5) The Place Beyond The Pines
Hey everyone, remember The Place Beyond The Pines, that movie all Ryan Gosling fans went to see only to find out Ryan Gosling wasn’t technically the main star? Right, well to me, I interpreted the scenario as Ryan Gosling wasn’t the ONLY star, because I absolutely love what Derek Cianfrance created. I know some people disagree with me here, but I believe The Place Beyond The Pines held up against this year’s best and brightest, giving us three solid acts filled with brilliant acting and stories about the consequences of our actions told through not one, but two generations. Is it a little long? Is the material dense? Yes and yes, but pushing onward into this forrest of emotion is an adventure worth the sacrifice.
Starting out with Gosling’s renegade circus character, we watch a devoted father try to care for his family and life, but struggle to advance his state through legal means. Family is family though, and you do what you have to, but unfortunately this doesn’t end well for Gosling – and this is where we meet Bradley Cooper’s character. From here the story shifts to crooked cops and another father struggling to do the right thing, but his story continues on and on, leading to the third act where we meet both men’s sons – and they meet each other. Enter Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen, Gosling’s and Cooper’s sons respectively, and the story takes a full circle kind of arc, but also starts yet another story between the boys. When each chapter closes, another one opens – it’s some of the best storytelling I encountered all year.
I love The Place Beyond The Pines just as much now as I did when it was released, making it a hard-fought warrior amongst some of the more recent releases on this list.
The Place Beyond The Pines is currently available on DVD and Blu-Ray. Read my full review of the film here.
