The Place Beyond the Pines (2013), directed by Derek Cianfrance

If you’re excited to see Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper act together but are wondering why they never appear together in the trailer for The Place Beyond the Pines, well, you’re on to something.

Oh right, spoiler alert.

The movie, the sophomore film from Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance, features a pairing with hints of the modern equivalent to De Niro and Pacino in Heat (and thank God not Righteous Kill), and is a simmering tale of morality, crime, absent parents and the cyclical nature of human faults (I believe once tackled in an Offspring song).

Just like Heat, we have two of our best actors working with some pretty chewy, hearty material here. Gosling shows us his best thousand-yard stare again, but with a character with more range than his Driver. Cooper tackles his first real serious, reality-based drama I can think of, and manages to sustain the attention built by Gosling, which says a lot.

I’m a champion of ambitious filmmaking, and of intimate filmmaking, and here we have both. With a running time of nearly two and a half hours and a plot which spans generations and three nearly separate stories, The Place Beyond the Pines has nothing if not scope. Of course, scope in and of itself is nothing without the entry point of compelling characters and story. Pines has both.

For the most part, it works. The hardest part in a film like this is making each segment equally compelling as the last. With attention spans wearing, I feel the third act is perhaps the weakest, partly because it lacks the star power of the first two, but also partly because the jump in time it requires is jarring. I was eventually swept up in it, but the film teeters dangerously on outstaying its welcome.

The film has a coda too, which I found entirely unnecessary and a cheap way to attempt to slap some easily graspable meaning onto the very end, for those who might be scratching their heads. It felt like a studio decision, to be honest, but I could be wrong about that. Any points the film is trying to make about generational cycles, the march of time, fathers and sons, are clear by then.

Also, after Rust and Bone and now this film, there is now an official CineFile ban on using Bon Iver’s “Wolves” in brooding indie movies.

I do worry that the power of The Place Beyond the Pines lies in only some of its performances, in certain moments, in a particular song, and less so in the film as a whole. It’s a great film to watch, don’t get me wrong, but I don’t know if it is one I would revisit often or feel differently about in five, ten years. But I’m still mulling that over.

But sitting there in the theatre I was transfixed and entertained by Cianfrance’s attention to characters, his commitment to taking the long road and letting the emotions of the film simmer, his refusal to (mostly) refrain from pinning heavy handed moral or philosophical lessons to his work.

Instead he has delivered an extremely ambitious, well crafted film that I wouldn’t hesitate to consider for a “best of the year” list.

The Place Beyond the Pines is in cinemas now.

Silver Linings Playbook (2012), directed by David O. Russell

This is the feel-good movie of the fall for slightly screwed up people.

And I mean that in a good way.

Silver Linings Playbook is a romance, it’s a happy-ending type, make your heart flutter film, but it’s also realistic, as in its characters have flaws (large ones), it doesn’t shy away from the struggle of life and it doesn’t sugarcoat anything. It feels “real” in a way the best romantic movies manage.

The film is really about mental illness. Bradley Cooper, in the first role I really respected him in, plays a man with serious issues that have lost him everything (marriage, job, freedom, trust). Jennifer Lawrence, in her first really mature role, plays a woman with just as many problems on her plate, also struggling to hold her sanity together.

The portrayal of mental illness in movies can be a hard line to walk, but, without being any sort of expert, I feel like Russell’s film does a good job of tackling it. Pat and Tiffany have diagnosable mental illnesses that could easily define their characters, but ultimately they are portrayed as people, not as illnesses.

The stereotypical association of violence and mental illness may not exactly be a step forward, but I believe showing these characters overcome their illnesses and go on to achieve success is. The film recognizes the importance of medication, it shows characters wanting to be healthy and working to get better, it aptly demonstrates the complexities of mental illness and all the ups and downs those with problems, and those that love them, go through.

Bradley Cooper turns in a what hopefully turns out to be a defining role for him. I’ve never really been a fan, but he is excellent in this one. He moves past his usual douchey frat boy persona and comes out with a performance that is mature, dynamic and compelling. He’s far from just a pretty face. The role requires him to hit a wide array of tones and he pulls it off with noticeable skill.

Also expanding her repertoire is Jennifer Lawrence. She first came to our attention in Winter’s Bone, an excellent film with her excellent performance. But she was playing a teenager, and has done so in pretty much every film since, despite being 22 now. This is her first role where she is decidedly an adult, and she is excellent in it.

