ryan gosling – This Had Oscar Buzz

This week, our Focus Features miniseries brings us to The Place Beyond the Pines, Derek Dianfrance’s epic, novelistic tale of fathers and sons. The film reunited Cianfrance with his Blue Valentine star Ryan Gosling as a motorcyclist who turns to crime, with consequences that will reverbate across households and generations. After launching at TIFF in 2012, Focus Features held the film until the following spring, leaving it as a highly divisive afterthought come awards season.

We unpack Cianfrance’s ambitious triptych vision with a stellar ensemble cast of Gosling, Bradley Cooper, Dane DeHaan, Ray Liotta, Rose Byrne, Ben Mendelsohn, and Eva Mendes. We discuss the film’s underserved female characters, early 2010s Gosling fatigue, and its emotionally intelligent exploration of masculinity that still left some viewers cold. And there’s still room to rave over cinematographer Derek Cianfrance and his bold work for this film that left him with a concussion.

Topics also include Cianfrance’s underseen HBO limited series I Know This Much Is True, Michelle Williams’ nomination for Blue Valentine without one for Gosling, and reading A Little Life on vacation.

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In many ways, 2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling. This was the peak “Hey Girl” era, and this year alone gave us the critical darling hotness of Drive and what we thought would suit the more traditional Academy tastes with The Ides of March. He was so omnipresent that a weak Best Actor field had us thinking for a moment that Oscar could make room for his most charming work in the trifecta, Crazy, Stupid, Love. Add him in to a cast of other beloved performers like Steve Carell, Julianne Moore, and Emma Stone, and you have a recipe for a real guilty pleasure.

Though Gosling did nab a Globe nomination for his ab-flashing work, this one might have been wishful thinking anyway with Oscar, but then again: there’s that pesky comedy bias. And while CSL has its champions (particularly programmers of cable television networks), the film also has all the trademark contrivances in screenwriter Dan Fogelman’s wheelhouse. This week we discuss Gosling’s ascent as a major leading man, the film’s creepy sexual politics, and how romantic comedies have failed Marisa Tomei.

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146 – The Place Beyond the Pines (Focus Features – Part Four)

026 – Crazy, Stupid, Love.