Tag: Ryan Gosling

The Nice Guys

Shane Black directs Ryan Gosling and Russell Crowe in a noir comedy set in ’70s Los Angeles.

TheNiceGuysPoster2Across the “Lethal Weapon” movies and “Kiss Kiss Bang Bang,” few directors have been as consistently successful with action comedies as Shane Black. In his latest film “The Nice Guys,” he’s combined that penchant for irreverence and slick action into a hilarious, scandalous, seedy noir in the vein of “L.A. Confidential” and a Judd Apatow bromance.

Russell Crowe and Ryan Gosling play private detectives trying to track down a missing teenage girl named Amelia (Margaret Qualley) in ‘70s Los Angeles, believing that her disappearance may be tied to the recent suicide of a notable porn star. Jackson Healy (Crowe) is an unlicensed tough specializing in roughing up perverts and collecting payments. Amelia is one of his clients, and he crosses paths with Holland March (Gosling) as March tries to locate her for a separate client. When Healy loses track of Amelia and gangsters come looking to kill her, Healy and March team up to protect her and uncover the scam brewing under the surface.

“You made a porno film where the point is the story?” March poses this question to Amelia as the complexities of their case get revealed. And in the same way, Black makes a commitment to story first above action or even comedy. Layered with intricate detail and mystery and littered with nostalgic, local color, “The Nice Guys” proves to be a great vehicle for Crowe and Gosling because it sets up stakes first.

It’s a buddy movie, yes, but the two of them together feed off their bad behavior and annoyance with the other. Crowe’s slack poise contrasts wonderfully with Gosling’s bouncy and twitchy façade. Crowe can be perfectly stoic and look as though he’s phoning it in, and then manage a perfectly timed sucker punch or even a spit take. Gosling on the other hand can barely keep himself composed, fighting with a bathroom stall door or fidgeting in a quiet panic as he bleeds profusely after trying to punch through a window. It looks so easy when other PIs do it!

But equally as engaging as “The Nice Guys’s” screwball mystery involves how Healy and March manage to redeem themselves amid their corrupt, wild, sleazy or idiotic behavior. The two each have their vices, with Healy being quick to anger and violence and March taking advantage of senile old folks or neglecting his tween daughter Holly (Angourie Rice).

Holly in particular brings the film together in surprising ways, with Healy forming a natural, yet unexpected bond with her as she looks to him to become a better person. Crowe of course has the dramatic depth to make such a character development convincing. But Gosling still manages the best chemistry. Holly sneaks along with Healy and March to a party at a porn star’s house and exclaims, “There are whores here and stuff!” Ever the perfect father, March says, “I told you not to say that word. Just say, ‘there are whores here.”

“The Nice Guys” doesn’t have too much to say about 2016, but this screwball trip back to the ‘70s is packed with nostalgia, sex, goofy fun…and stuff.

3 ½ stars

 

Only God Forgives

“Only God Forgives” is unapologetically frank and vulgar, but its real flaw is forcing us to sit listlessly as it blows steam.

To assess Nicolas Winding Refn’s “Only God Forgives” as a bad example of a “style over substance” film would be reductive. Refn’s masterpiece “Drive” could not be called any different, but those stylistic flourishes at the very least evoked fear, thrills and painful emotions for its nameless hero.

“Only God Forgives” is so shallowly repugnant because it stoically, passively and slowly evokes nothing at all. Refn’s film is so often unapologetically frank, vulgar and violent, but its real flaw is forcing us to sit listlessly as it blows off steam.

The story involves a boxing club manager and drug dealer named Julian (Ryan Gosling) who is seeking retribution for the death of his older brother. His brother Billy (Tom Burke) was killed after he raped and murdered a 16-year-old girl (he wanted a 14-year-old). Billy was murdered when a sword-wielding Bangkok cop named Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm) held him hostage so that the 16-year-old’s father could have his justice. Although a sufficient story for Julian, Julian’s mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas) wants Chang’s head regardless of Billy’s deed.

The lack of a real compelling justification for so much bloodshed will not escape most viewers and likely does not escape Refn. These characters are not made to be sympathized with. The point seems to be that the Bangkok they live in is already a darkly rendered hellscape, with red filters, exotic wallpaper and neon lighting lining every corridor; any retribution to be found does not exist in this world.

So if you are looking for a reason as to why Julian decides to drag a bystander out of a strip club by his upper jaw, you will not find it. But my question lies with how Julian can sit in front of his masturbating girlfriend or his mother hurling around vulgarities about the size of his penis without eliciting any reaction at all. Continue reading “Only God Forgives”

The Place Beyond the Pines

Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines” is a moving, surprising and sprawling epic of choices, fate, family and fathers.

