The Place Beyond The Pines Video Review & Interview: An Exquisite, Potent, Epic Drama

Hitting cinemas this week after months of festival hype and a US release two weeks ago, Derek Cianfrance's second major feature The Place Beyond the Pines is a sublime drama about the sins of fathers and the consequences that they inflict upon their sons. Ryan Gosling plays Luke, a blonde-haired drifter who, upon learning that he has fathered a son with Romina (Eva Mendes), turns from being a motorcycle stuntman to a bank robber in order to provide a better life for his kid. However, with cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper) on his tail, nothing is going to be clean. To say much more than that is to give away one of many of the film's surprises; needless to say, the marketing team have been refreshingly sly with what they showed viewers in the trailers, and as such this one film with countless twists and turns that viewers absolutely won't see coming. From top to bottom, the performances are superb, though it's Cooper who truly impresses here, giving the best performance of his career, smartly playing it subtle and refusing to go overboard as too many actors would have been tempted to. In our above video, we also spoke to director Cianfrance about the trajectory of his career and the sorts of films he likes to watch. Our full written review will be up soon, so check back to What Culture for a more detailed analysis.