Something Cult, Foreign-Language or Indie #262: The Place Beyond the Pines (2012).

 

It's 1995. Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) is a travelling motorcycle stuntman who, after reconnecting with his ex-flame Romina (Eva Mendes), learns she now has a baby son whom he accidentally fathered a year earlier. Romina and the boy, Jason, are now living with her new boyfriend Kofi (Mahershala Ali, before he won Oscars for Moonlight and Green Book), who openly dislikes Luke immediately. Shocked but committed, Luke now impulsively turns to robbing banks to support Romina and Jason. This new crime career naturally makes his path cross with that of upstart cop Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), himself a new husband and father, leading to a very fateful encounter. Then, in 2010, Jason (Dane DeHaan) is a disaffected teen who hangs out with A. J. (Emory Cohen), a drug-addicted and rebellious teen who, initially unbeknownst to Jason, is Luke's son; Jason, meanwhile, doesn't initially know A.J.'s father is Avery. As these two gradually uncover their fathers' histories and connection, parallels are inevitably drawn and it's up to them to end and escape the violent cycle.

The Place Beyond the Pines, for about the first half of its duration, had me engaged but somewhat puzzled about the point of it. But once it introduced Jason and A.J.'s storyline, its narrative intentions indeed became crystal clear to me. This is not simply a basic crime drama, as the synopsis of it on the streaming service I watched it from suggested (hence, maybe, why I initially felt confused and misled); it is also a meditation on internal and external connections between families as well as history's repetitiveness. Director Derek Cianfrance, with his co-writers Ben Cocco and Darius Marder, explores the layers of these three interconnected narratives with consistent logic and assurance until they unravel together like a roll of wrapping paper. He also gets solid performances from all his male cast, particularly Gosling (who I hadn't initially thought suited to action roles) and Cohen, although Mendes is relegated to a pretty one-dimensional love interest role. Sean Bobbitt's beautifully paced cinematography enhances the atmosphere further, and Jim Helton and Ron Patane's editing and Mike Patton's score are also fitting and evocative. Overall, once I could mentally navigate what it was trying to do narratively, I found The Place Beyond the Pines a stunning and hauntingly unique crime/family drama. 9/10.