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| Scene from Blue Valentine |
Welcome to a weekly column called Theory Thursdays, which will be released every Thursday and discuss my "controversial opinion" related to something relative to the week of release. Sometimes it will be birthdays while others is current events or a new film release. Whatever the case may be, this is a personal defense for why I disagree with the general opinion and hope to convince you of the same. While I don't expect you to be on my side, I do hope for a rational argument. After all, film is a subjective medium and this is merely just a theory that can be proven either way.
Subject: First Man is released in theaters this Thursday.
Theory: Blue Valentine is Ryan Gosling's best film.
One of the great things about entering Oscar season is that there's a plethora of great conversations to be had. Last week it was a chance to dive into the career of Bradley Cooper and/or Lady Gaga in honor of A Star is Born. This week, the odds are greater as First Man is a chance to revisit the careers of Damien Chazelle, Ryan Gosling, or even the storied career of La La Land. You could even dedicate the week to talking about the many great NASA movies of the past few years, which include Hidden Figures and The Martian (one could even go further back and look at Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff). However, I feel most comfortable continuing an odder trend: making subsequent Theory Thursday columns dedicate to the young career of director Derek Cianfrance: one of my current favorite filmmakers, who is a bit overdue for an Oscar crossover due to the prowess of detail he brings to each film. While The Light Between Oceans fell a bit short, there's a strong argument to be made that The Place Beyond the Pines should've gotten him something.
Then again, it goes even further back, to the year 2010 and his Sundance breakout hit Blue Valentine - also starring Gosling. Considering the actor's incredible run in recent years, it's a bit difficult to remember that he was once more of a cult actor than a prestige one. If you look at his work prior to 2015, there's a good chance that you'll find some of his most experimental work where he challenged himself to be more than the hot guy from The Notebook (which, another hot take, is actually a very accomplished movie given its genre). I personally feel that it worked, especially given that he got out his strange violent tendencies with Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) and even made his own Lynchian nightmare as a director (Lost River). Still, there was evidence that he was growing as a dramatic actor, and few embodied it as well as Cianfrance's Blue Valentine: a film that depicted a relationship in a fractured form from beautiful inception to heartbreaking end.
On the surface, it is one of the most heartbreaking films of the decade, and most would dismiss it as being bait for sadists. However, Cianfrance's work was always more meticulous than that, especially with Gosling starring opposite Michelle Williams: herself only two years on from the passing of husband Heath Ledger. There was a sadness to the role, and Cianfrance played into that by having the cast live together to form a deeper bond. It shows in the film with random asides, such as Gosling's comic cry of what a dinosaur sounds like. It's these details that make the relationship feel more lived in, and the subtle cues of how they interact with each other make things all the more interesting. It would lead to a divide between audiences whether they felt Williams or Gosling's character was more responsible for the decaying relationship. Gosling was more outward while Williams was more submissive. Cianfrance would claim that it was meant to be an even match, which only makes the heartbreak greater. Still, the Oscars sided with Williams, giving her an Oscar nomination while Gosling's would go absent.
Which is to say that he more than deserved some nomination for his work in the film because, to date, it's his best work. Before Blue Valentine, he still was a challenging actor and would lead to an Oscar nomination for Half Nelson. However, he never quite had a breakthrough until La La Land in 2016. Suddenly people believed that he was more than a quiet and subdued actor. However, those who write him off don't notice what he brings to his characters. It's most apparent in Blue Valentine, where he is the impulsive husband who isn't entirely there for his wife. He's a bit stunted in maturity, choosing to play into behavior that would entertain his daughter. He is clueless to his wife's clear disdain for him, only ever acting out when he feels slighted by her. He is the one that the film explicitly wants you to loathe at first, but even that begins its roots in an innocence that makes it hard to fully hate him. Again, Williams is not innocent entirely, though it's easier to take her side given the reckless behavior that follows.
