After watching Derek Cianfrance’s “Blue Valentine,” it was clear that the writer/director would be one to watch for the future, even if the anti-romance film wasn’t exactly my cup of tea. His follow-up feature, “The Place Beyond the Pines,” reunites Cianfrance with his “Blue Valentine” star Ryan Gosling, and though the movie is hindered by its own set of problems, the multi-generational crime drama makes good on the potential he showcased in his directorial debut. While it’s difficult to talk about the movie without wading knee-high into spoiler territory, “The Place Beyond the Pines” is an impressive piece of American filmmaking that’s every bit as compelling as it is annoyingly flawed.

The movie’s triptych structure is like watching three separate but interconnecting films, and Cianfrance kicks things off with what is easily the best of the bunch as we’re introduced to Luke Glanton (Gosling), a motorcycle stunt driver who reconnects with a former one-night stand named Romina (Eva Mendes) at the local fair where he plies his trade. When he learns that Romina has given birth to his son, Luke agrees to quit his nomadic job and stay in town, even though Romina has already moved on with another man. Determined to do his fatherly duties and provide for his son, Luke decides to put his unique skills to use and start robbing banks, placing him on a collision course with rookie policeman Avery Cross (Bradley Cooper), an honest family man who gave up his promising career as a lawyer to serve on the force. After becoming privy to some dirty cops in the department, however, Avery must decide what’s more important: his integrity or loyalty to his brothers in blue.

Taking place 15 years later, the final act is predictable but nonetheless rewarding as Cianfrance’s story comes full circle to find Luke and Avery’s teenage sons (Dane DeHaan and Emory Cohen, respectively) become unlikely friends during a chance meeting, ultimately forced to deal with the actions of their fathers. The whole thing is incredibly ambitious, and unfortunately for Cianfrance, he seems to have bitten off more than he can chew. Though there’s not much to each story, everything that happens is necessary to telling the larger narrative, and that’s part of what makes “The Place Beyond the Pines” so frustrating. Cianfrance may be dealing with some familiar themes of fatherhood, consequences and destiny, but it’s such an epic undertaking that it ultimately becomes too much movie for its own good.

Gosling’s segment is the standout, not only because it lays the groundwork for the rest of the film, but because it provides the best balance of drama, action, and even a little comedy thanks to an entertaining turn from Ben Mendelsohn, who’s fast becoming one of the best character actors in Hollywood. The heist scenes are also well shot and add some much-needed energy to a film that moves at a rather leisurely pace, but the biggest reason for its success is Gosling’s magnetic performance. Covered from head to toe in tattoos, the bleach blonde bad boy may be a criminal, but it’s absolutely heartbreaking to watch as Luke grapples with Romina to let him be a part of his son’s life and give him the father he never had.

Cooper and DeHaan also deliver solid performances, but their segments are noticeably weaker. As a result, the movie feels a bit lopsided, although the first hour is so engaging (aided by a refreshingly unglamorous turn by Mendes) that it makes up for some of the more unflattering heavy-handedness that Cianfrance resorts to in the latter half. “The Place Beyond the Pines” isn’t perfect, but it’s a movie that demands a lot of respect for not only taking big risks, but the way that it resonates emotionally, because there just aren’t enough films that do that anymore.

Be sure to check out our 5 Questions interview with the beautiful and talented Génesis Rodríguez to read how she learned to cry on command!

Everyone in show business knows that comedy is hard. Apparently, however, it’s not hard enough for Will Ferrell. The SNL-bred all around comic superstar decided sometime ago he wanted to make a film in Spanish. He didn’t know what the movie would be about, but one thing was clear, the far from fluent Farrell would need to learn his part semi-phonetically, which by all accounts is every bit as difficult to do as you might imagine.

