A teenager lies
to his mother and bunks off a school ski trip so he can spend a week alone in a
basement.However, his estranged half
sister turns up and she needs help to get off drugs.
Review
This is a
small and well told story with nice performances from Jacopo
Olmo Aninori (Lorenzo) and Tea Falco (Olivia). Lorenzo’s change from selfish
teenager to empathic manhood is nicely documented by Bertolucci, but it’s not a
story that offers anything new in the coming of age film. There is no real
meatiness in the drama. Essentially it's vacuous story about a
couple of rich kids treating themselves and their family badly. This makes them unsympathetic and unlikable and you don't really care what happens to them.There is no real subtext either, so all in
all a surprising choice for a veteran director.
USA 140mins Genre: drama/crime Director: Derek Cianfrance Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Ben Coccio, Darius Marder. Cast: Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendes, Bradley Cooper, Ray Liotta.
Plot
An unconventionally
scripted film split into three stories which arc over two generations of
characters.Luke a fairground trick motorcyclist
who discovers an ex lover has had his baby.He is desperate to do right by them, and stays in town spending time
with mother and son.
Unable to earn good money at anything but motorcycling he
takes up bank robbing, but things don’t go according to plan especially when he
crosses paths with ambitious local cop Avery, who coincidently also has a baby son. Fifteen years pass by and old secrets well
kept are revealed to the two children who are now young men.
Review
Gosling
gives a stand out performance as Luke the motorcycle stunt rider, a man on the outskirts
of society, a drifter, anxious to do right by his son and ex lover Romina.He is gentle and simple soul but when he
settles in Schenectady, New York (translated from the Native American as, the
place beyond the pines) he becomes entangled in the morals and constructs of
urban society.It becomes his cage and
he has no idea how to operate within it, attacking and injurying Kofi, Romina’s(Mendes) boyfriend and turning to crime to earn money.
Avery
(Cooper) is in his own cage, stuck in a corrupt police department, he turns the
tables on the corrupt cops and launches a political career.This part of the film is somewhat weaker as
it’s such a big story to be launched into with little set up, half way through
the film. The pace of the film slows as
we catch up with the change in direction and lead character.
Again in
the third part of the film we are introduced to new characters, the sons of
Luke and Avery and their story, still the pace sluggish. The end is fitting and lyrical though, when
Luke’s son goes beyond the pines and out into the American west.
As I said,
it’s a slow film and a little clichéd but worth the effort for Goslings soulful
performance full of depth and simplicity.
USA 105mins Director: Yaron Zilberman Writers: Yaron Zilberman, Seth Grossman Cast: Catherine Keener, Christopher Walken, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Mark Ivanir.
Plot
The harmony
of an orchestral quartets working and personal relationships are put under
threat when one of it's members is diagnosed with a serious illness.
Review
A
thoughtful film about ageing and coming to accept the choices made in love and
career. The quartet’s problems are very adult and mature and handled with
sensitivity. Peter (Walken) has to deal with the possible end of his career and
face a long and lonely retirement. The shock of his announcement reverberates
through the rest of quartet and threatens their 25 years together.
Gelbert (Hoffman) wants a chance at playing 1st
violin (he’s currently 2nd violin a position which enhances the
first, but does not take the kudos).But
when his wife (Keener the quartets’ viola player) fails to back his bid and
Lerner (Ivanir) refuses to relinquish the post of first, Gelbert takes it as a
personal slight on his talent, and sets out on a path that could break the
quartet and destroy his marriage.
Quiet perfectionist Lerner laments his years
of dedication which has cost him a personal life and Juliette questions her
role as a mother and wife to Gelbert.
It’s all
filmed in a New York bitter winter, snow on the streets and breath in the air
reflecting the bitterness built up in their lives, they seem almost emotionally stuck in
the snow.
The
performances are as quality and subtle as you would expect, lovely to watch and
emotionally delicate.
