteless exploitation of American headlines, but one that manages to brutally entertaining and clever.

RATING: 7

The Conjuring

A movie so scary, the MPAA rated it ‘R’ for just being way too scary. The Conjuring has amassed an impressive amount of hype as a classy horror offering from schlock director James Wan, the new master of scare of the week films Saw, Dead Silence, and Insidious. Here, he’s found a solid script from Baywatch turned thriller writers Chad and Carey Hayes that explores an unused chapter from the files of famed demonologists, The Warrens, of Amityville horror fame. Their script adapts the best elements of The Amityville Horror, a terribly overrated film ripe for an overhaul, and The Exorcist. Wan displays ample restraint in the first half of the film easing audiences into the possessed house along with the lovable and unsuspecting family parented by the excellent Ron Livingston and Lili Taylor. Cinematographer John Leonetti executes some showy, yet breathtaking shots to establish a 1970s style full of zooms and hand held camera work, while expertly shooting on digital.

The second portion of The Conjuring introduces Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga as Ed and Lorraine Warren, the married ghost hunters. The script gives ample time to their characters and some other supernatural cases they’ve investigated, which proves extremely interesting and provides more material for scares. Both Wilson and Farmiga are good and add a higher degree of credibility to the film as does the rest of the talented cast of knowns and unknowns. In his introduction Wan said he wanted to make a picture in the vein of classic studio horror films of the 70s, that have vanished over the years. He puts those resources to work to craft a high caliber film that truly scares.

RATING: 7

Time behaves very strangely here in Cannes. Days feel like they are short changed the 24 hours that they are supposed to contain. Thus, there does not seem to be enough hours in the day to do everything that you want to do. Most often time ceases to exist all together. Other times it is irrelevant like when all-night parties bleed into the next day. But then there are times when you are standing in line for a film for an hour and it feels like an eternity. Physics explains time is relative, Cannes is able to prove it.

Director Sebastián Silva and stars Juno Temple and Michael Cera on stage for Magic Magic

Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives is methodically paced, save for sudden outbursts of ruthless violence from time to time. The film resembles a jack-in-the-box as most of the time you know what is going to happen, just not when it is going to happen. The ending feels abrupt and rushed, which is actually a bit bizarre as Gosling moves so turtle like that you mistake many of his scenes to be in slow motion. The weak ending might be because it used its great showdown between characters in the middle of the film, which feels out of place and leaves for a rather anticlimactic ending. Though some broad elements from Drive are present in Only God Forgives, fans of one will by no means guarantees that you will be a fan of the other.

RATING: 5.9

Read my full review of Only God Forgives

Magic Magic

Magic Magic is a peculiar film about a girl named Alicia (Juno Temple) who travels outside of the United States for the first time to meet up with her friend Sarah (Emily Browning). As soon as she arrives into South America Alicia is greeted by Sarah and her three friends who all plan to road trip to a remote getaway together. Not long into their trip Sarah receives a phone call about an exam she must take at school that forces her to leave for a couple of days. This leaves Alicia alone with three strangers that all seem a little quirky.

But quirky might not be the right adjective to describe their character. Alicia spends only two days with them before she is calling them Satanists. One character in particular, Brink (Michael Cera), seems as if he might either be mildly mentally handicapped or on some kind of drugs. One thing is for certain, these people are not stable. But when Alicia does not sleep for four days due to her insomnia, her perception on reality is morphed.

As a whole, Magic Magic was a big letdown for me. This was one of two films Sebastián Silva had premiere at the Sundance Film Festival this year, with his other one (Crystal Fairy) earning great remarks from us from our SFIFF coverage. In this film Cera’s bizarre antics make for an interesting character, but that is about all. It is welcoming to see him play a character that is outside his typical one, but his performance was not at the top of his game. Magic Magic is a unique film featuring a mysteriously eerie vibe, though it ultimately goes to waste due to unconvincing situations and characters found within the film.