With the help of writer Andrew Steele and first-time feature director Matt Piedmont, that movie evolved into “Casa de mi Padre” (“House of My Father”). A broad but reasonably affectionate and detail-oriented spoof of telenovelas and Mexican and American exploitation movies, the film stars Farrell in one of his best performances yet as the 100% virtuous Armando Alvarez. Armando’s unwavering good guy nature is tested by the disrespect of his wealthy patriarch dad (the late Pedro Armendáriz Jr.) as well as the fact that his beloved brother, Raul (Diego Luna), has become a powerful narco at war with the ultra villainous La Onza (Gael García Bernal). Even more challenging is the increasingly melodramatic mutual attraction betwixt Armando and Raul’s fiercely stunning fiancée, Sonia (Génesis Rodríguez).

Bullz-Eye was fortunate enough to meet with several members of the cast and crew one day earlier this month. Along with comedy superstar Ferrell, we met with Latin-American heart-throb and respected U.S. actor Diego Luna, who may still be best known stateside for co-starring in 2001′s hyper-sexual “Y Tu Mamá También” with real-life lifelong best pal and “Casa” co-narco Gael García Bernal. Also along for the ride was fast rising comic actor Nick Offerman of “Parks and Recreation,” who portrays a bigoted DEA Agent. To discuss behind-the-camera matters we also spoke with screenwriter Andrew Steele (“The Ladies Man”). Also present at the event was the beguiling Génesis Rodríguez, who is the subject of a separate “5 Questions” feature.

Below are some highlights of the rather freewheeling discussions.

Will Ferrell on how “Casa de mi Padre” came to be.

I had always thought that it could be interesting to put myself in the middle of a Spanish language movie and fully commit to speaking Spanish. That heightened world of the telenovela meets the bad Mexican spaghetti western — all of that seemed like it could be a recipe for a type of movie you hadn’t seen before.

Diego Luna on his opinion of Will Ferrell’s Spanish.

He sounds perfect. You understand everything, basically. I was very worried. Forty days before we started shooting, I sat down in a bar with him and the director and he knew no Spanish at all. He couldn’t speak it.

He said, “Yeah, well, I’m gonna try.” Thirty days later he gave this two-minute monologue and, in fact, he makes sense. He understands what he’s saying. That was impressive, and [it was also] very impressive that two weeks after he forgot everything.

Will Ferrell on learning his lines in Spanish

Patrick Perez, who translated the script from English into Spanish, I kind of got to know him and he said, “Hey, I’m willing to work with you on your Spanish if you want.” I said “That’d be great.” We just started working about a month to six weeks out in front of the movie, meeting three or four times a week. Once we started filming, we would drive to the set every day and drive home every day. In the morning, [we'd] work on the scene or scenes for that day. On the way home, [we'd] start to work on the next day, to try to just embed it into my brain.

Every day I finished I felt like I’d wrapped an entire movie. It was just “Groundhog Day.” Diego and I laugh about because he improvised every take and I had no idea. “Okay, he’s finished? Now, I go.”

Farrell on the efficacy of Rosetta Stone language learning software.

I actually got it, believe it or not, but it was so frickin’ hard to set up and figure out how to use, that I [gave up on it]. Someone had written something like, “You’re a walking advertisement for Rosetta Stone.” I want to blatantly put out there, do not use Rosetta Stone. It’s really hard to use.

Writer Andrew Steele on absorbing the necessary South of the Border pop culture.

I did a lot of watching of ’40′s, 50′s, and 60′s Mexican cinema, which to me is the real Mexican cinema. They all turned to shit in the ’70′s and ’80′s. I got a lot of those videos. Those are fun to watch because it’s fun to watch low-budget filmmaking. We didn’t want to just parody that style, but there’s a lot of great things you can learn watching. I remember one Mexican movie where they didn’t even have enough money to have fake boxes. They had two boxes — they were taking off drugs from the back of a truck — and they kept cutting to the same two boxes.

Nick Offerman on getting the “Casa de mi Padre” gig

For years I’ve been friends with Will and I often wondered if he knew I was an actor, which is true. I got to be friends with him when my wife [Megan Mullally of "Will and Grace"] hosted SNL. I was Megan’s husband.