However, this is only one half of the relationship. There is the earlier chapters, where his character is more young and charismatic. He is the handsome Gosling that we all have come to expect. How could you not love THAT man, who is willing to play a ukulele as Williams dances in the film's most iconic scene? Over the course of the film, he becomes a complicated figure as a young man, managing to be a loving figure as well as one who is a bit of a bad boy, sacrificing his tendencies to please Williams. There is sadness in the younger chapters, but they compliment the later half. Both inform each other in ways that are perfectly edited together. There is hope that Gosling and Williams will make it work as they get married in a montage that is spliced into the bitterest part of the film. By then, there is a convincing anguish to his character that is so powerful that it establishes Gosling as an actor whose silence can be heartbreaking or charming, and in the case of the final stretch it is a man insecure about life not working in a happy ending. There's no choice but to call it a loss.
That is only the tip of what makes the film brilliant. In terms of acting, there's been few ensembles that feel as understanding of each other as this. However, Cianfrance is an ambitious young filmmaker who also wants to convey these themes in the most powerful ways possible. He uses Grizzly Bear as the composers, creating this lullaby style score that weaves in the innocence with the more sad moments. He is also allowing the actors to improvise during key scenes to allow moments to strike more honest. However, the most impressive thing about the entire film is that color code, which relies on prominent use of red and blue, which feels like the two sides to love: red as in passion and blue as in sadness. It shows up in clothing, background objects, and just the general tone of the film. It may be seen as artsy, but it helps to convey an implicit understanding of these characters on a deeper level.
This isn't to say that Gosling is short of a great performances before or since. He is an actor whose time came after a lot of hard work breaking his old hot guy image in favor of something more charismatic. However, I think it would be a disservice to suggest that he didn't deserve more awards contention for Blue Valentine. It may be that the film was a smaller title, but it was also one of the more challenging and visceral films of 2010 - a year that's generally full of masterpieces ranging from The Fighter to The Social Network and Black Swan. It was a busy year, and it makes sense that a few names would be severed. However, it should be noted that while Gosling only has two Oscar nominations, he has a lot more going for him. He has Blue Valentine's gut-wrenching power, which proved that he was capable of being a serious actor and someone who gave his all for a role. For me, he hasn't been better than he is here at conveying what he can bring to a role, and hopefully it's foretelling of equally great roles to come, possibly this weekend in First Man.
One of the great things about entering Oscar season is that there's a plethora of great conversations to be had. Last week it was a chance to dive into the career of Bradley Cooper and/or Lady Gaga in honor of A Star is Born. This week, the odds are greater as First Man is a chance to revisit the careers of Damien Chazelle, Ryan Gosling, or even the storied career of La La Land. You could even dedicate the week to talking about the many great NASA movies of the past few years, which include Hidden Figures and The Martian (one could even go further back and look at Apollo 13 or The Right Stuff). However, I feel most comfortable continuing an odder trend: making subsequent Theory Thursday columns dedicate to the young career of director Derek Cianfrance: one of my current favorite filmmakers, who is a bit overdue for an Oscar crossover due to the prowess of detail he brings to each film. While The Light Between Oceans fell a bit short, there's a strong argument to be made that The Place Beyond the Pines should've gotten him something.
Then again, it goes even further back, to the year 2010 and his Sundance breakout hit Blue Valentine - also starring Gosling. Considering the actor's incredible run in recent years, it's a bit difficult to remember that he was once more of a cult actor than a prestige one. If you look at his work prior to 2015, there's a good chance that you'll find some of his most experimental work where he challenged himself to be more than the hot guy from The Notebook (which, another hot take, is actually a very accomplished movie given its genre). I personally feel that it worked, especially given that he got out his strange violent tendencies with Nicholas Winding Refn (Drive, Only God Forgives) and even made his own Lynchian nightmare as a director (Lost River). Still, there was evidence that he was growing as a dramatic actor, and few embodied it as well as Cianfrance's Blue Valentine: a film that depicted a relationship in a fractured form from beautiful inception to heartbreaking end.