Three motorcycles are stunt driving in a spherical cage at a circus. It’s a sight to see, but your nose is nearly grazing the walls, and the three fly by in a powerful blur, all seemingly connected in this daredevil harmony. This little visual metaphor is a wonderful summation for the near narrative perfection found in Derek Cianfrance’s “The Place Beyond the Pines.” It’s a moving, surprising and sprawling epic of choices, fate, family and fathers.

One of those daredevils is Handsome Luke Glanton, played with a menacing blankness by Ryan Gosling. We meet Luke donning a red leather jacket and striding through a colorful carnival, the camera bobbing as it carefully follows the back of Luke’s head. We’re the thought that’s nagging in the back of his skull, the responsibility that won’t escape him.

At one of his shows, he meets Romina (Eva Mendes), who he had a fling with a year earlier. They’re about to part ways, but Luke learns that Romina’s one-year old son is his and makes a commitment to stay and care for the boy, even if he doesn’t really have a place in the family. Continue reading “The Place Beyond the Pines”

Lars and the Real Girl

If your brother showed up to your house with a sex doll he believed to be his real life girlfriend, you could have one of two reactions: Either you could go along with his delusion and try and help, or you could lop the head off the damn thing and try and help that way.

“Lars and the Real Girl” is a sitcom-y but sweet story about a man with a social phobia stuck in a delusion. It’s approach for self-help is the former, and it becomes obvious how drastically different a film this could’ve been if it adhered to the latter. But by straining to avoid cynicism and discrimination at all costs, “Lars and the Real Girl” overcomes what would otherwise be cheap, sitcom laughs.

Ryan Gosling shows magnificent range as Lars, the awkward but undeniably endearing disabled person who brings home a plastic girlfriend. He has a crippling fear of social situations and experiences a burning pain at the touch. But at almost every moment Gosling is just naturally beaming.

As we see him sitting with this slutty doll, we laugh with him, not at him. Everyone in town cares so much for him that much of Craig Gillespie’s film is about his family and friends more than it is about Lars. Continue reading “Lars and the Real Girl”

The Ides of March

George Clooney’s political drama lacks the complexity and emotional punch of its predecessors.

Why can’t the Democrats just flat out say how crazy they think all the Republicans are? What is the point of being both rational and polite when it doesn’t make for good drama and certainly doesn’t make for good politics?

“The Ides of March” is a very deliberate, direct film with domineering characters that say what they mean and don’t pull their punches. They don’t have any real wit, charm or depth, but by God they get the job done.

George Clooney’s political thriller follows the events of the Democratic primary and the actions of intelligent, confident and ego driven campaign advisers who will do anything to win. Continue reading “The Ides of March”

Drive

Samurai don’t wear a robe or carry a sword anymore, but they still exist. They wear driving gloves and carry a hammer to nail a bullet into a thug’s forehead.

“Drive”’s nameless anti-hero possesses the same focus, patience and loyalty of his feudal Japanese ancestors, and Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn shares the same pacing and cinematic flourish as his Asian, French and Italian counterparts. Continue reading “Drive”

Crazy, Stupid, Love

“Crazy, Stupid Love” is a rom-com salvaged by its cast but done in by a strange side plot.

Steve Carell is hoping to be a movie star after “The Office.” Ryan Gosling is trying to prove he can do more than simply dramatic method acting. Emma Stone wants to be seen as more than a kid. “Crazy, Stupid, Love” tries so hard to be generic and boilerplate, and there’s a sense the cast would simply not allow it. Continue reading “Crazy, Stupid, Love”

Blue Valentine

Ryan Gosling’s character in “Blue Valentine” mentions in passing that men are more romantic than women. For a man, his bride is the most beautiful creature on Earth, way out of his league. The woman may just settle. I found myself agreeing with Gosling over Michelle Williams more often throughout this film, but who’s right and who’s wrong hardly matters in this heartbreaking romance.

Dean and Cindy are a struggling married couple in their 30s, one child, lower middle class. He’s a blue-collar high school dropout. She’s a nurse through medical school. It’s Valentine’s Day, and they debate getting a room at a cheesy, romantic motel. They’ve made a reservation at “The Future Room.”

We don’t really know why, but things are not well at home. Dean is fun, if a little immature, but he’s good with their daughter and responsible at his job. He also clearly loves Cindy, but her love is not as clear. She gets upset when he gets jealous and angry after she bumps into an old boyfriend at the liquor store. She also questions why he doesn’t do more with his life, or isn’t a little tougher in maintaining the family responsibilities.

Their relationship alone is a variance on what is normally conveyed in broken romances or marriages. He’s usually distant and irresponsible, and she’s usually nitpicky and expecting too much. “Blue Valentine” exists on the basis of Gosling’s sentiment I mentioned above about men and women and romance. Continue reading “Blue Valentine”