Ben Mendelsohn

Slow West Review

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Slow West is a thrilling debut and a worthy addition to the list of recent revisionist Westerns that already includes The Proposition and The Assassination of Jesse James.

John Maclean Interview

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Dork Shelf recently got a chance to chat with Slow West director John Maclean as the film gears up for its Canadian release. We picked his brain about the motivations behind his uniquely strange Western debut.

Lost River Review

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Ryan Gosling has written and directed an art film unlike any movies that are getting made these days. In that sense, Lost River is already an accomplishment, it also happens to be beautifully shot, well acted, and deserves to be seen on the big screen.

Adore Review

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Never rising about the trite and tawdry nature of a Harlequin novel, the “erotic” drama Adore feels more sleazy and silly than emotionally charged. It’s a stunning miscalculation and an uneasy, unpleasant film to watch at the best of times. It’s extremely soft core mommy porn for women who would breast feed a child until they were 12.

The Place Beyond the Pines Review

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From moment to moment, The Place Beyond the Pines is a strong piece of work comprised of terse dialogue, pain-eyed performances, sudden bursts of violence, and heavy thematic resonance. Unfortunately, it never quite holds together to deliver anything as profound as the somberly existential tone seems to promise.

Interview: Derek Cianfrance

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We sit down with The Place Beyond the Pines director Derek Cianfrance about how his own experiences honed the film’s takes on father/son relationships and the concept of heroism, his influences, his working relationship with Ryan Gosling, and the different set of challenges between this film and Blue Valentine. We also talk briefly to Dane DeHaan (as much as we can without spoiling the film) about his character and his approach to such an unconventional and sprawling story.