The Place Beyond the Pines - DVD Review

Starring Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Eva Mendes, Ray Liotta, Dane Dehaan, Emory Cohen, Bruce Greenwood, Mahershala Ali, Harris Yulin, Ben Mendelsohn and Robert Clohessy. Directed by Derek Cianfrance.

★★★

Ryan Gosling's been playing a lot of screwed-up guys lately. It must feed some need inside him. I picture him with a summer cabin with a torture room in the basement.

Here he plays a desperate father who turns to bank robbery to provide for his son.  His path will eventually cross with Bradley Cooper, a cop with a young son of his own.  We see their story for the first two-thirds of the movie, and I enjoyed every aspect of that.

Then it flash-forwards sixteen years to follow the sons, and we see how the choices of the fathers have affected their sons, and here's where the movie went a little sideways for me. It puts together some events that felt too contrived, and it took me out of the movie. There's a real cinema-verite vibe going on with it, and overall I liked it. I just thought the last third weakened the power from the first two acts.

Killing Them Softly - DVD Review

Starring Brad Pitt, James Gandolfini, Scoot McNairy, Richard Jenkins, Ben Mendelsohn, Ray Liotta, Vincent Curatola, Sam Shepard and Max Casella.
Directed by Andrew Dominik.

★★

There's a really good mob movie buried in here.  Buried under all the talking.  This is a very talkie mob movie, where conversations go a couple minute longer than they should.  We watch, interested, but by the time a few scenes end, it's a conscious decision to re-engage with the movie.  And since the movie's only 90 minutes long, it's amazing how draggy the movie can be.

It centers on a high-stakes poker game, which two losers decide to rob.  The blame can be pinned on the runner of the game (Ray Liotta), but when hitman Cogan (Brad Pitt) comes to town, he's a little smarter about things.

Some of the best conversations happen between Pitt and Richard Jenkins. And I should mention that all the actors embody their roles well.  There are spurts of action here and there, and if the dialogue was QT-esque crackling, maybe I wouldn't have minded.  Pitt's final monologue is great.

Sidenote: This features three Sopranos alum but none of them are ever on-screen at the same time.