This may be my favourite movie.

It's been one of my favourite films since I saw it in theaters. My first view it touched and moved me emotional in a way a movie hasn't for a while

You guys have good taste. I'd recommend Appcolypto directed by Mel Gibson, L.I.E. (Long Island Expressway) and The Drop for 3 similarly gritty, dramatic films. Let me know what you think in comparison and contrast to APBTP?

I have to agree. I really think it's one of my favorite movies that I've watched in at least the last 5 years or so. But I have many, many movies I plan on watching, including many classics (at least "classics" deemed by a majority).

But this movie was great. I watched it on a complete whim, as it was on HBO and I recorded it and watched it. I really wish I had seen it in theaters, but I honestly didn't even know that the film existed until I saw it on HBO. I had never heard of it in theaters.

I don't think that there was much wrong with the film. Everybody had their own flaws, which is perfectly, well, human. And the third act, although people complain about it, did a good job. If people didn't like it because of young kids being stupid and hipster/thug pretend life, well, again... welcome to life!

The other biggest complaint is the very end and about closure, but I always hate when people complain about closure. Sure, there are many films that basically seem like they're going for some closure and finality point and it is stupid when they don't have one, but this movie never seemed like it was going for that.

The movie was just cycling through these people and their lives, showing interconnected, but skewed, views and experiences around this main situation of the robbery (and of life in general, e.g., Avery's connection, or lack thereof, to his ex-wife and son because of his political pursuits).

People complain about Jason going off at the end without being "taught" about the bad parts of his father. But again, movies aren't meant to be some general morality story where everyone is structured to have the "good" view of life and people they know, things they do, and so on.

There are different ways of looking at the characters, and Luke was bad in the terms of the law, but he developed a connection to Romina and his son, and it seemed like he genuinely had a good fatherly connection (i.e., entirely focused in the scene with Jason as a baby and the sunglasses). He can still have a good fatherly connection despite his breaking the law and conflicts with Romina's man; the point is that his breaking the law obviously damaged his family and his son's life.

That's why the previously-mentioned complaints don't really work, I think. I mean, what else was there to be said? "Hey, your father robbed banks! Don't do that!" It's not like Jason didn't know that already.

On the other hand, Avery is "good" on the side of law (despite being involved with crooked cops unintentionally) but turns out to be a pretty terrible husband and father later on. Look at AJ. He is nowhere near in a good position at all. In fact, Jason is in a much better family life until the discovery about his real father, whereas it seems that AJ will never be in a good family life.


Anyway, with my random, not-all-that-greatly-structured essay... I love this movie. The characters are all well-done; the actors do their jobs and make great connections. The sounds and atmosphere are great, and I loved the ending scene of Jason riding off. The music was amazing as well. I watched the movie 3 times in a row after the first time and loved it.

I'd give it an 11/10 if I could, and I will watch it many times over the years.

When I saw this in theaters, I was thoroughly absorbed but thought the final act was a bit lacking. Since then, I have seen this movie probably 15 times. It's always on HBO and I find myself watching it a lot. I never get sick of it.

This film is extremely original and daring. It does something very few films have done. The final act is wonderful. This was one of the 3 best films last year. And underrated masterpiece

I just watched the movie tonight after watching Chris Stuckman's review on YouTube and I have to say, I'm a little speechless. This isn't a movie to just slop a label on; it deserves more than that. The only word that comes to mind is "beautiful" because it really was.

That being said, there were a few too many cliches, etc., but they, (very) surprisingly, didn't stop me from really getting in to it. The acting certainly helped. Ryan Gosling was absolutely fantastic and brought more to the role than I felt was actually written. You could really see how tortured and full of pain he was. The rest of the acting was fantastic as well; all the actors brought this natural feel and intensity of emotion that just made it all feel so real.

This is a hard movie for me to rate with a single number because, in my opinion, it had a fair amount of things that just didn't work. But when it did work, oh boy did they work.

Also, I loved how the movie was split between three distinct acts. I was not expecting that at all (I hadn't even seen the trailers). Overall, I'm extremely happy to have seen this movie. It isn't a movie for everyone by any means but I think that was kind of the point. Those are usually the movies that resonate with me the most.

good movie, but i thought they could have done a better job casting a couple of key roles, mainly avery and his son. those performances were a litle flat to me, and the accent his son had was distracting.

I loved this movie and I'm glad to see a lot of others felt the same. It was pushed under the rug a little bit when it came out. I didn't even catch it until it was on cable. Now I think it was one of the best movies of its year.