Ryan Gosling

Blue Valentine

/ / Home Video
  • Title: Blue Valentine
  • IMDB: link

blue-valentine-blu-raySome couples shouldn’t stay together. That’s the basic message behind Blue Valentine from writer/director Derek Cianfrance which stars Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams trapped in the painful end of a marriage which should have never happened.

Through flashbacks we’re shown their shy beginnings and the events which rush the couple into an all-too-quick marriage. The effects of this are all to obvious on the current state of their relationship.

I liked the film enough to sneak it onto my Best Movies of 2010 list. Williams and Gosling carry the film with a pair of strong performances of two people going through the motions of a doomed love affair which should have ended years ago.

Available on both Blu-ray and DVD the extras include deleted scenes, a making of the film featurette, and commentary with Cianfrance and editor Jim Helton.

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Finally, a Real Love Story!

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Lars and the Real Girl
  • IMDB: link

“The search for true love begins outside the box.”

Hollywood loves contrived love stories with insane stipulations and “humorous” misunderstandings.  Well I’ve got a little love story for you that knocks off the conventions of today’s chick flicks and presents an engaging, sweet, and enduring love story (between a man and his sex doll no less!).

Karin (Emily Mortimer) and Gus (Paul Schneider) are expecting a new baby, but the person Karin is most concerned with is Gus’s shy and awkward younger brother Lars (Ryan Gosling) who keeps everyone at arms length and seems to have trouble with intimacy and with social gatherings.  And who is terribly lonely, whether he admits it or not.

Out of the blue Lars announces he has met a girl on the Internet who has come to visit.  Bianca is a beautiful, smart, and kind paralyzed Danish-Brazilian missionary.  She’s also a Real Doll (a lifelike and anatomically correct sex doll made of silicone) who Lars bought online.  Now, given the state of gross-out humor popular today, you might think you know where the film is going, but you would be wrong.

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All Good Things

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: All Good Things
  • IMDB: link

Although the film is based on the real events surrounding the life of Robert Durst, the main problem with the screenplay by Marcus Hinchey and Marc Smerling is how ridiculous the events appear when recreated on film.

What starts as a love story and tense drama about a troubled son of a real estate broker devolves into a thriller. Then the thriller turns into the kind of cinematic disaster nobody wants on their resume. All Good Things may be based on a real story but it plays like bad fiction.

There’s something off about David Marks (Ryan Gosling) the first time we meet him, but that’s not enough to stop the charming Katie (Kirsten Dunst) from falling for him. Needled by his father’s (Frank Langella) disapproval David and Katie leave the tranquil health food store in Vermont so David can act as the bagman for the family business collecting cash from various seedy Times Square enterprises which the Marks famly owns.

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The Best Movies of 2010

/ / Top Tens & Lists

This wasn’t a year to wow you. 2010 may have been somewhat of an off year for movies, but there are several quality films that hit theaters this year which are worth noting. A couple things struck me as I was putting together this list. First, how actresses stepped up huge this year. Whether in lead or supporting roles, it was a year dominated by the performances of the fairer sex. And second, 2010 was a year of raw emotion, almost visceral, brought to screen. You might argue that one or two of my choices didn’t have elaborate plots, but each delivered on an emotional level.

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How to Kill Your Wife and Get Away With It

/ / Movie Reviews
  • Title: Fracture
  • IMDb: link

Fracture movie reviewWhile Fracture isn’t a great film it is a compelling and fun ride including good performances and a script which will keep you guessing similar to 2003’s Runaway Jury.  Featuring a pair of great actors in plum roles it’s the type of film you enjoy watching, even if you can punch holes in some of the plot points later on.

On discovering his wife (Embeth Davidtz) is having an affair with a police detective (Billy Burke) Ted Crawford (Anthony Hopkins) coldly plans her murder.  But instead of an intricate plan or an ironclad alibi he simply walks up to her at home, shoots her in the head, and then waits for the police to arrive.

Willy Beachum (Ryan Gosling), a young Assistant District Attorney with one foot out the door for a new cushy corporate job working under a beautiful woman (Rosamund Pike), is assigned the case.  There’s evidence, a confession, and Stevens even plans on defending himself.  Slamdunk.

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