A Warner Bros Picture, Written by Will Beall, Directed by Ruben Fleischer.
The gangster genre has been a part of cinema for many years, and so has LA nostalgia, and this film embraces both. It is pure pulp, with style over substance and stars being allowed to be ‘cool’.
It features every cliche in the book and isn’t a particularly inspired story, but it is shot beautifully and features a talented cast, so it is very watchable without ever being particularly great.
Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, here in their second collaboration, again make for a good couple but are given very little to actually do together. Stone particularly is wasted in a surface level femme fatale role, and while she is beautiful and seductive enough to pull the role off, she is such a talented actor that it is a shame to see her not be able to do more. However, it was early in her career and she has been given great opportunities to show what she can do.
If you love gangsters and 1940s Los Angeles, you will at least get something out of this style over substance movie.
Rating = 2.5/5
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