The Place Beyond the Pines (2013)

The Place Beyond the Pines is a 2013 American crime drama directed by Derek Cianfrance. The film is structured as a triptych spanning 15 years: the first act follows Luke Glanton, a motorcycle stunt rider played by Ryan Gosling, who turns to bank robbery to support the son he has just learned about; the second follows Avery Cross, an ambitious cop played by Bradley Cooper, whose encounter with Luke launches his political career while exposing corruption in his department; the third follows their sons, played by Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen, whose chance meeting as teenagers unknowingly reconnects their fathers' intertwined fates. Derek Cianfrance's ambitious structure examined how the consequences of violence ripple across generations, and the film's Schenectady, New York setting gave it a lived-in, working-class texture.

Ryan Gosling's tattooed, bleach-blond Luke was a magnetic screen presence in the brief first act, and the film's willingness to abandon its apparent protagonist partway through was a bold structural gamble. The Place Beyond the Pines earned $47 million worldwide on a $15 million budget.