Last night, I finally got around to watching, “The Place Beyond the Pines”. The newest film starring Ryan Gosling, Eva Mendez, Ray Liotta and Bradley Cooper. This entire movie was filmed in the town of Schenectady, N.Y. which is a town in the Capital District area. The reason this movie is titled, “The Place Beyond the Pines” is because that is just another name for Schenectady. Yes, the film makers and actors really did film this movie in the town of Schenectady. It was filmed on a real location, no movie studios.

The film tells a story about a man named Luke Glanton who is a professional motorcycle stuntman. He learns that he has a son that he didn’t know he had and in order for him to have a better life, he wanted to take care of his son on his own. Luke doesn’t have much of a life other than his professional motorcycle riding which is what he did for a living. He quit his job as a motorcycle stuntman so he can take care of his ex-girlfriend, Romina and his son. Realizing that he can’t make money anywhere else, he decided to start robbing banks as given advice by his friend, Robin. This leads into a major feud with a rookie cop who works for a corrupt police force.

That’s enough of the plot ’cause I don’t want to give too much away. So far, I think this the best film released this year. This film tells three different stories. A background story of Luke Glanton. The film was well-made and the film was acted very well by everyone who starred in the film. Not just the big name stars did a great job in acting, even the lesser known actors in the film did pretty amazing. This is the most realistic movie, I’ve ever seen in a long time. The things you see in this movie can happen in real life. Plus, the film did an excellent job giving you an idea of what Schenectady, N.Y. is really like.

I don’t like Schenectady. Not a lot of people do for a good reason. Schenectady has a corrupt police force. Too many crazy people. Crime rate is high there. Too many kids getting in trouble. You will see stuff like that in the film. Even though I don’t go to Schenectady too much, I do recognize a lot of familiar areas and places in the film especially Vale Cemetery and the ice cream place you see in the photo above.

I thought it was a beautiful film and it was definitely way better than, “Blue Valentine”. The writing was perfect, so was the acting. No complaints. It was a pretty intense movie. I think this film has “Best Picture” potential for the Oscars and it’ll probably get a nomination, hopefully. It was one of the best films released this year. Definitely check it out!

Kev