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Sins arent cheap in The Place Beyond the Pines

By Parker Thompson,
Contributor

HCOoOocot

hat price does a father

pay for his sins? Spanning
three storylines over 17 years,
The Place Beyond the Pes
audaciously asks this question
throughout. The answer,
however, finds a lull part way
through the film before picking
up again. Despite this, The Place
Beyond the Pines is beautifully
shot and thought-provoking. We
also get the rare treat of seeing
multiple sides of a story.

Directed by Derek

Cianfrance (Blue Valentine),
The Place Beyond the Pes
begins by following Luke
Glanton (Ryan Gosling),
a disheveled motorcycle
stuntman performing ina

The trouble with Terror

We review The Flaming
Lips latest

By Jacey Gibb, Assistant Editor

ands with considerable

discographies tend to fall
under one of two categories:
either they found their sound
years ago and are now just
going through the motions at
this point, or they treat time
like a lesson and never cease to
grow with each passing release.
Luckily for us, The Flaming Lips
belong to the latter category.

state fair. His fair is about to
leave Schenectady, New York,
when Romina (Eva Mendes),
an ex-lover of his, visits him.
Glanton learns that he is father
to Romina’s two-year-old
son. He quits his job to stay in
Schenectady and provide for
his new family. The problem
Glanton faces is finding a job
that earns enough. We are also
introduced to Avery Cross
(Bradley Cooper), a low-ranking
Schenectady cop with a bright
mind, who fatefully crosses
paths with Glanton.
Compelling themes are
raised and held onto for this
140-minute film. The Place
Beyond the Pines wraps a nice
little bow around questions of
sin, blame, and legacy.

By album number 13, titled
The Terror (released April 16),
you'd think a band would be
running on empty, creativity-
wise—drawing upon innovative
fumes and churning out subpar
material. But with each album,
the Lips manage to add another
layer to their extensive arsenal
of sound. “Look...the sun is
rising,” the first track on the
LP, contains all the traits of a
signature Lips song: droney
fuzz rock, with elements of
psychedelic thrown in for spark.
The track, which was also the
first song released to the public,
acts as a foreshadower of what's
to come—but the delivery is
dead on arrival.

After a decade of loving
the Lips, The Terror was the

first album I found myself
being disappointed with. It’s
a lot softer than some of their
more recent pieces, which
demonstrates their ability to
branch out from their signature
sound, but it’s almost too soft.
Instead of a group of songs
meant to feel like your brain
is exploding (looking at you,
2009's Embryonic), | felt myself
dozing off to a sleepy, slower
array.

I could see The Terror
working as a good soundtrack
to fall asleep to, or maybe as
background music while you
look at the night sky and try to
distinguish satellites from flying
saucers, but as a standalone
Flaming Lips’ album, it’s
disappointing.

Your Evoland’ is evolving!

By Angela Espinoza, Arts Editor

he RPG genre of video

games has evolved
drastically over the years.
With more powerful consoles
and changes in graphics came

significantly better games. Indie
developers Shiro Games took
this concept and in 30 hours
created what is now known as
Evoland Classic for the Ludum
Dare 24 competition last year.
Since then, Evoland’s full version
has arrived, and you can see
right away it was a labour of
love.

Released on April 4, Evoland
takes the player on a journey
from RPG’s humble beginnings
of green and white 8-bit
adventure into a 3-D epic! You
take on the role of a Link-a-like,
fighting bats and octorocs and
searching for treasure. As you
progress though, you realize
there’s actually a story going
on, and with your faithful lady

 

Ryan Gosling in The Place Beyond the Pines | Photo courtesy of Atsushi Nishijima

healer, you try and vanquish the
evil of the land once and for all.

Evoland is a love letter to
the RPG genre as it’s developed
over the years, and it’s
incredibly fun to play. However,
there are two big issues with the

game that cannot be overlooked:

it’s very easy (no harder modes
are available) and it’s horribly
short. You could probably beat

THE TEleleore

 

this game in less than six hours,
and that is almost never a good
thing.

With that in mind, Evoland
is still a game that needs to be
played. Evoland is very fun and
to say it’s nostalgic would be a
gross understatement. The game
is currently available on PC and
Mac for $10 (as always, wait for
a sale).

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