We’d enjoy each other’s company but, unless you’re a douchebag, if you’re friends with somebody like Will, you don’t go out to dinner and [say] “By the way, you know I’ve done Chekhov, right? I’m quite funny. Could you pass the butter, please?”…So [getting the part] was a crazy surprise, and I cried.

Will Ferrell elaborating on how it felt to know that his co-stars were improvising en Español, even though he couldn’t understand what they were saying.

Ignorance is bliss. When you don’t realize people are improvising, it’s okay.

There were a couple of moments I was able to do something physically or in terms of a reaction. I just put all my faith in the fact that speaking Spanish for an entire movie was enough.

Diego Luna on the fact that Will Ferrell would not always know when he was improvising.

That was cool, but you know what was even better? Not even the director knew what I was doing. I would say, “You liked it? I just changed a few words.” I could say anything I wanted.

It was fun. It was weird, you know. Because, at the beginning I thought, “we’re doing a film with Will Ferrell.” Suddenly, Will Ferrell was this guy who was attached to a piece of paper and a dialect coach talking to him. He looked like a monk in a corner just praying these weird mantras….

As he soon as they would say “action,” though, something happens, because the guy is so intense and also so funny. I would be struggling to stay serious until the end of the takes. Also, the director would leave the reactions for a minute like they do in soap operas. So, you finish the sentence and you have four seconds of us looking at each other. It was tough to stay in control.

Writer and non-Spanish speaker Steele on the vagaries of having your screenplay translated into another language.

I wrote a script that has a lot of areas that are purposefully very bad. Bad English. Bad writing. It’s a style that I really enjoy. The translator has to understand…he can’t fix it. He has to try to get my style. So I got a translator, Patrick Perez, who ended up understanding what we were trying to do — for the most part. I’m, of course, in the dark here, but Diego seemed to understand it. Gael seemed to understand it. Interestingly, [recently deceased septuagenarian film legend Pedro Armendáriz Jr.] said, “this is a shitty translation!”

Nick Offerman on playing the Spanish-mangling DEA Agent

It was fun, especially the way Agent Parker disrespects the Spanish language. He knows enough to speak it grammatically, because he needs to for his job, but I feel like he shows such a lack of respect in his pronunciation. “I’m gonna speak your shitty language, but I’m not going to be happy about it.”

[As for myself, however] I would take some Latino street cred from drinking a lot of Jarritos soda and I know what the suffix “ito” and “ote” mean. For example, I would prefer you call me Nicolasote [Big Nick] to Nicolasito [Little Nick/Nicky].

Will Ferrell on how the heroic Armando Alvarez fits in with his other characters.

He is not in the overconfident, cocky mold. He is very sweet and super earnest about his beliefs. It’s almost cliché how he is the moral center of the movie. He only wants to do good, despite the fact that his family thinks he’s a little slow and dumb and speaks funny [and are drug dealers]. He’s not someone who has that confidence and you’re thinking, “Why is he so confident?” He’s just an earnest guy.

Diego Luna on his approach to playing the amoral, yet beloved, Raul Alvarez.

Behind that character there was another character, which was this terrible actor who was allowed to do anything he wanted. You know what happens with actors? With the same line they want to cry, smile, make you cry. It’s like everything needs to happen to me all the time so I can show you how much I can stretch my emotions. This actor allowed himself to do the weirdest choices; this actor would allow himself to stay in the frame too long in order to make sure he’s in the film…that’s just complete fun.

Nick Offerman on whether he modeled the bigoted Agent Parker on any particular person or character.

I based him, pretty specifically, on this nun that taught my catechism in school, named Sister Jesuinna. She hated the Latinos. She would beat them. [Laughter in a room that was roughly 3/4 Latino.] No, Sister Jesuinna was super cool. We had her in eighth grade and she brought Playboy magazine to Sunday school…she loved Latinos, and all people.