On the surface, it is one of the most heartbreaking films of the decade, and most would dismiss it as being bait for sadists. However, Cianfrance's work was always more meticulous than that, especially with Gosling starring opposite Michelle Williams: herself only two years on from the passing of husband Heath Ledger. There was a sadness to the role, and Cianfrance played into that by having the cast live together to form a deeper bond. It shows in the film with random asides, such as Gosling's comic cry of what a dinosaur sounds like. It's these details that make the relationship feel more lived in, and the subtle cues of how they interact with each other make things all the more interesting. It would lead to a divide between audiences whether they felt Williams or Gosling's character was more responsible for the decaying relationship. Gosling was more outward while Williams was more submissive. Cianfrance would claim that it was meant to be an even match, which only makes the heartbreak greater. Still, the Oscars sided with Williams, giving her an Oscar nomination while Gosling's would go absent.
Which is to say that he more than deserved some nomination for his work in the film because, to date, it's his best work. Before Blue Valentine, he still was a challenging actor and would lead to an Oscar nomination for Half Nelson. However, he never quite had a breakthrough until La La Land in 2016. Suddenly people believed that he was more than a quiet and subdued actor. However, those who write him off don't notice what he brings to his characters. It's most apparent in Blue Valentine, where he is the impulsive husband who isn't entirely there for his wife. He's a bit stunted in maturity, choosing to play into behavior that would entertain his daughter. He is clueless to his wife's clear disdain for him, only ever acting out when he feels slighted by her. He is the one that the film explicitly wants you to loathe at first, but even that begins its roots in an innocence that makes it hard to fully hate him. Again, Williams is not innocent entirely, though it's easier to take her side given the reckless behavior that follows.
However, this is only one half of the relationship. There is the earlier chapters, where his character is more young and charismatic. He is the handsome Gosling that we all have come to expect. How could you not love THAT man, who is willing to play a ukulele as Williams dances in the film's most iconic scene? Over the course of the film, he becomes a complicated figure as a young man, managing to be a loving figure as well as one who is a bit of a bad boy, sacrificing his tendencies to please Williams. There is sadness in the younger chapters, but they compliment the later half. Both inform each other in ways that are perfectly edited together. There is hope that Gosling and Williams will make it work as they get married in a montage that is spliced into the bitterest part of the film. By then, there is a convincing anguish to his character that is so powerful that it establishes Gosling as an actor whose silence can be heartbreaking or charming, and in the case of the final stretch it is a man insecure about life not working in a happy ending. There's no choice but to call it a loss.
That is only the tip of what makes the film brilliant. In terms of acting, there's been few ensembles that feel as understanding of each other as this. However, Cianfrance is an ambitious young filmmaker who also wants to convey these themes in the most powerful ways possible. He uses Grizzly Bear as the composers, creating this lullaby style score that weaves in the innocence with the more sad moments. He is also allowing the actors to improvise during key scenes to allow moments to strike more honest. However, the most impressive thing about the entire film is that color code, which relies on prominent use of red and blue, which feels like the two sides to love: red as in passion and blue as in sadness. It shows up in clothing, background objects, and just the general tone of the film. It may be seen as artsy, but it helps to convey an implicit understanding of these characters on a deeper level.
This isn't to say that Gosling is short of a great performances before or since. He is an actor whose time came after a lot of hard work breaking his old hot guy image in favor of something more charismatic. However, I think it would be a disservice to suggest that he didn't deserve more awards contention for Blue Valentine. It may be that the film was a smaller title, but it was also one of the more challenging and visceral films of 2010 - a year that's generally full of masterpieces ranging from The Fighter to The Social Network and Black Swan. It was a busy year, and it makes sense that a few names would be severed. However, it should be noted that while Gosling only has two Oscar nominations, he has a lot more going for him. He has Blue Valentine's gut-wrenching power, which proved that he was capable of being a serious actor and someone who gave his all for a role. For me, he hasn't been better than he is here at conveying what he can bring to a role, and hopefully it's foretelling of equally great roles to come, possibly this weekend in First Man.
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