BigOleCoconutHead

In this absolutely heartwarming comedic drama, Ryan Gosling plays Lars, a very socially awkward young man living with schizoid personality disorder. One day, he buys a sex doll, names her Bianca, and starts a real courtship with her, much to the dismay of his brother. The film shows a very realistic and very human depiction of schizoid personality disorder and loneliness, similar to the depiction of bipolar disorder, depression, and anxiety disorder in "Silver Linings Playbook," the depiction of PTSD in "Iron Man 3," or the depiction of DID in "Sybil." 7/10.

In this film, to put it simply, 2 men and later on their sons get their lives wrapped up in crime in one way or another. In this film, co-writer and director Derek Cianfrance, probably best known for his 2010 romantic drama "Blue Valentine," reunites with "Blue Valentine" star Ryan Gosling in yet another absolutely fantastic film. The reason why I gave such a vague synopsis is because I want you to watch this movie blindly, like I did. 7 or 8/10, Ryan Gosling, Bradley Cooper, and Dane DeHaan kick ass in this film.

In this heartwarming coming-of-age drama, we see a young man named Mason, played by American actor Ellar Coltrane, and his life and how it evolves from 2002 to 2014. Now, this film being a coming-of-age drama written and directed by Richard Linklater of "Dazed and Confused" and "Before Sunrise" fame is already selling enough, but here's the big catch about the film; The cast and crew of the film intentionally filmed over the course of 12 real years. on they shot the film on what I believe was 30MM film, so it feels like it took maybe a year in a half to film, when in reality it took, like I said, 12 years. 9/10, totally deserving of the nominations.

In this beautifully heartbreaking romantic drama, Dean, played by Canadian-American actor and musician Ryan Gosling, and his future wife Cindy, played by American actress Michelle Williams. The film follows them both in 2004 when they meet, and in 2010 where they are now married and with a daughter. The film shows their beautiful, "Before Sunrise" styled meeting and connection, and their almost hard to watch marital decay. This film is absolutely amazing. It's the perfect balance between heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it realistically portrays a dying marriage without being angry, bitter, or cynical. 9/10. UPDATE: There's a wording error in the beginning of the review, just to let you know.

Richard Linklater is perfect at making realistic movies. With high school, he made he made "Dazed and Confused," with college he made "Everybody Wants Some!!," with childhood in general, he made "Boyhood," and with love, he made the "Before" trilogy. In this film, we meet American writer Jesse Wallace, played by American actor and director Ethan Hawke. While taking a train ride to Vienna, Austria after a nasty break up, he meets French university student Celine, played by French-American actress and writer Julie Delpy. After striking a connection with her, Jesse convinces Celine to walk around Vienna with him. The rest of the film documents the life changing emotional adventure these 2 embark on as they fall head over heels in love with each other the night before Jesse has to go back to America. I love this film. It's smart, funny, beautiful, romantic, beautifully acted, and perfectly written and directed. If what I'm saying doesn't sell you on the movie, just know this; The film has a 100% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Pretty rare for a film, especially one from the mid 1990's.

This is a romance film done right. This film picks up 9 years after the first film, where now Jesse Wallace, played once again by American actor and director Ethan Hawke, has written a book that was a semi memoir on the night he spent with Celine in Vienna, Austria. While in Paris, France, he reunites with Celine, played once again by French-American actress and writer Julie Delpy. The rest of the film follows them figuring out what the past 9 years have been like and how the events of the first film affected their lives, both positively and negatively. 9/10.

This succeeded where I personally felt "Black Swan" failed. In this film, Miles Teller plays Andrew Neiman, an aspiring drummer and jazz expert. Through a series of events, Andrew gets a teacher in Terrence Fletcher, played by academy award winner J.K. Simmons. Things seem to be going well for Andrew. But things crash and burn for Andrew when Fletcher's teaching methods get increasingly anxiety inducing. This causes Andrew to disrespect his family, and break up with his girlfriend, played by "Supergirl" actress Melissa Benoist. We see Fletcher become increasingly more Andrew mentally, emotionally, verbally, and even physically abusive, causing him to be mentally pushed to the boiling point. Miles Teller is fantastic at playing Andrew and J.K. Simmons is so good that he makes just as intimidated by him as Andrew. I definitely recommend the film, especially to people like me didn't really like and were disappointed by "Black Swan."

This film is a better depiction of mental illness than both "American Psycho" and "Split" combined. And that's really saying something because I enjoy both of these films. In this film, Bradley Cooper plays Pat, a young man with a really hardcore case of bipolar disorder and has just been released from a psychiatric institute after nearly killing the man his ex wife was cheating on him with. While at a dinner, he meets the widow of a dead friend of his dealing with anxiety and depression, played by Jennifer Lawrence. Over the course of the film, Pat helps her out by becoming her dance partner in the hopes of reconnecting with his ex wife, but feelings for her begin to slowly grow. The best part about this film, at least to me, is it's incredibly realistic and human depiction of bipolar, anxiety, and depression. I recommend this movie.

Well, how do I even talk about this movie. It's just a really bland, boring, cliché rom-com, and I don't recommend it. Simple as that.

If "Slacker," "Dazed and Confused," "Before Sunrise," "SubUrbia," and/or "The Newton Boys" couldn't prove Richard Linklater's talents, then his rotoscope animated arthouse dreamscape film, 2001's "Waking Life," will. In this film, Wiley Wiggins, who by the way played Mitch Kramer in "Dazed and Confused," plays a young man going through an existential crisis. Throughout the course of the film, his character goes through Austin, Texas talking and learning more and more about life, dreams, death, existentialism, a mix between life and dreams, lucid dreams, and more. That is unless he's still stuck in a dream he's having. While the animation does get iffy at certain points, the film's visual style is still very unique and wonderful to look at. I totally recommend the film.