Amigos.

Place Beyond the Pines opened in New York and LA last Friday, and hits a handful more cities today. In a rare coup for a site that specializes in Photoshopping cats into things, I got to sit down with Pines director Derek Cianfrance, previously of Blue Valentine, on the eve of his film’s release, in the rare post that actually required me putting on pants (oh, but I’m not bitter). Before we go any further I might as well answer the question that’s probably on all of your minds: yes, according to Cianfrance, Ryan Gosling is every bit the sweet prince you imagine, and presumably a wonderful cuddler. Cianfrance’s exact words: “I like working with him because he’s magic. He makes magic happen. …He’s just the best.”

As for Cianfrance himself, the first thing you notice about him is the fact that he has “AMIGO” tattooed on the segments of his right knuckles. The second thing you notice about him is his voice: a vowely, a-regional, vaguely hepcattish… well, it’s not quite a drawl, but the words have a similarly syrupy way of sliding into one another. Where have I heard this before? Then it dawns on you: Ryan Gosling. He has the same voice as Baby Goose. It doesn’t seem to be a case of actor-impersonating-director, a phenomenon of nearly every movie Woody Allen has directed starring a Woody Allen proxy. It seems like something more subtle, more organic, a simple case of like attracts like, amplified by two guys having spent a lot of time together (the set of Blue Valentine having been infamously claustrophobic). Or, to hear Cianfrance tell it, it’s more of a cosmic connection. Cianfrance is all about those cosmic connections, frequently speaking of magic and using phrases like “brother from another mother.” Yes, he’s grandiose. Almost all directors and fiction writers I’ve met are. It requires a certain grandiosity to remake the world as you want to see it, down to specific details of the way you think things should be. And Place Beyond the Pines is nothing if not a grandiose movie. Regardless of what you think of it – I was simultaneously inspired by its ambition and slightly put off by its content – you have to be impressed with anyone that could even get it made. It’s less a bank robber movie than an attempt at an epic novel, the kind of movie that isn’t supposed to exist anymore. It obviously required someone leading the charge who thinks and talks big, and Derek Cianfrance certainly seemed to be that.

I didn’t get a chance to ask him about his knuckle tats or how he came to cast the child actor named “Anthony Angelo Pizza Jr,”  (a criminal oversight on my part, I can admit that now). But he had plenty of other interesting stories, including Ben Mendolsohn showing up to his audition wearing a hospital bracelet, and his claim that he and Ryan Gosling actually came up with the same concept for a bank robber movie separately, without either knowing the other was working on it. I don’t buy it, but you be the judge.

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The stories of Daniel Day-Lewis’s method acting are legion, from sending Sally Field text messages in character as Abraham Lincoln to building his character’s house himself using 17th-century tools for The Crucible. As I’ve often written, method acting, as practiced by many of today’s most important thespians, is the art of tricking yourself into believing things you know aren’t true in order to tell the truth when you’re lying. It’s really quite simple, when you think about it. And as I learned recently, Daniel Day-Lewis and Ashton Kutcher aren’t the only committed thespians out there.

If you don’t know who Ben Mendelsohn (above) is now, I promise you will soon. With memorable turns in Animal Kingdom and Killing Them Softly, and bit parts in bigger projects like The Dark Knight Rises already under his belt, the Aussie has a greasy charm that’s all but guaranteed to lubricate his awards chances in the next few years (bet on it, I’m serious). He’s got another big supporting role coming up opposite Ryan Gosling (pictured, right) and Bradley Cooper in The Place Beyond the Pines, from Blue Valentine director Derek Cianfrance, which opens in a few markets this weekend. I recently had the chance to sit down with Derek Cianfrance, and from the sounds of it, Mendelsohn behind the scenes is even more entertaining than Mendelsohn on screen.

FILMDRUNK: I was wondering about [how you cast] Ben Mendelsohn. Had you seen him in something before?

CIANFRANCE: I saw him in Animal Kingdom, and I wanted to meet with him. And he came to an audition, and he looked like a wreck. He was wearing a bracelet on his arm, and I couldn’t tell if it was from a party, like one of those party bracelets, or if it was from the hospital. He sat there at the table with me and he said, “Oh, mate, don’t make me read, don’t make me audition. If you make me audition it’s going to ruin the whole thing.” He says, “If you cast me in this I’ll carry the spear for you.” I said, “Ok, you’ve got it.” The role of Robin in the script is a little older than Ben. Robin in the script is supposed to have dentures. No teeth. In that first meeting, within 15 minutes of meeting Ben, after he told me he’d carry a spear for me, I told him he could do the movie.

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Drive had Ryan Gosling, acclaimed indie director Nicholas Winding Refn, it-girl (I still don’t really know what that means, but it seems accurate) Carey Mulligan, and vroomy-vroom vroom getaway cars. Place Beyond the Pines has Baby Goose, acclaimed indie derektor Derek Cianfrance (Blue Valentine), it-girl Eva Mendes (Goose’s real-life special lady!), and reer-reer dirtbikes. Once again, Baby Goose plays a stunt driver turned getaway driver. Only this time, Bradley Cooper is there for a handsome-off. THE RUGGED VULNERABILITY, IT’S TOO MUCH! (*sirens, alarm bells*)

Official synopsis:

Luke (Academy Award nominee Ryan Gosling) is in constant motion, a high-wire motorcycle stunt performer who travels from town to town with the carnival. Passing through Schenectady in upstate New York, he tries to reconnect with a former lover, Romina (Eva Mendes), only to learn that she has in his absence given birth to their son Jason. Luke resolves to forsake life on the road and to provide for his newfound family, taking a job as car mechanic with Robin (Ben Mendelsohn). Robin soon discovers Luke’s special talents, and proposes to partner with him in a string of spectacular bank robberies. But it is only a matter of time before Luke will run up against the law – which comes in the form of Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper).
 
Avery is an ambitious rookie cop navigating a local police department ruled by the menacingly corrupt detective Deluca (Ray Liotta). When Avery, just beginning to balance his profession and his family life with wife Jennifer (Rose Byrne) and their infant son AJ, confronts Luke, the full consequences will reverberate into the next generation. It is then that the two sons, Jason (Dane DeHaan) and AJ (Emory Cohen), must face their fateful, shared legacy.

Good lord that is a wordy synopsis. Wait, this cop, is he corrupt? Oh yes, he’s menacingly corrupt! He growls when I bribe him, GRRRR! Anyway, this looks eerily similar to Drive, but without the awkward, too-long stares and almost total lack of dialog. Which is too bad, I was really hoping for a scene where Baby Goose and Brad Cooper exchange sizzling looks until one of them gets a boner. No shame in that, by the way, they both have beautiful eyes.