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The Place Beyond the Pines<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(2013)<\/p>\n Romina (Eva Mendes) visits her ex-lover, motorcycle stuntman Luke Glanton (Ryan Gosling) to casually tell him he’s the father of her child. \u00a0She’s shocked and disappointed to find Luke wants to be a part of the child’s life.<\/p>\n If movies have taught us nothing else, we know motorcycle drivers will inevitably turn to a life of crime. Mistakenly believing money will earn him a larger role in his son’s life, Luke uses his skills to rob banks and evade capture. Predictably, it doesn’t work as planned and Luke meets an early, violent demise at the hands of police office Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).<\/p>\n Fifteen years later, Avery is running for public office and his son becomes involved with the teenage son of the deceased Luke.<\/p>\n Bradley Cooper is incredibly versatile, believable in silly action films<\/a>, serious war films<\/a>,\u00a0romantic dramas<\/a>\u00a0and\u00a0melodramas like this.<\/p>\n Ryan Gosling is underrated. His work in Half-Nelson\u00a0<\/em>(2006),\u00a0Lars and the Real Girl\u00a0<\/em>(2007) and\u00a0Drive<\/em> (2011) proves he’s an actor of real talent not content to rest on his marquee looks.\u00a0This is his second collaboration with director Derek Cianfrance, after the controversial, but excellent Blue Valentine<\/em> (2010).<\/p>\n Sadly the women in this film, Eva Mendes and Rose Byrne, don’t get a lot of screen time and serve as glorified plot devices.<\/p>\n Ray Liotta is engaging as corrupt cop Peter Deluca. After Field of Dreams<\/em> (1989) and Goodfellas<\/em> (1990), he seemed destined for superstardom, but his career has been mostly smaller supporting roles like this.<\/p>\n While Liotta’s career has devolved into smaller roles,\u00a0Bruce Greenwood seems to have hit his stride in his fifties. He spent his younger years playing supporting roles, but now he’s in demand for older, wiser roles like Bill Killcullen.<\/p>\n I like Mahershala Ali’s work as\u00a0Remy Dalton<\/a>\u00a0and it’s nice to see him in something else.<\/p>\n This film was trying to show both sides of a story, but instead of integrating the viewpoints into a single narrative, the filmmakers chose to treat this like a double feature with the second film starting immediately after the first ended. The first half is a stylish, fast paced interesting film. The second is a plodding mess which knew where it wanted to end up, but had no idea how to get there. It’s\u00a0too heavy-handed and too long. By the time we care about Luke, he’s dead, and we’re too emotionally exhausted to care about Avery.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Stormy Weather<\/a><\/em>\u00a0(1943)<\/p>\n Bill Williamson (Bill “Bojangles” Robinson<\/a>) comes home after the first World War and pursues a career in entertainment.<\/p>\n The musical movie is loosely based on Robinson’s own experiences and\u00a0features many of the most famous black performers of the day.<\/p>\n Lena Horne plays Williamson’s fictional love interest, Selina Rogers. Her rendition of the titular song<\/a>\u00a0made her a star.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n<\/p>\n