Slim pickings this week my friends. We’ve got one big release noteworthy for the Golden Globes it was nominated for and for being the film for which Gorgeous George did not win. We’ve also got two releases that by all accounts were just plain dreadful, one niche film starring no one you’ve ever heard of but, that got surprisingly good reviews and another beautiful foreign art film that will be difficult to find.

The Ides of March, based on Beau Willimon’s play “Farragut North”,  is about an idealistic staffer(Ryan Gosling) for a newbie presidential candidate (George Clooney) who gets a crash course on dirty politics during his stint on the campaign trail. Also starring Philip Seymour Hoffman (who just earned a BAFTA nomination for the role), Evan Rachel Wood, Paul Giamatti, Marissa Tomei, Geoffrey Wright and Max Minghella, it was directed by Clooney and written by the BAFTA nominated team of Clooney, Willimon and Grant Heslov.  I recommend this one. If you like political dramas like All the President’s Men, you’ll like it (and supposedly it was based on Howard Dean’s Presidential run.)

Special Features:

Commentary with George Clooney and Grant Heslov
Developing the Campaign: The Origin of The Ides of March
Believe: George Clooney
On The Campaign: The Cast of The Ides Of March
What Does a Political Consultant Do?

Abduction starring Twi-hard heart-throb Taylor Lautner, is a thriller centered on a young man who sets out to uncover the truth about his life after finding his baby photo on a missing persons website. It was a sort male version of Hanna.

Critics drubbed it but, director John Singleton (Four Brothers, Shaft, Boyz n the Hood, 2 Fast 2 Furious, Rosewood) does know how to do action, I'll give him that.

Special Features:

I found myself with a cache of movie related stuff, not all of which needed it's own post. So in the spirit of the season (and an attempt to be clever) I have set them all to the tune of "The Twelve Days of Christmas"

On the first day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the second day of Christmas, My true love gave to me:Two pics of Daniel Day Lewis as Abraham Lincoln and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard .

On the third day of Christmas My true love gave to me:Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the fourth day of Christmas My true love gave to me: A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens,Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the fifth day of Christmas My true love gave to me: Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the sixth day of Christmas,My true love gave to me: Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie,  Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the seventh day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Seven Bonds a-swimming, Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie,Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the eighth day of Christmas,My true love gave to me: Eight Misc. Posters, Seven Bonds a-swimming Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie,Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

On the ninth day of Christmas,My true love gave to me: Nine Magic Beans, Eight Misc. Posters, Seven Bonds a-swimming Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and  Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard

Nine Magic Beans:

On the tenth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Ten lords a-leaping**, Nine Magic Beans, Eight Misc. Posters, Seven Bonds a-swimming, Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard.

On the eleventh day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Eleven Geezers Gunning, Ten lords a-leaping**, Nine Magic Beans, Eight Misc. Posters, Seven Bonds a-swimming, Six Fincher Teases, Fiiiive Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens Banners, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard.

Eleven Geezers Gunning:

On the Twelfth day of Christmas, My true love gave to me: Twelve Cops & Goslings, Eleven Geezers Gunning, Ten lords a-leaping**, Nine Magic Beans, Eight Misc. Posters,, Seven Bonds-a-swimming, Six Fincher Teases, Five Super Hero Banners, A Poster for the fourth Underworld Movie, Three Hungry Teens, Two Abraham Lincolns and Sacha Baron Cohen with a stupid beard.

 **Not really, it’s just Tom Hardy at the English Nat’l Ballet Christmas Gala. But it sounded good.

photo source: WENN

I thought filming had wrapped on The Gangster Squad since I knew that Ryan Gosling had moved on to Terrence Malick’s new project, tentatively title Lawless with Rooney Mara (not to mention jaunts to Paris). Taken last night on the mean streets of LA, these, I do believe are the best from the set of The Gangster Squad yet. Hey, there’s even one of Baby Goose with a smile!

