[SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER!]
Kevin Smith delivers a new batch of awesome characters in this emotional tale. The level of genuine realness, matched with intelligence, is Smith's prominent style of writing; which is dominant in all his characters here. This is a heavily emotional film, so much so that I don't want to watch it again. I immediately fell in love with the characters so when tragedy struck I was just as devastated as Ben Affleck. And it doesn't let up too often. Kevin Smith will tap into your emotional grid and hit the sad button repeatedly and unexpectedly. The story is pretty formulaic, but when a master handles the formula, magic happens. I love that I loved the movie, yet don't want to go through that experience again, though it would be interesting to see if it is as powerful on a second watch, as the first.
10/10
VERDICT: WATCH IT!
[SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! SPOILER! DO NOT READ IF YOU PLAN TO WATCH!]
This adrenaline infused film starts with a very cool opening scene without a single cut, ending in the motorcycle ball of death. I wish the director would have kept up with this style, but I didn't notice anything else worth mentioning on the direction side, though I will check out Derek Cianfrance's other films. I went into this feature without reading anything except, "stunt motorcyclist robs banks" and the 2h20m runtime, so I was shocked when Gosling died early in. I like how Derek Cianfrance showed the aftermath that one death can have, he took the movie in a direction that caught me completely off guard. The characters are all realistic and believable. This was a great cast for Gosling, he pulls off the 'man of few words' character nicely. I think he almost broke character while doing his high pitched 'get on the fuckin floor' voice in one of the scenes. During the first bank robbery I thought my heart was going to pound it's way through my rib cage, but it doesn't stop there. This film triggers a lot of emotion while telling a very unique story.
VERDICT: WATCH IT ON THE BIG SCREEN!
7.75/10
