The Light Between Oceans is Too Polite for its Own Good
Derek Cianfrance treats this maudlin melodrama with too much restraint for it to truly connect.
Double Feature: Drive (2011) and The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)
The Place Beyond the Pines is a difficult film to rate; it’s undeniably exciting and innovative, but its reach often exceeds its grasp. The film is a significant departure from Derek Cianfrance’s last film, Blue Valentine, which was an intensely intimate experience filmed in a grubby, shaky vérité style. His new film is more expansive,…
Blue Valentine (2010)
Blue Valentine tells a simple story of a marriage: how Dean (Ryan Gosling) and Cindy (Michelle Williams) meet, experience that thrill of infatuation … and how, years later, that thrill stagnates and calcifies as their relationship is on the precipice of collapse. It’s a drama, but it avoids easy dramatic clichés like tragic accidents, disease…
