1. Ryan Gosling
One movie has caused people to underestimate
Ryan Gosling for almost a decade,
The Notebook. It was sentimental and cliched. Women loved it. Men hated it. Everyone joked about it, but since its release Gosling has been on the grind - working on his craft. His film career has many parallels to Leonardo DiCaprio. Leo did
Titanic back in the nineties. It made him hugely famous with one of the biggest movie going crowd - the teens and twenty-somethings. However, he hated how it affected his career. For five years he barely acted because the only roles he was offered were emotional romances in the same vein as the
James Cameron directed mega-blockbuster. The few movies he took were minor and not altogether favorable. He remained selective though and refused to accept typecasting. When the 2000s hit he got the opportunities he had been waiting for with
Catch Me If You Can and
Gangs of New York. DiCaprio never looked back. Gosling is doing the same thing today. The last two years have marked a precipitous rise for Gosling. Hes proved himself on the indie circuit since The Notebook, and now its beginning to pay dividends. Last year he had Oscar buzz for his part in the powerfully emotional
Blue Valentine. This week his already acclaimed art house action movie,
Drive, begins rolling into an ever wider release. Gosling may not have the most dialogue in it, but he has drawn comparisons to the likes of Clint Eastwood and Steve McQueen for his gripping portrayal of a nameless stunt driver.
Later year the real test will come. We only have previews and a limited number of reviews to go off of, but
The Ides of March will undoubtedly be the tipping point for Ryan Gosling one way or the other. On the one hand, Ides could be underwhelming. A stand out performance might be lost in an otherwise underwhelming film, or (and I dont see this happening) his acting could not stand out, and he could end up just another ensemble cog in the films
Rolex watch of a cast. On the other hand, if the movie is a success we could see him emerge as the surprise high point of an award season darling. A performance that manages to surpasses the impressive ensemble cast and all the hype behind a second writer/director/acting effort by George Clooney would be quite the coup. Most importantly it would open doors for Gosling. The kinds of doors which lead to the Raging Bulls, Saving Private Ryans, and Inceptions of the near future. Ryan Gosling is the man to watch right now - even if you didnt know it.