Will Ferrell on being the onscreen lover in two recent films of two Latino mega-beauties, “Casa” co-star Génesis Rodríguez and Eva Mendes of “The Other Guys.”

If you can create those kind of situations fictionally, why not? [Laughter] I think that’s just coincidence. In “The Other Guys” it was a running joke that it would be funny that my straitlaced character had this hot wife, “like an Eva Mendes.” Then, sure enough, we were able to actually get Eva Mendes.

In this case, we knew the heroine was going to be, hopefully, the type of leading woman you’d see in one of these soap operas. The amazing thing about Génesis was, she was the first actress to audition and we saw a ton of talented actresses. She kind of blew us away. We found out later that she worked on a telenovela for like six years.

Without even giving her a note, she was super serious with the material, she got herself to cry at one point…[I said] “How do you do that?” She said, “You just learn to cry on cue.”

She was sitting there [thinking] “why are they laughing so hard?” It was the first time we’d heard it read and you’re doing it so real and committed. We couldn’t get her out of our mind.

Diego Luna on filming his alcohol and nicotine loving character’s final scene.

It was very tough. They said there are all these elements that we’re going to blow up — like a bomb here, gun shots here, the fountain was going to explode. They said, “Well, you might be safe if you go through here.” And I said, “through where?” They didn’t even draw [me a picture] or anything. They had four cameras and just one shot. They said, “We cannot reload these and there’s no money to do it and no time. So, please, go to the end. No matter what happens, get to the end.”

I took it very seriously and I said, “I don’t care what happens but my drink and my cigarette are going to stay with me until the very end of this shot.” It was so much fun. So stupid, oh my God.

Will Ferrell on his next, politically themed, comedy.

I just finished “The Campaign” with Zach Galifianakis. That’ll come out in August, right before the conventions, I think. It’s the story of a small congressional race in North Carolina. I’m a four-time incumbent who usually runs unopposed. I only have aspirations of becoming Vice President, that’s it. Zach is a member of a big, prestigious political family. He’s kind of the black sheep and they run him against me. It’s basically just a vehicle for us to make fun of how insane this political season has been.

Diego Luna on whether he thinks “Casa de mi Padre” will go over in the Spanish speaking world.

I have no idea. I hope it does. They’ve been asking me a lot: What do I think? [Are] people going to get offended in Mexico? What I’m saying, because I truly believe it, is I think they’re going to be more offended here. The few lines [Will Ferrell] says about Americans — whoa.

I have a line I love which is where my character, the drug dealer, is trying to explain to his brother. “Look, I’m not a bad guy. I would sell chocolates if America wanted to buy chocolates, but they want drugs, and they want a lot…” I would love that to go out and make people laugh in the States. Then, there might be a chance that, at the end, they’ll think about it and say, “Well, yeah, probably this amount of violence happening [in Mexico] has something to do with us.”

Right down to the sexy female dancers who liven up the breaks and its highly distinctive award statue, “the Mantlers,” it’s easily the most laid back and honestly silly awards show I’ve seen. It’s also the only award show we know of which contains R-rated profanity in one of its award titles: the “Funniest Motherf*cker” award, this year being given to Jim Carrey. It’s safe the say the show was completely irreverent about everything, except for its commendable commitment to drawing attention to the bravery and sacrifices made by members of our armed forces.

Speaking of Jim Carrey, the famed comic provided a remarkable bit of comedy dealing with the always absolutely never hilarious topic of..oh, Lord, we’d better just leave it alone. You don’t want to know. Carrey himself made it clear that children and other sensitive people were better off not hearing the routine before proceeding with a shocking and explosively funny performance, abetted by the sensitive stylings of violinist Neil Hammond.

More traditionally edgy and hilarious at certain points, but a lot longer, was a marathon bit by faux canine Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, aka comic genius Robert Smigel. The latter merited a bad on-camera review from Sean Penn who between this show and his criticism of Ricky Gervais at Golden Globes, seems to be developing a side career as a real-time award show comedy critic.

