The Place Beyond the Pines

[badcoverversion]

Great cast, beautifully shot, and good work by Mike Patton (Faith No More) on the soundtrack too! It's a 9/10 from me.

^This^

I liked the little nod to the previous conversation between Luke and Robin concerning which one was Hall and which one was Oates with a blast of "Maneater" later on when Avery and his colleagues are driving around town.

Springsteen is also welcome on any soundtrack.

[badcoverversion]

Really? No love for Breaker High?

I can't believe I overlooked such ballin' ass style. Consider me schooled.

[Beate]

Springsteen is also welcome on any soundtrack.

THAT I can agree on. I was rocking along in my seat!

[raj101]

I can see reasons why some might feel uncomfortable or shortchanged with the film. Its violence and in particular the embracing of gun culture is very off putting, but I am not sure you can make this kind of movie without some violence and gun content.

And Gosling's character isn't what his fans are used to, but the movie deliberately intends to play with our expectations of seeing him as a shady hero. If you met this character in real life most of us would decide he was a twit pretty soon (and tbh he really is a little shit of a character, in fact we've probably all grew up with this kind of guy on the fringe of our lives, the chain smoking good looking poser with only one talent, who loves himself and is going nowhere in life, FAST), but theres much more to his or anyones life than that - which is what this movie portrays.

As for Avery, he acts at times incredibly stupidly, sometimes unbelieveably so.

Its still a great movie, its shortcomings are minor for me.

[Spyder_Webb]

Well I disagree with the overall consensus on the length of the movie. Sure it was a wee bit bum numbing but I didn't think it outstayed it's welcome and I found it nicely paced and compelling right up until the final frame.

I liked the 3 act structure and I thought both Gosling and Cooper put in fine performances and the glorified cameo from Ray Liotta was also praiseworthy.

I have to agree with you with regards to the general opinion regarding the length. Yes, it was fairly long, but not overly long! We're not talking Lord of the Rings here! It's 2 hours 20 minutes. When was that considered a long film?

And I thought the pace was constant throughout; meaning it wasn't exactly fast-paced but neither did it drag on unnecessarily. Maybe the fuse paper was a little too long at the beginning, but on the whole I thought the film kept the viewer intrigued enough and constantly wondering what would happen next. The way the camera followed the characters was brilliant, giving a realistic, almost documentary feel to the film, as if you were there with them as an observer. This approach allowed you to see and experience the subtle changes in the characters as they moved between locations, rather than just cutting to a new scene and seeing them from a new angle.

The three act structure was great, and the unexpectedness of this worked extremely well. The sudden rolling around of the main focus of the film from the 'main character' in act 1 to the main character in act 2 was probably the highlight for me. I was just left thinking, "How? What? How is the film going to continue now!?" The unpredictability of this film is what made me love it so much. Those who prefer a formulaic Hollywood screenplay are unsurprisingly sure to be disappointed. Granted, act 3 may have been a tad more predictable but it did still keep the viewer guessing. That said, the very final scene did seem to be the director thinking, "Ok, how do I actually end this?". But still, I don't think the ending dragged on.

I also really like the fact that no character in this film was either wholly bad or wholly good. Again, this added to the realistic approach of the film and the believable genuine characters.

If anyone appreciates real cinema and top quality film making, or if they are just bored with tired regurgitated Hollywood drivel, I would highly recommend this film to them.

[canadian_turtle]

I thought this was a very good film; beautifully shot, well-acted through-out, beautiful score and a gripping enough storyline. Different from mainstream films, but in a good way. I don't think the movie was too long per se (particularly considering the very clear structure of the three acts which all needed to receive the proper amount of time to establish the characters and storyline), but it did feel very long for some reason, so some scenes could've perhaps been tightened up a bit (for instance the very first scene, while I wholly approve of shirtless Gosling did feel overlong before he arrived at the cage). Was surprised by how young they managed to make Cooper look, who would've though a bit of facial hair made so much difference (for the better)?

7.5/10

[caitlinmorton]

Wasn't expecting this at all, was a bit confused by the Covent Garden staff saying they were only required to take 100 SFF tickets, e-mailed SFF to ask them to confirm whether that was actually a policy or not (just so I knew for future popular screenings to get there before 6) and they got back to me with "we're looking into this, and in the meantime, send us your address and we'll send you a pair of tickets to a film of your choice"! I didn't expect or ask for that at all, and that was with me making it clear I did end up getting in to the screening.

But just so everyone knows they're looking into it and any SFF problems in the future, don't hesitate to contact them, the staff seem really nice!

[prettyxcool]

Wasn't expecting this at all, was a bit confused by the Covent Garden staff saying they were only required to take 100 SFF tickets, e-mailed SFF to ask them to confirm whether that was actually a policy or not (just so I knew for future popular screenings to get there before 6) and they got back to me with "we're looking into this, and in the meantime, send us your address and we'll send you a pair of tickets to a film of your choice"! I didn't expect or ask for that at all, and that was with me making it clear I did end up getting in to the screening.

But just so everyone knows they're looking into it and any SFF problems in the future, don't hesitate to contact them, the staff seem really nice!

Well done! Good result!

[Beate]

I am guessing they had a number of pre-pa*d Odeon tickets and saw that they could only take 100 SFF ticket holders on top of that?

[caitlinmorton]

Sff hasn't come back to me yet but that is my guess too. I do love how the cinema staff tried to say it was sff's fault though. Regardless, really enjoyed the film and sff's willingness to look into things was much appreciated. Loved to see Prettyxcool and meet everyone else as well!