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.
Derek Cianfrance treats this maudlin melodrama with too much restraint for it to truly connect.
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 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…