Lars and the Real Girl review

 Number 927 on the top 1000 films of all time is the 2007 comedy-drama 'Lars and the Real Girl.'

Lars Lindstrom (Ryan Gosling) is a socially awkward, but kind-hearted man in a small American town. He lives in the garage of the house owned by his brother Gus (Paul Sneider) and his wife Karin (Emily Mortimer.) The intensely lonely Lars then starts a romantic, but asexual relationship with a sex doll called Bianca.

This was one of the kookiest films I've seen in a while. On paper, it certainly sounds dubious. A socially awkward single man has a relationship with a sex doll. He has to be some type of pervert, right? This film is just going to be an exercise in cruelty mocking him. 

Yet it was a charming and strangely touching affair. In some ways it reminded me of Spike Jonze's Her which also explored similar themes of human connection. It certainly helped that you had Ryan Gosling in the lead role. He was charismatic enough to make Lars an intensely likeable character. The whole town rallies around him and his relationship with Bianca. I guess it helped they cast a dreamboat like Ryan Gosling. If they had cast somebody like Danny Devito it would have been a very different film. Sorry, Danny, but it's true.

However, Ryan has much more to offer than his good looks. He is also incredibly funny which helped to add some much-needed whimsy into this affair. But he cannot take all the credit. Both Paul Sneider and Emily Mortimer were good as Lars' family who while thoroughly confused by Lars' actions are determined to help support him however they can. Mortimer certainly showed a lot more charisma here than in Match Point.

Patricia Clarkson also shines in supporting role as she plays a doctor who gives regular treatments to Bianca, but who is secretly diagnosing and analysing Lars. She played a compassionate and caring character. These are the best types of doctors to have.

Everything culminates in a bittersweet conclusion which I won't spoil here, but we see Lars go through some real character growth. It was a satisfactory arc and a way to bring the story to a good ending. His emotional journey was correct.

Like I say this is one of the strangest films I've seen in a while, but it definitely worked. It had the correct tone. Instead of being a  gross-out comedy, it was treated with real heart and care. And it was certainly a creative idea. No wonder it received an Oscar nod for Best Original Screenplay. 

Crazy, Stupid Love review

 Number 852 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic-comedy 'Crazy, Stupid Love.'

Calvin Weaver's (Steve Carell) wife Emily (Julianne Moore) wants to divorce him after having an affair with colleague David Lindhagen (Kevin Bacon.) Pick-up artist Jacob (Ryan Gosling) sees Calvin at a bar and starts teaching him how to have success with women. meanwhile, Calvin's babysitter Jessica (Lio Tipton) is secretly in love with him, and Calvin's son Robbie is in love with her. Finally, Jacob starts a romance with aspiring lawyer Hannah (Emma Stone,) and starts to reconsider his womanising ways.

It's a shame this film rushed the beginning so much because it was otherwise a humorous and heart-warming watch. it opens with Emily asking Cal for a divorce. before we even know Cal as a character we are expected to feel sorry for him. And because of this rushed pacing, a lot of the emotional beats fell flat. From here, the film had to catch up with itself.

But when it it did, the film was great. much of that was down to the talented cast. I find Steve Carell very over-the-the-top especially with comedy, but he was wonderfully understated here. He also did well in the more dramatic elements.

I also very much enjoyed Ryan Gosling. He is a good actor, but hitherto I haven't liked any of his films. This changed here. Again, this was due to the film's understated nature.

One of my favourite scene was where we see Jacob and Hannah about to hook up. Or, at least, that was the idea, because of instead of hooking up, they talk the night away. And they found that more enjoyable than if they had slept together. it was a wonderfully subtle note to begin a relationship on. To have the two sleeping together would be too easy and predictable.

Crazy, Stupid Love should have spent more time setting up its plot, but, despite its slow beginning, it is well worth a watch. It is understated, subtle, yet very funny and poignant.

Blue Valentine review

 Number 881 on the top 1000 films of all time is Derek Cianfrance's 2010 romantic drama 'Blue Valentine.'

Blue Valentine tells the relationship between under-achieving slacker Dean (Ryan Gosling) and his over-worked nurse wife Cindy (Michelle Williams.) The film flashes back and forth between the start of their relationship and their eventual breakdown and divorce.

I've watched a few Ryan Gosling films and while I think he is a versatile and charismatic actor, I have never liked the films themselves. They're either too sentimental or too dark or in the case of Blue Valentine too bleak. And bleak is putting it lightly. This isn't a film that will have you leaving the cinema with a warm, fuzzy feeling, but rather the saddest frown on your face. I imagine this was Cianfrance's intention, so in that sense, he succeeded in making one of the most depressing films since the Pianist.

