2. The Place Beyond The Pines
Derek Cianfrance received a lot of critical support for his directorial debut, Blue Valentine, upon its release in 2010. Starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams, the movie focused on the contentious relationship between a young couple, jumping back and forth from when they first fell in love to a few years later, as their marriage begins to dissolve. The unflinching realism of the movie drew a lot of plaudits, and though some were disappointed that Gosling's performance failed to get Oscar recognition, Williams did manage to earn a Best Actress nomination from all the acclaim. On Cianfrance's second feature, The Place Beyond the Pines, unfortunately, much of the critical adoration and admiration has seemed to dry up. While the film does has some ardent supporters here or there, it's detractors have appeared to dampen the overall enthusiasm for the film, which is a shame, because this is one hell of a movie. Set in the backwoods of Schenectady, New York, this epic film explores the inter-generational consequences of "the sins of the father" and is one of the best movies ever in its exploration of the father-son dynamic.
One of the things that I love so much about The Place Beyond the Pines is its intermixing of styles. The omnipresent "realism" that was so praised and loved by critics in Blue Valentine is still here and accounted for, but while in my humble opinion, that film was ultimately harmed by its obsessive need to be "real", The Place Beyond the Pines embraces the cinematic canvas with which the film is painted on. Particularly in film's interesting structure, which takes the triptych approach, the film embraces a grand sense of narrative story telling that was nowhere to be found in Blue Valentine. In some ways, The Place Beyond the Pines has the feeling of a great Greek tragedy, and the film's perfect karmic symmetry has seemed to be the most common criticism from the film''s detractors. While I understand, and even agree to some extent, with these sentiments, to let something of as relatively little consequence spoil a film with so many great aspects to it seems equivalent to complaining the Grand Canyon isn't all that majestic because it happened to be raining on the day you visited. Unfortunately, I think The Place Beyond the Pines' odds at landing any Oscar nods are pretty slim, but I am holding out slight hope for one nomination: Ryan Gosling. It's a bit unclear which category he would be placed in, lead or supporting, because the part of the film he is in, he is unquestionably the star, but the overall fraction of his screen time may cause many voters to consider him a supporting player. Whichever category you think he should be placed in though, he should be nominated. No single performance from a film released so far this year (not even Franco in Spring Breakers or another fantastic performance I am about to mention momentarily) top Gosling's performance as a stunt biker/bank robber trying to create a life for his impromptu family, and the fact that Gosling has only once been nominated for an Oscar in his career is ridiculous. Members of the Academy, please, do the right thing and nominate this performance.