Independent Crime Drama Weighs In on Hard-Hitting Consequences

Desperate times call for desperate measures as stuntman Luke robs banks to provide for his family.

What else can be said about the aura surrounding Derek Cianfrance's crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines other than simply calling it the most electric, impactful piece of cinema to hit theaters in the past twelve months, perhaps even longer? There are not many films out there that can say they firmly stay on the minds of audiences after the credits roll, however The Place Beyond the Pines takes that to another level completely with its masterfully crafted narrative that will keep audiences contemplating more than just a few hours afterwards.

In The Place Beyond the Pines, Ryan Gosling plays Luke Glanton, a traveling carnival daredevil who finds his world turned upside down after he finds out his one night stand resulted in an infant son. With no way to amply provide for his only child, Glanton turns to a life of crime as the Moto Bandit, partnering up with a reclusive auto mechanic to hit up various local upstate New York banks.

Spielberg's 'War Horse' Journeys Towards Epic Proportions

Steven Spielberg gives audiences not just one, but two movies over the holiday stretch.

If The Adventures of Tintin wasn’t enough Steven Spielberg over the long holiday season, there remains yet one more sprawling epic from the iconic director with the release of War Horse. 2011 isn’t this first instance that Spielberg has released two of his films in the same year. Back in 2005, Spielberg released his vision of War of the Worlds in the midst of summer and Munich, later in the year attracting attention from many critics. 

War Horse comes at the perfect time of the year, fitting the shape of an awards bait film with its epic scale and emotional tension. Though everything points to War Horse being a film that is here to only collect a potential pile of awards, there is so much more that Spielberg delivers in divulging a tale that simply comes down to one about a boy and his horse. And that’s exactly how War Horse begins. An Irish farm boy named Albert (Jeremy Irvine) begins a bond with a recently purchased horse, but when his father is behind on the rent, the horse is thrown into the midst of World War I and continuously changes owners.

Spy Classic 'Tinker Tailor' Tightens Traitor Investigation

Smiley (Gary Oldman) investigates the top men of British Intelligence in an updated Tinker Tailor.

An espionage film can be boiled down into two categories – either going the flashy route with an abundance of iconic characters, disposable gadgets and explosive action sequences like James Bond or Jason Bourne or conversely taking a more subtle, subdued path where the audience is required to be patient and come to an understanding that flashiness isn’t everything to craft a film. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy is the latter, bringing together the most prominent actors in British cinema, many of which are having their own little Harry Potter reunion in this film. 

Tinker Tailor is adapted from the 1974 John le Carre novel by the same name about a seasoned agent (Gary Oldman) drawn out of retirement to investigate which one of British Intelligence’s top men are also working alongside the Soviets and blowing the cover of a fellow agent during a mission deep inside the Hungarian borders. Each of possible suspects is given a codename – “Tinker,” “Tailor,” “Soldier,” and “Poorman.”

'Dragon Tattoo' Remake is a Haunting Beauty from Fincher

Rooney Mara assumes the mantle of anti-social cyber hacker, Lisabeth Salander in this remake.

As of late, it seems like Sweden has constantly been getting the goods. From 2008’s Let the Right One In to 2009’s The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, these titles have not only captivated Swedish cinemaphiles, but those abroad and particularly those here in the United States. The only drawback, reading subtitles. Granted there is a solution. Either dub the language or remake the film for domestic audiences. 

Enter 2010’s Let Me In, which actually gave horror an intellectual feel for a change and now one year later, an American version of The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. And what better way to reinterpret the first of Stieg Larsson’s Millennium Trilogy than the master of serial killer thrillers himself, David Fincher. Like the Swedish adaptation, Fincher intricately crafts Tattoo as a thriller about a damaged publisher and an antisocial hacker recruited to uncover a decades-old mystery about the murder of a corporate heiress.