There isn't anything inherently wrong with unremittently bleak films, but there has to be something more than the unremittent bleakness. True, there are the flashbacks to the happy start of Dean and Cindy's relationship - while these scenes were cute especially the tap dancing/ukulele scene, but they always played second fiddle to the present timeline where their marriage falls apart. Any warm, fuzzy feeling was replaced with a sinking stomach, as I saw this once happy couple scream at each other.

And due to the unrelenting bleakness you know it's only going to end in one way. These characters are never going to rediscover their love for one another and live happily ever after. There is nothing wrong with knowing how a film is going to end, but it does kill the narrative tension.

Cianfrance was inspired by his parent's divorce and the pain that caused him as a young man. And he wanted to create a film that charted the beginning and end of a relationship. In that sense, he succeeded. But did he have to make it so damn depressing? I do like Ryan Gosling as an actor, I'm just waiting to see a Ryan Gosling film that I actually like.

Drive review

 Number 442 on the top 1000 films of all time is the action drama film 'Drive.'

Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed character only referred to as the Driver. By day he is a stuntman and a mechanic for a man named Shannon (Bryan Cranston.) By night he moonlights as a getaway driver for heists. He becomes attracted to his neighbour Irene  (Carey Mulligan.) However, her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) has just been released from prison and owes a lot of money to the wrong people. Standard decides to rob a pawn shop to get the money. Upon learning this, the Driver becomes his wheelman. But things quickly go south.

There is no denying that this is a stylish thriller. It has a great neon aesthetic that gives it a very synthetic, timeless look. It could be in the eighties or the modern-day or the not so distant future. However, I didn't particularly like this film and that was for one simple reason: tone.

Tone is important for any film and this film's tone was overly-dark. I get it. It's a thriller. It's not a comedy. I wasn't expecting laugh-a-minute, but I was hoping for one or two jokes. All throughout the film there was a foreboding sense of doom and at times this fog became too much. It needed some comic relief to help disperse it. This could be some black humour for the audience or maybe some jokes between the characters. It would have been nice to have at least seen them smile. Everybody was so serious all the time.

And Ryan Gosling encapsulated this seriousness. The Driver is the strong, silent type. An emotionless man who finds a cause to fight for. But the Driver felt more like a robot than an actual human being. It was like the evil terminator from T2 had decided to pack in killing John Connor and start robbing banks instead. It was a difficult character to get behind. And I don't think this is Ryan Gosling's fault. Having starred in rom-coms like the Notebook or La-La land, he is obviously capable of playing lighter roles, but he didn't even get the chance here. The gratuitous violence did nothing to help the overly-dark tone either.

Earlier on, I referenced the eighties. And that was very intentional. The musical score contains a lot of synth-wave - a genre reminiscent of the eighties. But I don't think it was employed well. There were these long scenes accompanied by synth-wave music. Except for the music playing there was very little else happening within these scenes. It became very tedious after a while.

Aesthetically the film looked great. But the overly-black tone coupled with the extended instrumental sequences made it all more style over substance.

The Notebook review

Number 346 on the top 1000 films of all time is the romantic drama: The Notebook.

Duke (James Garner) is a resident at a care home. He is friends with an elderly woman (Gena Rowlands) who is suffering from dementia. To comfort her, Duke reads her a story from a notebook. The story is about the romance between Noah (Ryan Gosling) and Allie (Rachel McAdams,) a young couple who fell in love in 1940's South Carolina.

As a rule, I am generally not a fan of romance films. I find them slow and saccharine. The Notebook was no exception. Part of that was down to the characters of Noah and Allie. This is, of course, no comment on Gosling and McAdams' acting abilities. I've seen Rachel McAdams in True Detective as the tough-as-nails police detective 'Antigone Bezzerides.' She was far more of an interesting character than Allie who was generic. There was no depth to her character other than being a Southern belle. It was a simple portrayal of a simple character and there wasn't a lot McAdams could do to change that.

Initially Allie spurns Noah's advances, but is eventually won over by his roguish charm. However, her snooty high-class family don't approve of Noah's working-class roots and forbid her from seeing him. When all seems lost, the power of love brings them back together. Noah was also generic. He's your run-of-the-mill cheeky chappy who holds a torch after his heart is broken. It's a storyline I've seen before and it wasn't any different here.

What I found much more interesting was the framing story. This actually had some conflict I was invested in. I was interesting in learning the answers to the questions they were raising. Who was Duke? Who was the woman he was reading to? What was wrong with her? Why was Duke reading to her? Why was he reading that particular story? These questions all culminate in a genuinely tragic way that did tug at my heartstrings. I'll leave you to find out the answers to these questions for yourself. But this framing narrative was far more intimate and stripped back compared to the grandiose 'Noah and Allie' love story, which is why I preferred it.

While the Notebook might be considered one of the best romances of all time, it was not for me.