TUTORIAL IT

Ambition but Not the Gravity Kind Derek Cianfrances The Place Beyond the Pines

The Place Beyond the Pines (2012) / US / Out on DVD now / Directed By Derek Cianfrance / Written by Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio and Darius Marder / Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Dane DeHaan, Emory Cohen, Rose Byrne

A long while ago, when I was a young, precocious and naive girl filled with a fanciful imagination, I used to think up movies in my head. Theyd end up getting far too complex and ambitious, and then Id flag that possible masterpiece, and move on to the next creation. They werent complex in the way that say, Inception is complex. They were complex in the way that they were essentially three or four movies in one, connected by the tiniest of threads.

When I sat down to watch Derek Cianfrances sophomore effort The Place Beyond the Pines, I was prepared for this movie where Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper would face off for, you know, the entire movie. Alas, The Place Beyond the Pines instantly reminded me of the movies I used to work tirelessly on in my brain - and this is not at all a bad thing. It is the kind of film that is thorough in its complexity, sometimes to a fault. This is not the sort of film where Ryan Gosling plays the tattooed rebel and Bradley Cooper plays the cop trying to bring him down. It is about much, much more than that.




This is essentially three films in one, with the first act focusing on Ryan Goslings motorbike riding Luke Glanton trying to provide for the son he had with Romina (Eva Mendes), which he does by robbing banks. The second act focuses on Bradley Coopers hero cop Avery Cross, as he tries to get back into the force after his big act of heroism. The last act focuses on Lukes son, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and Averys son, AJ (Emory Cohen), who cross paths fifteen years later, and the film looks at how their fathers past affects them. This is all potentially loose sort of narrative material, which couldve been crammed into two parts, or scrapped the last part altogether. However, the beauty in The Place Beyond the Pines is that it splays the story out over three parts, so each of the very different parts can be fully realised. It is just as well that it was dealt to in this way, because Cianfrance has a lot of ideas on the go. Maybe a little too many, but it is better to have too many than not enough.

The Place Beyond the Pines works most because it is ambitious. Not in the way it uses technology, or aims for a super long running time or something out of the ordinary, but in the way that it aims to comment on so many different themes and wind them up all into one story. No, it isnt perfect. I dont particularly think the story involving Ray Liottas character really served the main narrative as much as Cianfrance perhaps wanted it to, and it wasnt as closely tied as the rest of it was (and I dont say this because Liotta and I have a strange relationship). But it was as realistic as possible. Our lives arent movies. Movies have the luxury of editing lives into narratives. The Place Beyond the Pines doesnt feel like it is made up from some fantastical dream world that will give us all of the answers to humanity. It just happens to feel like something that is real. Particularly the final act, which really floored me when I first saw the film. Instead of leaving the film with just Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper, it dares to look at the consequences that resonate through the years. Though both Romina and Avery tuck the past away, it is interesting to see what they treat as a fragment of the past comes back to the surface in the present to their two sons. Of course, the film wouldnt have been near as effective if we didnt have the parts that just focused on Luke and Avery, but I felt like the film really came to fruition in that final act. Ambitious, yes, but it was this certain kind of uniqueness that could make The Place Beyond the Pines either wonderful to some or tiring to others. Luckily, I fell in the former category, particularly due to the great performances from Emory Cohen and especially man of the moment, Dane DeHaan.


Sure, this isnt perhaps as closely tied as a narrative as Blue Valentine was, but theres such an enigmatic beauty about this film. It has a lot to say, and doesnt choose to take out ideas in order to have an easier viewing experience. Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper and Eva Mendes are on the top of their games here, shedding their considerably glossy movie star exterior to create real characters, in this wonderfully life-like (well I think it is, anyway) film. Double Cianfrances down-to-Earth writing with some brilliant cinematography by Sean Bobbitt, who is perhaps most famous for being the man behind the camera on all of Steve McQueens films, and heres a film is different because it dares, without being overt about it.

