001. Review - The Place Beyond the Pines

Atsushi Nishijima/Focus Features

I remember being wowed by Derek Cianfrance’s Blue Valentine in 2010, an intimate and stirring film about the pushes and perils of love starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams.  It had a different energy than any other film that I’d seen that year, a threatening sense of danger that one usually gets from a great thriller, not a romantic piece.  It took a while for the film to leave my mind, and I was eager to see what else Cianfrance had in store for us, so I was excited when I heard he was teaming up with Gosling again for The Place Beyond the Pines.  After premiering to acclaim at the Toronto International Film Festival in the fall of 2012, the film recently released wide to allow audiences another glimpse into a harrowing reality.

000. Quality Introductions

My name is Sebastian Gronback, Eastern Connecticut Class of 2013, former Arts & Entertainment Editor of the Campus Lantern. I like watching television and anime. I enjoy occasionally reading comic books and playing video games. Above all, I love movies.

One of my earliest childhood memories is watching the Dance of the Hours sequence from Fantasia with my nose pressed up against the television screen.  I'm nearsighted, but I didn't know that when I was three and neither did my parents, so I ended up watching all of my cartoons with my face close enough to the screen that the colors and sounds almost blurred together.  But I remember this cartoon, I remember this sequence, with the slinky alligator struggling to lift the pink-tutu hippo princess, the fluidity and its movement with the orchestra.  My mother saw the way I was watching the film, took me to see the doctor, and got me fitted with my first pair of glasses. With a facsimile of 20/20 vision, we went back home. I sat down on the floor across from the television, instead of against it, and watched Fantasia again.  It's safe to say that's where my love of film started.

After spending four solid years writing movie news and reviews for my college newspaper, and managing the section during my final year, I'm calling this blog the next step.  I'll be posting reviews, news bits, and editorials here, mainly on the movie front with a bit of television, comics, and gaming thrown in.  Hopefully you'll find something that strikes your fancy among the mixed bag of media writing.

I like to think of this all as a learning experience; there's still a lot of things I haven't seen, haven't played, haven't read. Thanks for checking this out, and stop by every once in a while to see what I've learned.

- Sebastian