The Place Beyond The Pines

I saw The Place Beyond The Pines with Dad on April 16, 2013!!! In my opinion, this was the best movie I saw this year so far. Derek Cianfrance did an incredible job with this. The movie follows generations of families. It connects how the past can come back to haunt us, and how we can try to shape our future and step away from the past. The plot really is split into three seperate stories of their own. One story follows the life of motorcycle stunt rider Luke, played by Ryan Gosling superbly in a similar fashion to his role in Drive (his best role to date). He resorts to dangerous and desperate measures to provide a life for his son that he had with Romina played by Eva Mendez. Luke resorts to robbing banks with his boss in order to help his family. He showed alot of intensity in his scenes and at times reminded me of Jax Teller from Sons of Anarchy. He encounters rookie cop Avery played brilliantly by Bradley Cooper, who seems to have found his niche. He needs to stay with drama, because he's actually a good actor. What was interesting about this is the encounter with Luke leads to consequences for both families for the next 15 years. Luke's story arc transforms into Avery's story arc where we get a look at his life within the police department and corruption that runs rampant throughout. I liked Rose Byrne playing Avery's wife Jennifer as she worked in that atmosphere. Avery wants to change things in the police department, and we find out there's more to his background which really keeps things going strong. There are some great cameos by Ray Liotta and Bruce Greenwood in important roles which help to progress Avery's future in the story. We also get a story arc looking at the lives of Luke and Avery's sons in the future. I thought this was a brilliant arc connecting past and present. I felt that Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen both did a phenomneal job as the respective sons of their fathers. The third arc really does a great job in connecting the first two arcs to really make a complete movie. DeHaan's Jayson role was especially incredible, and I though Cohen did a great job as the rebellious AJ. I thought it was interesting seeing the movie have three very different plots, but they all connect similar to what Quentin Tarantino did with Pulp Fiction in 1994. The cast, characters, directing, cinematography-everything was incredible and so well done. I felt I was watching three different movies that in the end blended together to create something really special for the audience. I liked that, because the three stories really gave us a look where each character was coming from emotionally in a deeper manner than some movies will. This movie is a definite 5/5. Everything about this movie was well done. You can only find solace in the Place Beyond The Pines. I highly recommend people check this movie out. It's absolutely amazing. I really hope the Golden Globes and the Oscars look at this movie. It deserves to be on the nominee lists.