The Gangster Squad is based on a seven-part 'LA Times' series by Paul Lieberman, and revolves around the LAPD’s fight to keep the East Coast Mob out of 1940's-50's era LA, and the creation of an elite unit called the “Gangster Squad”. Gosling stars along with Josh Brolin as his partner, John O’Mara. Together they are trying to take down notorious gangster Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn). Emma Stone stars as Cohen’s current moll and Wooters’ love interest, Grace Faraday.

Robert Patrick plays Off. Max Kennard (who replaced Bryan Cranston), Giovanni Ribisi plays Conway Keeler, the squad's tech geek (before there was such a thing), Michael Peña plays rookie Navidad Ramirez and Anthony Mackie plays Rocky Washington, a former LAPD Lieutenant.

Warner Bros.  recently announced that the release date has been moved up from the vague '2013' and The Gangster Squad is now set for October 19, 2012 (prime awards season positioning, me thinks). Woot! Enjoy the pics *which also include some shots of Emma Stone in a vintage house dress).

Ryan Gosling is pretty low key when it comes to his love life, but he was out and about for all to see in the City of Love, Paris. with new girlfriend Eva Mendes. I have to say I like these two together, right? The  two have reportedly been an item since September.

Nothing says romance like a trip through the cemetery. The two lovebirds were spotted taking a stroll linking arms through the Pere Lachaise Cemetery. 

Eva is currently in France filming a movie and Ryan surprised her by showing up and spending time with her. Poor Ryan has a bandage on his right hand. No word of what happened.

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Photos: WENN

Here are a few pics from the set of Terrence Malick’s Lawless which stars Ryan Gosling, Christian Bale and Rooney Mara. Gangster Squad is still filming in LA and The Dark Knight Rises is still filming in New York City, so both Gosling and Bale are currently pulling double duty. (Small price to pay working with Malick. This is Bale's second film with the auteur after 2005's The New World)

The plot for Lawless is still pretty much a mystery, but this past summer, Christian Bale was spotted with a film crew at the Austin City Limits Music Festival. Now we have pics of Gosling and Rooney Mara as they film scenes for Lawless at yet another film festival, Fun Fun Fun Fest, also in Austin Texas. It has been hypothesized that because both actors have been shot at separate music festivals,  Bale and Gosling are both playing the same role, but years apart. Ordinarily I would think that was a stretch, but this is Terrence Malick we’re talking about.

Here are Gosling and Mara at the Fun Fun Fun Fest.

The Place Beyond the Pines, writer/director Derek Cianfrance's follow-up effort to last year's indie darling, Blue Valentine, stars Ryan Gosling and Bradley Cooper. We’ve shown you set pics including Baby Goose feeding a baby (human) and Cooper’s weird 80s coif. The above is the first official image released by Sierra Infiinity. Love the red leather, still not crazy about those crazy skull & crossbones 80s pajama pants. New details have also emerged since the last time we talked about this film, as well. While the director himself has called the film a “Darwinistic idea of survival through ancestry”, he claims to have been told it’s an epic in the tradition of “The Deerhunter meets The Godfather.” The title comes from the name of the city of Schenectady, New York, where a lot of the filming took place, which is the Mohawk word for "beyond the pine plains." 

Synopsis: Luke (Gosling) is a professional motorcycle rider who turns to bank robberies to support his newborn son, but when he crosses paths with a rookie police officer (Cooper) their violent confrontation spirals into a tense generational feud. THE PLACE BEYOND THE PINES is a rich dramatic thriller that traces the intersecting lives of fathers and sons, cops and robbers, heroes and villain.

The rest of the cast for The Place Beyond the Pines includes Eva Mendes, Rose Byrne, Ray Liotta and Ben Mendelson and is slated for a release sometime in 2013. (2013? For an independent film with no special effects? Are they still raising money to finish the thing?) Odds are it will make the rounds of the festivals next year, starting in May with Cannes.