It’s hard to say whether Lawrence will go on to become a well-respected actor (her upcoming films suggest she’s sticking with the Hollywood fluff for the time being) but Silver Linings Playbook gives a glimpse that it’s certainly possible. Cooper is the focus, but Lawrence brings a well-rounded, powerful performance that lets us see her fun, Hollywood star side, as well as that gritty, down-to-earth edge that first made us pay attention.

She’s also insanely beautiful in this movie, if you will allow me to indulge my crush for just a moment.

Okay, back to professionalism.

It should be mentioned too that Robert De Niro gives an impressive, interesting performance, the first for him in quite a long time. He gives a glimpse of what once made him the most talented film actor in America.

Russell’s film isn’t some gritty, anti-Hollywood marvel. Like most of his films, it has some edge but is still ultimately mainstream in tone, form and content. But it’s an excellent mainstream film, a real tear-in-your-eye inspirational type fare. And while films like that are usually eye-rollers, Silver Linings Playbook has enough talent, content and maturity to pull it off without it ever becoming insultingly simplistic or phony.

There’s some Oscar buzz around this one, and I think it’s deserved for the performances. The film is nothing revolutionary, however, and I think would be a weak choice, but for an enjoyable night out at the movies it’s hard to beat right now. And I mean that in a very complimentary way.

Silver Linings Playbook is in cinemas now.

Hit & Run (2012), directed by Dax Shepard and David Palmer

You know what, I might be in the minority here, but movies like Hit & Run have to be my favourite popcorn, escapist cinema fare going. It’s light but exciting, it’s funny and smart, there’s plenty of action but none of it is gratuitous. Nobody dies, which is so refreshing, but there’s enough swearing and sex jokes to make the film decidedly adult.

It’s actually probably one of the best movies I’ve seen in theatres this summer.

Hit & Run is Dax Shepard’s baby. He wrote it, co-directed it, edited it and, of course, stars in it. I only really know Shepard from The Freebie, but I liked him a lot in that. I hear he used to be on Punk’d but I never watched that so I don’t have any preset opinions of him. From what I have seen I think he is really quite talented, both as an actor and also, seemingly, as a writer.

I say that because this is a shockingly well written movie. It actually does what I wish so many Hollywood films would do, in that it celebrates what makes a Hollywood action movie good, while throwing away and explicitly making fun of all the rubbish that normally comes along with it.

It’s a smart movie. Not like, Fellini smart, but smart in a way that it’s not insulting to audiences and actually gives us some credit for being people that can enjoy a car chase or two but also might not be comfortable with having that surrounded by sexism, homophobia and predictability. It gives us some credit for wanting something more.

It’s the kind of movie that can have a reference to Charles Bronson, but then explain that it’s actually a reference to the British prisoner who named himself after the American action star. I liked that.

Kristen Bell’s character, Annie, is someone we can like and respect, not just leer at or find annoying. She’s smart. She has a degree in nonviolent conflict resolution, which comes in handy at times in the movie. She is funny and charming and makes decisions that make sense.

This is the kind of movie where the main character can use the homophobic slur f-word and you’re like “well, there it is. Awkward,” and then the movie ADDRESSES THAT and actually makes a running joke about how he used that word and how inappropriate and juvenile it is (even if the line he used it in is a great one…he’s right, nitrous is bs.)

I guess I’m a sucker for smart dialogue in a movie like this. It’s certainly nowhere near as dense or reference-laden as a Tarantino movie but the characters still converse in a way that’s a lot more intelligent and literate than us average folk. But I love it. It’s a pleasure to listen to. I like a film that pays as much attention to that as it does to the action.

And then you combine that with a car chase movie and I’m really sold. Carsploitation films are my absolute favourite bubblegum movies. I’ve done the list before on the blog, but Hit & Run harkens back to the great classics Vanishing Point, Dirty Mary, Crazy Larry, Gone in 60 Seconds, even Smokey and the Bandit. And that works for me. Few things get the old ticker going like the sound of a big-block ripping rubber up the street with someone hot in pursuit. Man, oh man.

I wish we got more films like this. And I don’t think I’m alone. Everyone leaving the preview screening that I went to last night seemed notably happy and entertained as they left. There was a buzz in the room. People had a good time. That’s more than can be said for most of the movies this summer, even for something like The Dark Knight Rises, which, though impressive at times, wasn’t exactly a lot of fun.

Hit & Run is fun. I like fun.

Hit & Run is in theatres on Friday.