Summing Up: Ryan Gosling's Startling Turn of Affairs

Or, how the exception proves the rule.
Now, I'd previously pointed out how being successful with a movie that critics loathe is a bad idea if you want to get good reviews in the future. Here's the exception to that: the critic's re-think.

The Notebook premiered in 2004 to middling reviews. While a few critics said they liked it despite the schmaltz, most dismissed it as a mediocre piece of craftsmanship. Tellingly, they dismissed the two romantic leads, Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams, in an offhand fashion. "They make a nice couple," said one reviewer, who couldn't seem to be bothered to mention any more about it. Most reviews spent their time focusing their time on how much they hated Nick Cassavetes' direction.

But then The Notebook hit, huge. It made $81 million over the waning months of the summer (it's budget was a mere $29 million, which is tiny for a studio picture), and it quickly reached cult status before it even reached DVD release.

According to the Free Film theory, this should have been a bad sign for both McAdams and Gosling. But fortunately for them, the success of the movie didn't harden the critics against them, but instead made them feel like they might have missed the boat.

When each of the actors made smart choices on their next films, the critics welcomed them in with open arms. McAdams saddled herself with the right sex comedy, Wedding Crashers, which went well out of its way to make sure that audiences noticed the caliber of actress they had in the lead. She followed with the unremarkable thriller Red Eye, but by that time, the critics had already welcomed her in. "She's got that indefinable something extra," cooed one.
"Most of the credit goes to her," announced another. Even Roger Ebert got into the act. "She brings more presence and credibility to her role than is really expected;" he says, swooning.
"She acts without betraying the slightest awareness that she’s inside a genre." He goes on to theorize that the reason for this may be because she's Canadian. So that's why we missed her!

Gosling's rise is even headier. If you watch the excellent trailer for the Next Great Indie Hope, Half Nelson, you may be a little surprised. "A tour de force by the brilliant Gosling, surely one of our greatest young actors?" "Ryan Gosling gives an astonishing performance," "Gosling is one of the most exciting actors of his generation?" Who said that? What? The New York Times? I'm sorry, but I'd completely missed what happened here. Isn't this just a mid-twenties B-list celeb with a penchant for doing indie flicks?

Exactly.

Gosling was the hidden star of the Notebook, but he didn't use that pull to push himself out of the world of intense indie dramas. For that, the critics love him. Adore him. Gosling would have to take a couple pretty big steps out of that world for those critics to leave him now. He played the hand dealt him perfectly - he didn't jump from the notebook to the next big blockbuster that came along. He instead went for the next big indie vehicle that fit his style. He'll never need a Free Film. His movies will always get good reviews (when was the last time you saw a Stand and Deliver-type movie get an 87% rating? Granted it is, quite literally, Stand and Deliver on crack). These guys are always going to be rooting for him.

And that, sports fans, is how you keep those pesky critics on your side.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (2005)

A Three-Dollar Review

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is one of those movies with so many levels of irony built into it that you can't even begin to really fathom where the edge of believability ends and deliberate cynicism begins. The trick is this: Harry Lockhart (Robert Downey Jr.) is narrating this story about himself and his partner, Perry, the gay detective (Val Kilmer). But he's not narrating it in the traditional sense, his character is well aware of the fact that he's narrating a movie, and responds accordingly. Early parts of the film jump around a bit, there's a sardonic edge to every bit of information that Harry releases, and there's the constant sense that what you're watching is a movie, and thus shouldn't be taken too seriously.

To add further layers of irony, the movie is good - so good, in fact, that one falls helplessly into its trap, as each twist and turn brings you further in, and you keep believing, even as things get less and less believable, because the movie is actually much better than the movies it's parodying.

The reason for that is that the writer/director of the film, Shane Black, actually wrote those movies that he's parodying. He's the guy who wrote all the Lethal Weapon movies, and Last Kiss Goodnight. But he's so self-effacing that he's capable of brilliantly lampooning all the action movie cliches that he himself created. Though we shouldn't be suprised, he also wrote Last Action Hero - you know, the one where the kid goes into the Schwartzenegger movie - so he's already entrenched in the knowledge of what makes a successful parody.

Kiss Kiss Bang Bang is thrillingly fast-paced, uniquely funny, and capable of so indiscernably not taking itself to seriously that sometimes you barely notice it's a farce. Bravo.

Three-Dollar Value: $2.58

The Red Sox are damn near finished.

I'm so glad I didn't watch the Red Sox series this weekend. It would've just broken my heart. Instead, it just deeply depresses me. I don't even know if I want to put forth the old "Minnesota and Chicago are going to play each other a lot over the next month and a half, that leaves us an open door to get back in this" theory. In fact, I don't.

In lighter news, I'm sure that there's a joke about the connection between the lovely Sasha Cohen and the not-quite-as-attractive Sacha Cohen, but I don't know what it is.

Imdb!

On a similarly egotistical note, I just discovered I am now on IMDB. This is actually not as exciting as it sounds. But you can still check it out, as well as the film I'm connected to, "Stolen Moments."

By the way, the one review of "Stolen Moments" that's up is actually mine.

This is actually the smallest amount of power to ever go to someone's head.

So I received a nifty piece of mail the other day. The actual contents were not that cool, but the address was memorable:

Ben Wyman
Director
Ten-Four Good Buddy Films
20 Hermsdorf Ave.
Goffstown NH 03045-2001

I don't know where they got that from, or how they found me. But believe me, it made an impression. I was absolutely thrilled. In fact, from now on I'm insisting that all mail sent to me feature that title. It does wonders for my self-esteem, though I think I'm the only person who feels that needs boosting.

I've already set up my Netflix to send me all my mail this way.