Justin Timberlake less controversially proved himself to be, once again, no comic slouch, while promoting the charms of the co-star of his next flick, “Friends with Benefits,” the beautiful and talented Mila Kunis. Rolling Stones guitarist Keith Richards distinguished himself by simply being alive to pick up his award and being the innately humourous individual he is.

And so it went. I’ll have a few choice quotes from the show at the end of this piece. First, though, let’s talk about the folks we met on the Red Carpet.

Sadly, but not unexpectedly, the likes of Kunis, Carry, Timberlake, Richards, Jennifer Aniston, Penn and presenter/winners Mark Wahlberg and Robert De Niro were kept far away from the likes of us. Even Triumph was on too short a leash to be within licking distance. Nevertheless, we did speak to a few folks of interest to a great many guys, with Mixed Martial Arts lightweight champion Eddie Alvarez leading the way.

What your correspondent knows about sports in general and this very new sport in particular would fit on the head of a smaller than average pin, but I nevertheless ventured a couple of questions with the Philadelphia-bred 27 year-old, nicknamed “the Silent Assassin.” Because my mind naturally goes to the controversial place, I asked about the safety issue in regards to his somewhat controversial calling. Alvarez was ready to reassure me.

“The MMA sport has been proven to be safer than many other sports. There’s a misconception out there and that’s why some of the top fighters in each [MMA] organization are out there to educate people…The fighters that are going out there to fight are prepared. They know what they’re getting into and the sport is a lot safer than people think.”

So, had Alvarez’s fighting success led him to any interesting career places? “I fight every so often on MTV [he's emerged victorious on 'Bully Beatdown']. I’ve been all over the world — Japan, Russia, Costa Rica,” said Alvarez who certainly seemed to be enjoying his day in the sun.

Next up was actor Robert Romanus, an actor with over 50 credits to his name but whose claim to movie fame remains playing the swaggering Mike Damone, who schools Mark “Rat” Ratner (Brian Becker) on the ways of sex in the now legendary teen comedy, “Fast Times at Ridgemont High.” The movie was being saluted by Guys Choice and Romanus was there as part of a group that included director Amy Heckerling (who still looks too young to be directing movies), and Oscar winners Forest Whitaker and Sean “Don’t Call Me Spicoli” Penn.

I couldn’t help bringing up what everybody brings up, the large number of actors in the cast who went on to greater fame, including also Jennifer Jason Leigh and such bit players as Eric Stoltz, Anthony Edwards, and, uh, Nicolas Cage. I don’t know what meanness brought out this rather impossible question, but did anyone’s subsequent success surprise him? (What’s he supposed to say, “Yeah, that Penn kid and Jennifer Jason What’s-Her-Name were a couple a real no-talents!”?)

“No, not really. To be honest with you, everybody on that set was really a good actor. Dedicated. It was cast really well. People knew what they were doing even though they were young.”

When I asked if there was anything else in his long career he thought maybe hadn’t gotten the attention it deserved, the actor, who plays and sings with the L.A. area band Poppa’s Kitchen, used a pop musical metaphor.

“It’s like an album cut. Some of them are hits, some of them are just Side-Bs. You’ll never see ‘em; you won’t listen to ‘em. For me, once I’m done, it’s over. The process is the fun part.” As for what he’s up these days, “always looking for work” was Romanus’s commendably straightforward answer.

Next up was a brief cameo from the very attractive hostesses of Spike TV’s gamer geek friendly “GameTrailers,” Amanda McKay and Justine Ezarik. As we speak, the pair are gearing for the gigantic E3 gaming expo in downtown Los Angeles.

That was followed by my favorite encounter of the evening. It was with five of the seven actresses who so memorably and precisely portrayed Mickey Ward’s extremely memorable sisters from “The Fighter.” Though, like a fool I forgot to ask everyone their names, and I’m therefore not 100% sure which actress the quote below comes from, I can at least say that the women pictured belowed are (I think) Kate B. O’Brien (Conan O’Brien’s sister!), Melissa McMeekin, Bianca Hunter, Jenna Lamia (who I think did the talking, but don’t quote me on that), and Erica McDermott.

