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Author Topic: The Place Beyond The Pines  (Read 5168 times)

don s.

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #10 on: April 18, 2013, 12:38:36 AM »
We follow Gosling from his dressing room/tent through the fairgrounds to his waiting motorcycle. It was clever they way they made the switch from the helmeted Gosling to (I assume) the stunt man who actually rode the motorcycle inside the big iron ball in what seemed like a continuous take.
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MP

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #11 on: April 18, 2013, 06:28:39 AM »
That tracking shot also establishes THE IMPORTANT FACT THAT HE WEARS HIS T-SHIRTS INSIDE OUT!

I got wind this week that Cianfrance showed up to some Q&A thing with his own tee inside out. Gimme a break, Derek.

jaxemer11

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #12 on: April 20, 2013, 01:22:01 AM »
I may be misremembering Blue Valentine, but was it quite so obvious and forceful as this film? I remember it being much more realistic, and certainly more tragic. There was a human core that this one just kind of lacked as it strove to weave this multigeneration narrative about...family? Revenge? Acceptance? Belonging? I don't know. Life isn't easy, it isn't simple, so maybe that's the point. Or maybe I'm overlooking some massive theme (we're all trapped, we can't escape our past, etc. Cages are a prevalent image in the film), though even so the film kind of lacked any sort of bite.

Yeah it was pretty CINECAST!ing ballsy to kill Ryan Gosling off within the first hour. Not to mention great sleight of hand marketing with the trailers. That's definitely a way to keep him from overacting and going off the rails like he did in BV, but I don't really think it improved the film all that much (mostly because then it meant slogging through Bradley Cooper). So yeah, bland as warm piss is definitely a way to describe it. It also kind of felt like it was going to end five different times. Oh, it was kind of strange how underwritten and plot devicey the (few) female charcters in the film felt.

In its attempts to force worlds together it kind of lost track of any shred of humanity.

This is almost exactly how I felt about the film.  I enjoyed it to some extent, but I'm not sure there was any "there" there.

Also, the music was ridiculously overbearing and distracting. 

Lobby

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #13 on: April 20, 2013, 01:50:29 AM »
I'm surprised at all the negativity here. Watched it last night and fell in love with it. Actually I think I like this even more than Blue Valentine. It's unusual to see a movie with a story meandering over such a long time, going over generations. I went in pretty much blind, which also added to the experience.

Nice pacing, wonderful choices of music and above all brilliant acting, so very natural that I had to remind myself afterwards that it was actors, not real life characters, that I just had watched. I haven't written a review yet, but I expect it to end up pretty high on my top list in the end of the year.

My 19 year old loved it as much as I did, and I assure you, it was NOT just because of Gosling. The movie sparked a great conversation on our way home about heritage vs environment
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don s.

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #14 on: April 20, 2013, 04:01:06 AM »
"Meandering" was the key word for me. But I agree with you about the performances: I thought they were terrific.
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FLYmeatwad

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #15 on: April 20, 2013, 08:44:16 AM »
Didn't think Cooper was that good. Nor was his fake Josh Peck of a kid. Or that guy from Chronicle, though he was okay and the second best actor in Chronicle. Or Mendez. So I guess Gosling was okay until he died, which did help keep him from overacting.

Coming off the mastery of Cloud Atlas, the 'sweeping' narrative in this film didn't work for me at all. Felt like it tossed in a few half formed ideas and didn't spend enough time around any one individual to make me care at all about any of the characters. It just felt so constructed and so hollow.

jaxemer11

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #16 on: April 20, 2013, 09:31:16 AM »
I'm surprised at all the negativity here. Watched it last night and fell in love with it. Actually I think I like this even more than Blue Valentine. It's unusual to see a movie with a story meandering over such a long time, going over generations. I went in pretty much blind, which also added to the experience.

Nice pacing, wonderful choices of music and above all brilliant acting, so very natural that I had to remind myself afterwards that it was actors, not real life characters, that I just had watched. I haven't written a review yet, but I expect it to end up pretty high on my top list in the end of the year.

My 19 year old loved it as much as I did, and I assure you, it was NOT just because of Gosling. The movie sparked a great conversation on our way home about heritage vs environment

I'm not as negative on it as some others here (despite my previous post), but I can't understand how you could think the music was wonderful.  It wasn't the music itself that was problematic for me.  I actually liked the music itself quite a bit.  It was the way it was used.  It was often completely overbearing and really distracted me quite a bit, and I hardly ever get distracted by a movie soundtrack.

Alas, everything in film is subjective.  We may just have to agree to disagree on that one.

philip918

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #17 on: April 21, 2013, 12:44:10 PM »
The Bon Iver track that closed the film actually elicited a few laughs in the theater. Just so emo.

Alan Smithee

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #18 on: April 21, 2013, 04:08:29 PM »
The Bon Iver track that closed the film actually elicited a few laughs in the theater. Just so emo.


I kind of liked the Cryin' Shames musical sequence, or maybe i just liked the song.

Adam

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Re: The Place Beyond The Pines
« Reply #19 on: April 24, 2013, 01:52:40 AM »
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