Simply A Masterpiece

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Billy (Christina Hendricks) is the single mother of Bones (Iain De Caestecker) and Franky struggling in Detroit. Bones is salvaging from the abandoned buildings while avoiding local thug Bully (Matt Smith). Their home is going under with the mortgage. The banker Dave (Ben Mendelsohn) offers her a mystery job. Rat (Saoirse Ronan) is their melancholy neighbor living with her grandma. A crew is tearing down the abandoned homes and Billy is targeted. Billy takes the job which turns out to be a blood-splattering performance theater led by Cat (Eva Mendes). Bones finds a road running under the river.This has a magical fantasy sensibility surrounding this all-too-real crumbling America. It doesn't quite work. This is an indie that needs no name actors. The magical fantasy would play a lot better that way but this feels fake rather than surreal. It wants to be wildly inventive but it has no wonder. It has the potential to be darker but it takes too long to get there. That darkness needs to start sooner. This is slowly paced. It needs more drive in the narrative in the first half. The second half just gets weirder and weirder until I almost laughed at the dancing. I don't need it to make sense. I do need it to make me feel something other than dismissiveness.

I don't know what to say about this movie. I couldn't even tell you for sure what it's about. Sadly, Ryan Gosling seems to have gotten a bit too ambitious and started combining too many elements that the plot gets taken away. There are so many strange choices that Gosling makes as a director. I don't mind weird movies, if they make sense. This truly does not and I am sad to say that it did not hold my attention at all. A lot of potential here wasted.

Let's start by saying : I love this kind of films.OK, now that I say it, let's talk about the movie :it is the debut of Gosling as a director, and even when you can see clearly influences in his work, I will like to say that it have a character of it's own. I can only compare it with a mix between Tim Burton and David Lynch, two dark-film directors, but everyone with it's own style. The movie is an urban phantasmagorical fairy tale, a sad poetry of the suburbs and low life.I can't see something not perfect with this movie, it have a everything : perfect acting, perfect OST, perfect photography, deep characters. Only thing I did like to know more about the background of the characters, a bit more about their story, because I felt a lot of empathy with every one of them (even the twisted ones).I really want to see more Gosling's works, he have lot of potential as a director.(warning : this movie is not for everyone.)8,5/10

Watching this film left me with a different taste than most films I've been consuming throughout the years. It got me thinking, Why did I like it so much - even though the plot wasn't too clear, narrative was broken, fantasy and reality didn't blend together too well.. But still, it had this emotional great impact on me.Made me think of the beginning.. the early age of this great medium - the cinema. Back then, crowd will go to films for the attraction, for the stimulation of senses. No body gave a f*** about plot, it was all so new and fresh - ppl came to see images running one after another, to see fast motion, to see slow motion, to see the main character shooting a gun towards the camera. Story wasn't everything, but less than the main attraction - which was this wonder of cinema itself.Suddenly it got me - this film managed to give me sensory experience - from the brilliant work of audio-visual relations. It manage to form these strong imagery combined with stunning soundtrack, that leaves such a strong impact, excitement, understanding of the medium powers. I don't think that people who didn't like the film are lacking artistic taste, or leaning too much on reason and can't play along with indie experimental cinema. I don't think it's true cause I saw plenty of these so called "artistic" films, who put efforts on style but doesn't give a crap about their audiences. I know what ppl mean when they talking about lame films who hide behind artistic masks cause their films are empty and boring. But I have to say that's simply not the case in Gosling film.I don't think u will enjoy it more if ur a cinema student or whatever. I just think that if u'll manage to let the imagery take over u, without being too hard on plot or narrative, nor hating it immediately cause u'll identify it with those annoying "artistic" films - U will carry along with it, to a world of attractions, where image and sound meet to form strong impact on us as spectators. To stimulate our senses. This review has been written almost as a defensive line in court, but due to critics and score, got me thinking what a waste it is, this beautiful piece who goes almost unnoticed for its special, maybe even ahead of its time, imagery. I wish Gosling will keep developing his directive side as i see the huge potential this guy have. That being said (and hopefully understood), I found the plot interesting. Well acted by the characters, and decent directing by Ryan who manage (in my eyes) to form his own cinematic language (even though everyone was mentioning mainly the influences). Bottom line, obviously, its a fantastic film, if u let it take over and devoted urself to. Keep up the good stuff Ryan.