RATING: 5

Only God Forgives is another highly-stylized film from director Nicholas Winding Refn that stars Ryan Gosling as the lead. Gosling’s character pretty much picks up where he left off in Drive, playing an emotionless badass with few words, trading hobbies of driving for boxing. Due to the sensory obsessed visuals in the film, Only God Forgives is admiringly intoxicating. However, what the film excels at with its display, it lacks in with its narrative.

The story begins when Julian (Ryan Gosling) finds out that his brother Billy (Tom Burke), who co-operates the Thai boxing club and drug trafficking business they run, is murdered for raping and killing a young Thai prostitute. A reoccurring theme in Only God Forgives is that all deaths are violent and brutal, and Billy’s death is no exception. Police Chief Chang’s (Vithaya Pansringarm) idea of justice is to lock Billy in a room with the deceased’s father for him to retaliate on Billy by beating him to death. The result of this sets Julian in action to hunt down Chang to seek revenge; if you can call it that since Billy arguably got what he deserved.

Refn wants to make sure the audience knows that its characters are not only dangerous, but also highly unpredictable. One of the ways he achieves this is by having Chang turn the table on the father that he just helped. He blames the death of the daughter partly on him for knowing and allowing her to be a prostitute. And just like that, Chang chops off the father’s arm.

I cannot help but wonder if a little more action and a little less violence would have made for a more satisfying watch. Refn constantly reminds the audience that these characters are both ruthless and unpredictable, but continues to do so long after it is well-established. For example, we must watch Chang ever so slowly disfigure a man, one appendage at a time. And it may sound like I am against the violence found in the film, which I am not. I just think it is forcefully overstated here.

One of the first things you will likely notice is the red filter that is backlit on many scenes, especially early on, as if to foreshadow the blood bath that is about to occur. Matching the stunning visuals is the hypnotic score that fits perfectly; something that Refn tends to do very well. He wisely brings back Cliff Martinez from Drive to compose the unsettling score.

Only God Forgives is methodically paced, save for sudden outbursts of ruthless violence from time to time. The film resembles a jack-in-the-box as most of the time you know what is going to happen, just not when it is going to happen. The ending feels abrupt and rushed, which is actually a bit bizarre as Gosling moves so turtle like that you mistake many of his scenes to be in slow motion. The weak ending might be because it used its great showdown between characters in the middle of the film, which feels out of place and leaves for a rather anticlimactic ending. Though some broad elements from Drive are present in Only God Forgives, fans of one will by no means guarantees that you will be a fan of the other.

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.

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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:

Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive is a gloriously brutal love letter to action movies of the 70’s, featuring a lead character that doesn’t even have a name, a fantastic synth-pop score and soundtrack and very well stage action set pieces. Drive is one of the best films of the year. Not even wasting a second to get started, the film opens with a fantastic scene involving our hero at work as he drives two thugs to a warehouse somewhere in L.A.

Our hero is quickly put to the test when the cops catch a whiff of his trail. Showing exceptional driving skills he leads his fare out of trouble. Refn then throws out the style. Bold, bright, italicized Pink colored credits accompanied by a slow pulsating pop song with way too much swag leads us through a night drive in L.A. with The Driver.

The Driver (with no name) is played by Ryan Gosling who is this year’s it boy for film. The guy has been around for years but it seems like this is his year to break out, and boy what a film to do it in. Gosling plays the driver as a quiet, cool and calculating young man who mostly stays to himself. But don’t be fooled. His Driver explodes with intense rage when pushed to the limits. Probably the most famous scene from the movie is proof of this as he is forced to protect the girl he is smitten with.

The girl is played by Carrie Mulligan who probably couldn’t be any cuter if she tried. She lives in the same building on the same floor as our hero. He soon forms a kinship with Mulligan and her young son. We find out that her husband is in jail and will soon be released. This doesn’t faze Gosling. When her husband is released, he almost immediately gets in to trouble with his crew. Gosling offers to help for one time and one time only.

