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Cannes: The 10 hottest movies

Thu, 16 May 2013 14:28:00 +0000

CANNES, France -- A chilly downpour greeted arrivals on the Côte d'Azur this week, with the promise of more un-beach-friendly weather to follow. Parties, interview sessions and other manufactured events were feverishly rescheduled to more sheltered locations. But while the sunny weather and picture-postcard scenery of the Riviera are usually a lot more pleasant this time of year, they aren’t the real reason why the entire film industry descends on this overgrown resort town for 10 days every spring. Now we all have an excuse to head indoors and watch movies.

I’ve already read other critics proclaiming in advance that this 66th Festival de Cannes -- which got underway on Wednesday night with the star-studded but rain-soaked European premiere of "The Great Gatsby," followed by murky midnight fireworks -- will be a memorably great one, with one of the strongest lineups in years. OK, sure, maybe. But more than anything, that’s a film-industry reaction to the fact that this festival has premiered several movies in recent years that made a big impact in America, “The Artist” and “Amour” being the most obvious examples. It’s certainly possible that this year’s festival will produce Oscar-winning films or culture-condensing moments, and a lot of people are looking forward to Alexander Payne’s “Nebraska,” the Coen brothers’ “Inside Llewyn Davis” and “Jimmy P.” -- the first English-language film from the great French director Arnaud Desplechin -- with that in mind. (Should I work in a gratuitous mention of James Franco's Faulkner adaptation, "As I Lay Dying"? Sure, why not? Puzzlingly, that is officially Franco's fifth feature as a director.)

“The Place Beyond the Pines”: Almost a great American father-son fable

Wed, 27 Mar 2013 00:00:00 +0000

A sprawling, epic-scale triptych about fathers and sons in America that seeks to combine the spirits of Charles Dickens and Bruce Springsteen, “The Place Beyond the Pines” might be better off if it were just a crime movie with Ryan Gosling. Still, there’s no mistaking the immense ambition and tremendous craftsmanship of director and co-writer Derek Cianfrance (who made “Blue Valentine” with Gosling and Michelle Williams), and I think the movie is most effective if you know little about the story going in. So I’ll be pretty guarded in what I tell you about the story, which takes a couple of surprising narrative left turns and jumps forward in time.

“Place Beyond the Pines” director on movie violence: “I don’t think it’s beautiful. I don’t think it’s art. I don’t think it’s cool”

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 14:50:00 +0000

"The Place Beyond the Pines," the new film starring Ryan Gosling, hinges on a pivotal moment of violence; however, the film's director, Derek Cianfrance, hardly took it lightly. Though the film's action is impossible to describe in detail without spoiling, a gun and a split-second decision to shoot are involved. Cianfrance, who previously worked with heartthrob-of-the-moment Gosling on "Blue Valentine," spoke to Salon about the glut of violence on film -- and why it disgusts him.

Tell me a little bit about the obligation a filmmaker has when he depicts gun violence.

Well, personally, as a father, first, before I’m a filmmaker, I feel like I am responsible for my actions. I am responsible for what I put into the world, because this is a world for my children, and my kids cannot watch my movies now, but someday I will be proud to show them my movies. Sometime along the way, all of a sudden violence was deemed cinematic, for some reason. I think it must have been Peckinpah or something who turned it into this, like, ballet of violence.

Ryan Gosling to take a break from acting

Wed, 20 Mar 2013 22:26:00 +0000

America is going to have to want Ryan Gosling as an internet meme for a while, it seems. The actor recently told AP's Jack Coyle that he's taking a break from acting, saying "I've been doing it too much." He explained:

"I've lost perspective on what I'm doing. I think it's good for me to take a break and reassess why I'm doing it and how I'm doing it. And I think this is probably a good way to learn about that. I need a break from myself as much as I imagine the audience does."

But don't worry, Gosling is weening America off slowly-- he stars in "The Place Beyond the Pines," to be released this spring, will soon begin filming his directorial debut with "How To Catch A Monster," and has two other projects in various stages of production.

“Gangster Squad” whitewashes the LAPD’s criminal past

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 21:28:00 +0000

If you view Ruben Fleischer’s “Gangster Squad” as a violent period crime thriller in a familiar dress-up vein – as a capable imitation of better movies by Martin Scorsese, Brian DePalma and Roman Polanski – it’s reasonably successful entertainment. It’s got overacting from Sean Penn, beneath a ton of makeup, as legendary Los Angeles mob boss Mickey Cohen, along with underacting from Ryan Gosling as the slightly nebbishy romantic lead and down-the-middle acting from Josh Brolin as its upright cop hero. Add in the digitally re-created, noir-flavored locations of postwar L.A. and the dazzling eye candy of Emma Stone in terrific period dresses and heartbreaking auburn hair and, hey – by the standards of midwinter Hollywood releases, not bad at all.

Justin Bieber is distant cousin of Ryan Gosling and Avril Lavigne

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 12:26:00 +0000

SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- Call it the Canadian dynasty of teenybopper pop and movie stardom.

Genealogists at Ancestry.com say they've discovered teen idol Justin Bieber is a distant cousin of movie star Ryan Gosling and singer Avril Lavigne. Their family link dates back to some of Quebec's earliest settlers 400 years ago, the Utah-based company said Thursday.

As if Bieber didn't have enough superstar genes, Ancestry.com also said he's a distant relative of singer Celine Dion.

"The great thing about family history is that you never know what you're going to find," said Michelle Ercanback, a researcher with Ancentry.com. "It was a very pleasant surprise."

Ercanback said researchers begun tracing Bieber's family lineage about a year ago by paging through teen-idol magazines to find biographical tidbits from the pop star.

What they say they found was that Bieber and Gosling are 11th cousins once removed, and Bieber and Lavigne are 12th cousins. They share common relatives Mathurin Roy and Marguerite Bire, the researchers said. Both were born in France in the early 1600s, married in 1637, and moved to Quebec, where Roy worked as a master mason.

“Gangster Squad”: A theater shooting in a movie. Too soon?

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 17:20:00 +0000

Movies are our escape. But they're also our catharsis. They're how we work through our fear and anger, how we make sense of the senseless. And in the wake of the most profoundly senseless acts, the challenge for the entertainment industry is to figure out at what point a once-innocuous scene becomes a painful reminder of a tragedy, or when an image, a reference or a word takes on unintended meaning. When terrible things happen, the question almost immediately arises: How soon is too soon?

That's the issue at hand for the upcoming film "Gangster Squad," a 1940s-era crime drama that features Ryan Gosling, Sean Penn, Emma Stone – and a scene of a squad of thugs opening fire in a crowded movie theater. The scene is featured prominently in the trailer that Warner Bros. released in May.

It's not the first movie moment of its kind. "Inglourious Basterds," after all, features a scene of horrendous movie theater carnage. And "Scream 2" features a murder at the hands of a masked killer in the midst of a pumped-up movie crowd.