We are now officially half way through the year and so I’ve asked our staff to vote for their favourite films released thus far. Hollywood blockbusters may have disappointed us, but thankfully we can always rely on independent filmmakers to create some truly inspiring films. Rounding out the special mentions is Terrence Malick’s To The …
The Place Beyond the Pines, so called for the English translation of the Mohawk word “Schenectady,” is close to a carousel in structure, one that would not be out of place at that traveling carnival where we first meet Luke in an extended tracking shot. Round and round it goes, taking the audience on an exacting, circular up-and-down ride. Cianfrance, along with co-writers Ben Coccio and Darius Marder, lets the film linger in moments, allowing it a hypnotic, novelistic pacing.
Today’s film is the 2006 short Lately There Have Been Many Misunderstandings… The film is directed by Derek Cianfrance, and stars Allan Greenberg,Darlene Violette, and Kira Sternbach, with music from Goofus & Gallant. Cianfrance rose to prominence in the film community with his second feature, 2010’s Blue Valentine, which garnered much critical acclaim. His latest feature, …
After a bold narrative choice, the film’s momentum is slowly drained as the hyper ferocity of the first hour is substituted for a less than involving police procedural arc involving Cooper’s character, whose role as a blue collar policemen fails to even register on a dramatic level.
[quote by=”Synopsis”] A mysterious and mythical motorcycle racer, Luke (Ryan Gosling), drives out of a traveling carnival globe of death and whizzes through the backstreets of Schenectady, New York, desperately trying to connect with a former lover, Romina, (Eva Mendes) who recently and secretly gave birth to the stunt rider’s son. In an attempt to …
The best part about being a film fan in a big city is that you are exposed to so many films that you would have otherwise never heard of. Obscure arthouse releases, strange french films and more film festivals that you can shake a fist at, it’s rare that I am able to predict with …
The news of indie favourites Grizzly Bear contributing an all-original soundtrack for the intense romantic drama Blue Valentine has been circulating on the internets for quite sometime now. Bated breaths were held, waiting for the new material to surface accompanied closely by the also no doubt brilliant, yet heartbreakingly beautiful, film featuring Ryan Gosling and …
Blue Valentine is a film less about love and more about how fleeting life is, and the film does right in reminding us of this, through the creeping of age, the inevitability of death, the offering of flowers that will surely wither, and love here one moment, then gone. The film shifts back and forth …
Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance spoke to Vulture in December about a new series he was working on with HBO: “I can’t tell you what [the show’s] about, but I can tell you that we’re gonna try to give new meaning to the word ‘character development.’” Now some light has been shed on Cianfrance’s HBO …
Fall is now upon us. With Labor Day upon us, that means it’s time to get the rake out and pass on those trick or treats. Football has replaced Baseball, although with the pennant race in full gear, important baseball is still to be played. I am glad I mentioned the word important because that …