February 2, 2011

Blue Valentine - 2010

Director: Derek Cianfrance
Writers: Derek Cianfrance, Cami Delavigne, & Joey Curtis
Starring: Ryan Gosling & Michelle Williams


"I didn't want to be somebody's husband and I didn't want to be somebody's dad, that wasn't my goal in life. But somehow it was. I work so I can do that." Dean (Gosling) and Cindy (Williams) meet, grow close, fall in love, raise a child, and have their relationship break down, albeit in a nonlinear fashion.


OH MY GOD THIS MOVIE. While I hesitate to recommend it to people because of the plot content, it's absolutely remarkable, especially for a budget of only $1,000,000. The cinematography's beautiful, aided by the use of 16mm and RED cameras for different parts of the story. I'd call the script great, but apparently a lot of it was thrown out and improvised, and it ends up feeling incredibly real. My favorite kinds of movies are the ones where you can get absorbed into the roles as though they're people, not actors, and this accomplishes that in spades. I can't say enough about Gosling and Williams, and I wish they could both be up for Oscars (although I haven't been able to watch Javier Bardem's film yet). A+


One final note: the MPAA is a bunch of prudes for trying to give this an NC-17. You probably knew that already, though.

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