The Place Beyond The Pines Reviews
Quickflix
A memorable, thoughtful tale; a thriller with real meat on the bone.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Seven Days
Would Pines have worked better as a 13-episode cable drama? Probably. Yet its atmosphere comes through beautifully on the big screen.
Full Review
| Original Score: 8/10
Rip It Up
Cianfrance uses the film's gritty visuals to enhance the character's experiences, starting with a vibe reminiscent of a 90's thrash metal video clip, then moving into police footage territory before ultimately setting a wistful tone for the third act.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
3AW
The film is unfortunately front-loaded with more art movie cliches than you can count, but once they get out the way the trans-generational story does close its grip on you.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Sacramento Bee
"Place Beyond the Pines" will not lift spirits. Yet there are hints of hope attached to the film's view that change is possible -- if people can just get out of their own way.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
The Patriot Ledger
A huge leap forward for Cianfrance, who is rapidly distinguishing himself as a true auteur.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
The Aristocrat
Bleak, raw, epic and vibrating with energy, Pines is a film to haunt your dreams, and, so far, the best thing I've seen in a cinema in 2013.
Full Review
| Original Score: 5/5
Cinema Autopsy
While it is still a rewarding film on face value, The Place Beyond the Pines offers additional pleasures for viewers keen to delve further.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
FILMINK (Australia)
...the best kind of film: big enough to be bracing, but small enough to draw you right in, and then exercise a firm, vice-like grip.
ABC Radio Brisbane
It's the interesting characters and their thought-provoking choices that make this film so compelling.
Full Review
| Original Score: B+
Concrete Playground
An ambitious and twisting crime drama about fathers, sons and responsibility.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
CinemaBlend.com
Cianfrance creates a layered and moving portrait of working-class life, of people trying-- in many of the wrong ways-- to improve lives for themselves and the generations to come.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Screenwize
This ambitious tale of tragedy and redemption among fathers and sons is told in three parts and, despite a superb performance from Ryan Gosling, is less than the sum of its parts.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/5
The Sunday Age
Gosling delivers his most assured performance yet, in an ambitious, near-operatic drama-thriller that boldly unfolds across two distinctly different hours.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
Urban Cinefile
With the final act, as we see the longer term impact of earlier actions, the film attains something akin to epic status, stirring notions of classic Greek tragedy before scaling back and completing itself as a contemporary morality tale
Urban Cinefile
Mike Patton's grumbling song The Weight of Consequences eloquently reflects the hard-hitting theme of this provocative and gripping film in which three troubled roads are travelled
Combustible Celluloid
Cianfrance handles these large leaps in time with grace; he doesn't seem to leave anything out. His camera lingers generously over small moments so that no character gets lost in time.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/4
Neon Maniacs
The Place Beyond the Pines is a deeply affecting family drama about paternal responsibility, a riveting crime story, a cop movie and a tragedy.
Full Review
| Original Score: 4/5
The Popcorn Junkie
A film of two distinct halves and it works to provide a dual character study of paternity and legacy
Full Review
| Original Score: 3/5
Groucho Reviews
The most satisfying cinematic experience we've had at the multiplex thus far this year, and largely through its disinterest in playing along with movie trends.
Full Review
| Original Score: 3.5/4