Ambition bleeds through every frame of this film. And at the end of the day, its ambition that keeps everything moving forward.

How I felt about this one:

Available link for download

All Ya Need is Energy and Ambition

Attack the Block (2011) / UK / Out on DVD now / Written and directed by Joe Cornish / Starring Jodie Whittaker, John Boyega, Alex Esmail, Leeon Jones, Franz Drameh, Simon Howard and Nick Frost / 83 mins

Give a man a chance to show his ambition, and his ambition can work wonders.

After all, film-making is all about ambition. Youve gotta have ambition sitting on your shoulder right throughout the process, otherwise theres no point in sharing your story. These days ambition runs a little thin. And one genre that is seriously lacking ambition is the monster movie. These things are easy to do - just create a monster, and let people fight it. Attack the Block is a fairly simple monster movie, but the thing that sets it apart from all of the others is its relentless ambition. Joe Cornish wasnt given the biggest budget for his movie, which only drives up the ambition even more. With that ambition comes a truck load of energy, which is unlike anything Ive seen recently.

Set against the backdrop of London council flats, Attack the Block begins with nurse Sam (Jodie Whittaker), on her way home from work, getting mugged by a bunch of locals. While theyre mugging her, a meteorite interrupts them. Sam escapes, and the leader of her gang of muggers, Moses (John Boyega), goes to investigate the wreckage. There he finds a strange, alien-like creature, which he kills, and then takes it up to resident drug dealer Ron (Nick Frost) so he can take care of it while he figures out what to do. In that time, a whole pile of gorilla-like aliens descend upon their block of flats. Suddenly, it is the gang against these aliens as they fight to keep their block. Despite the fact that these guys mugged her earlier that night, Sam joins forces with them in order to keep their block intact, as these aliens try to take hold.


Given the extremely short running time of 83 minutes, Attack the Block wastes no time getting straight into the story, and once it gets going, it doesnt stop. It has such vibrant energy running through it that it is impossible not to get swept up by it. Theres a pulsating soundtrack from Basement Jaxx giving it an extra push (in the same way that The Chemical Brothers music did for Hanna), with some British hip-hop adding some more hipness. The entire thing plays out like it is on a livewire - just about the complete opposite to the dwindling post-Red-Bull crash that I experienced with The Amazing Spider-Man - giving us plenty of colourful characters to look out for, plenty of things to keep your eyes busy. Such unrelenting energy is a rarity, but Attack the Block is able to take you in from the first few minutes, which is no mean feat. Taking place mostly inside an apartment block, Attack the Block could draw comparisons to The Raid. And they would make for an interesting, if a little exhausting, double feature. Both of them have the same, simple energy, even though Attack the Block is a little more excited about it all.

The relatively small budget isnt that much of a problem, either. The design of the monsters is simple. Theyre gorilla looking things with neon mouths. And theyre as effectively terrifying as anything Ive ever seen. Thats probably because they arent the same old CGI messes that are covered in snot. They look like you could cuddle them, but those neon things serve as a warning as to why you shouldnt. Which is a great shame. You could sell those things to kids, and then theyd make their way into homes before taking over the world. Maybe Im looking a bit too much into it but hey, if Attack the Block wanted me to put the scares up, thats how I did it.


If these guys did end up taking over the world, maybe wed be okay in the hands of Moses and his gang. They start out as the people we are supposed to hate because of their treatment of poor Sam, but they come to the party as heroes. What partially troubled me was that they were cut out of the same bread as the group of teens in another post-apocalyptic British film Shank. The Attack the Block kids are a little easier to side with, but they still have the same thin character development as those annoying people in Shank. At least Attack the Block has energy running through it, instead of anger.

Even though it has been over a year since Attack the Block first surfaced and everyone went pretty crazy over it, Ive managed to keep relatively blind about this film. So I definitely didnt expect to be so inspired by Joe Cornishs efforts. But when ambition and energy runs as thick as it does here, its hard not to be uplifted by what is essentially just a simple monster movie.

What I got:

Available link for download