Be my ‘Valentine’

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams take the best intimate and improvisational aspects of the mumblecore movement and add their own bold narrative punch to present the real-life challenges of modern marriage in the new indie drama Blue Valentine. Directed by Derek Cianfrance, the New York-set film presents the highs and extreme lows of a young couple using a cut-and-paste method, not unlike recent hit (500) Days of Summer. Utilizing an award-winning screenplay as well as improvisational actors and real life characters, the film invites the audience to jump back and forth through the ups and downs of the relationship, all seemingly caught documentary-style in a gripping cinema verite way. Faith Wladyka and Ben Shenkman co-star. Rated R. (image courtesy the Weinstein Company)