You always hurt the ones you love.

Blue Valentine

Gritty, realistic, painful, surprisingly funny at times. Blue Valentine is a tour de force of emotion starring two incredibly talented actors who improvised most of their lines. Blue Valentine will leave you feeling emotionally naked.

Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams are phenomenal. I've always had an insane amount of respect for both of them as performers but after Blue Valentine, my opinion of them has sky-rocketed upwards. Gosling brings a sweetness, protectiveness and romance in the beginning of the relationship that most girls would hope for. Williams plays the damage and exhaustion one never hopes to have. Each performance is natural.

Though there is a script, both Williams and Gosling did a lot of improvisation. That just makes the performances that much more natural and powerful. Those tears and lines are truly coming from within.

The genius of Blue Valentine is the way the story is told. The pacing is brilliant and the story is told in a nonlinear fashion. We see something bad in the present followed by something great in the past. A family tragedy followed by the characters first introduction. We are essentially seeing love being born and love dying. Though we are seeing this beautiful new love, we are seeing cracks in a foundation that will ultimately doom them. The climactic scene in the third act is so hard to watch, so painful. You can see the love draining out of Williams and you have to turn away. This is all too personal.

Most of Blue Valentine is hard to watch. It's incredibly gritty and raw. When Gosling and Williams go away to a hotel for a night, their sexual interaction is brutal. It's just so sad. One is trying so hard to save this relationship while the other is so clearly over it. This is a tragic romance to end all tragic romances. No melodrama, just truth.

Chris Lilley on Summer Heights High

By far the funniest show I've ever seen...ever. Chris Lilley plays three vastly different characters who all have delusions of grandeur: bad boy Jonah, drama teacher Mr. G, and vapid private school girl Ja'Mie. Each character is so wonderfully written and full realized, especially Jonah. And they are all absolutely hilarious and completely real. We each know someone like them. Lilley morphs into each character and plays so well with his costars. The man is a comedic genius.

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