Up until this point, the movie has been pretty tame. There are some moments of uneasiness, but nothing quite boils over. That is until Gosling ‘s offer to help. Gosling offers his services as a driver for Mulligan’s husband on one last job. The job goes completely awry and from here on out the movie is on fire. Along with the brutal elevator scene, Refn stages an unbelievably violent set piece in a hotel.

The first time I saw Drive at the Toronto International Film Festival, the audience was cheering and whistling when the hotel scene reached its apex. I’m not a champion of violence, but when something is done right I know it’s worth applauding and Refn’s action sequences are a stand up and cheer from the banisters type of effort.

I know every other critic has done this but I must echo their praises, Albert Brooks. What a performance. He’s been funny for decades. Here he plays completely against type and nails it. Here is a three dimensional villan that is so sinister, yet so, I don’t know the word for it. Understanding maybe? He doesn’t want to do the things he has to do, but he knows they are a mean to an end. I can’t wait to see his name called for an Oscar nomination in 2 months.

With all these great stars in Drive, it’s easy to forget that the real star of this film is director Nicholas Winding-Refn. The Danish director has quite the eclectic palate of late. His last 3 features couldn’t be more different. His film Bronson was an intense performance piece by the brilliant Tom Hardy. His film after that Valhalla Rising was a slow esoteric and extremely bloody look at Vikings in the highlands of Europe.

Now comes Drive, his Hollywood breakthrough. A highly stylized and a very confident film that completely stands apart from anything else released this year. Bright and colorful, full of gloss and extreme ire, Drive is a breath of fresh air. I cannot wait to see what Refn does next.

George Clooney directs and stars in his latest film, The Ides of March, which focuses on people involved in American politics and the scandals that often come with them. The film also shows how people evolve in politics from a passionate driven nobody who legitimately believes in what they are doing to a position climber who only cares about gaining power. These are all things most already know so you are not likely to walk away with anything new but thanks to the excellent cast giving strong performances it is not a deal breaker.

It is one week from the Ohio Democratic primary, which is one of the most important primaries because normally it puts the winner in a position to win the party and thus in the running for president in the general election. Mike Morris (George Clooney) is a Democrat governor who is looking to win this primary. Along his sides are his senior campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman) and his press secretary Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling).

An example of how brilliant Stephen is, he comes up with a plan that would mandate 18 year olds to do 2 years of service of some kind whether that be in the army or the Peace Corps and in return their college will be paid for. They know that is a bold plan to announce but they also know the voting demographic will be for it since it does not affect them and the age group it does affect is too young to even vote.

Stephen makes the mistake of agreeing to meet with Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), who is the running mates campaign manager. Tom tries to lure Stephen into jump ship from his current position and work for his guy Senator Pullman. Stephen declines and that is when Tom lets him know that the race is much closer than he thinks. Tom informs him that they are in position to capture North Carolina’s delegates from a deal with the governor.

Stephen lets his team know of the situation and Paul comes up with a plan. Walk away from Ohio immediately and take a loss and head over to North Carolina to offer the governor a higher position if Morris is elected for his endorsement vote. Morris does not go for it and decides to stick it out in Ohio.

Meanwhile, a young intern named Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood) takes interest in Stephen. They meet up outside of work where it is admitted that she has wanted him for some time now. He knows that they must keep this a secret but what he does not know is that he will soon discover a secret that could end the campaign in a heartbeat.

The ensemble cast is comprised of a collection of well-seasoned actors and actresses. A group that you would expect great performances from and they fulfill those expectations. With a cast of; George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Giamatti, Evan Rachel Wood and Marisa Tomei, you just cannot go wrong in terms of performance.

Although the entire cast was great, the obvious stand out was Gosling. Watching his character development was my favorite quality of the film. You see Stephen changed from a guy who just wanted to win the polls to a guy that just wanted to get ahead in power.

If there is one thing you take away from The Ides of March it is that all politicians are dirty, even the ones you think are the good guys. Scandals are just the nature of being in politics, being under the microscope on everything you say and do does not help. It is nothing that most people did not already know which is why the storyline is fairly compelling but ultimately one that is not hard to predict how the scene would end once it had started.