Thoughts on The Place Beyond the Pines?

I just finished RG’s filmography and I saved TPBTP for last. It definitely wasn’t what I expected! THE SHOT AFTER THE POLICE CHASE ABT 45 MINS IN. I feel inconsolable 🫠 However, I’m a bit surprised the film is a cult favorite! I am a huge fan of films that break down “why are we the way that we are?” And i love when films like that dissect a societal pattern - developing from a boy to a man, and from a boyish man to a man that has abandoned his humanity. However I found that the film fell a bit flat for me. Because the film was covering so much we miss out on a visceral feeling of what it is to be indoctrinated into “manhood”. I understand that the film is about the wider perspective of it, but I feel like that perspective looses its punch when we aren’t made to feel what it is like to become a man the way AJ and Jason are. It leaves the ending more ambiguous, when Jason rides off, to me I feel like he’s going to repeat Luke’s lifestyle, not that he is going to forge his own path. I think the end point the film is trying to make is of these two boys, one coddled and abused, seeing his abusive & neglectful father receive praise. We see AJ recognize that praise as validating, and we see he has learned that his father’s actions are justified for the end results. I think this is supposed to contrast Jason riding off on his own path, but with Jason’s character direction i saw him going off to live as his father did. I’d love to hear what people who loved the movie and it really resonated with them think!

One thing I really loved was how Luke’s death was treated. Because I went into the film thinking Luke was the protagonist, I wasn’t expecting him to die so quickly. Because of that, for the rest of the film I looked for him everywhere while trying to make sense of where the film was going. To me that’s amazing because I think when people we love die we look for them everywhere. Bonus thought, I hope RG’s mom didn’t watch this film, can you imagine seeing your son with that imagery