I started out by asking about the much discussed sequel, which they told me was, as far as they knew, just a rumor, but one in which they were very much in favor. (The main source of those “rumors” has been star and producer Mark Wahlberg, who seemed to confirm that it was done deal and a third and final sequel possible, while picking up Mantlers on stage in the presence of director David O. Russell, and real-life “fighters.”)

Since in person the acting “sisters” really do seem much, much less intimidating and a more than a little healthier than the Eklund/Ward sisters from the film, I asked if they ever get recognized. It had happened when they were together but they seemed to agree that not being recognized individually as one of the characters they played was something of a compliment. Since I really was impressed by the realism and intensity of their performances, I asked if there were any actor exercises to achieve the strong group dynamic on display in the Oscar-winning movie.

“We got to meet the actual women that we were playing. I’ve never done that before. We had drinks with them and hung out in their kitchen and talked about life; there’s nothing better than that.”

I mentioned I was especially impressed by their group dynamic in opposition to Charlene Fleming-Ward, as portrayed by Amy Adams.

“We bonded so quickly amongst us that we really did feel like we were sisters. Then we tried to somewhat keep our distance from Amy. She’s a lovely girl, but we did try and keep our distance a little bit so that that would show.”

Next up was possibly the most famous face in the tech geek community this side of Steve Jobs or Guy’s Choice nominee Mark Zuckerberg, Kevin Pereira, host of G4′s “Attack of the Show” since 2005. So, I asked him, what’s the biggest thing in geek culture these days?

“Anything that has a lowercase ‘i’ people get excited for. iPads, iPhones, iBongs, it doesn’t matter…The tablet space is going to heat up very soon. Honeycomb, from Google, it’s their portable operating system. That’s really improving greatly. Manufacturers are really hopping on board for that. And, the new previews for Windows 8 shows that it’s going to be an awesome, touch-enabled interface.”

From their, our conversation immediately went downhill intellectually as we somehow wound up discussing the tragedy of liberal Democratic congressman Anthony Weiner. At that point, he had yet to come clean in that now legendary press conference. At this point he had been reduced to lying that he could not be sure whether or not the genitalia in question belonged to him or someone else, though he was sure he hadn’t sent them.

“You should know what your own penis looks like from any angle,” Pereira opined. “I’m sorry. As a man, that’s the one thing you should be able to pick out of a line-up. ‘Is that my dick? I don’t know I see so many of them in my in-box.’”

From there it wasn’t too far a stretch to ask what was the most controversial topic topic among the G4 viewership. It turned out to be a more loaded question than I knew.

“We get a lot of hate mail every day from pretty much every group you can imagine. We’re a pretty sexist, racist, vile show, but we review technology — it’s okay, you can do that. We do get a lot letters every day about different games…whether it’s for the cell phone, the web browser or whatever, people just want to be entertained and ignore the real world.”

And with those wise words, it was time for things to begin winding down as the show itself got underway. Competitive eater Joey Chestnutt stopped by next to say some kind words to the troops via the American Forces Network, but I would have prefered to go with the picture I got of the lovely and talented Eva Mendes, who was chatting with Telemundo on the other side of me. The bad news is, none of my pictures of her came out very well. The good news was I had better luck getting a decent shot of newly minted  “Charlies’ Angels” TV-reboot costar Annie Ilonzeh.

Finally, there was the brief visit from “Reno 911” creators Thomas Lennon and Robert Ben Garant, better known to the show’s viewers as Lieutenant Jim Dangle and Deputy Travis Junior. Since I was also located next to reporters from American Forces Network (formerly Armed Forces Network), they stopped by to give a shout out to the troops and promise to continue “being funny” in return for the bravery of our soldiers and for “finding folks in Pakistan that need killin’.'”

“It seems like they’re all there,” Lennon added, reacting to the laughs. “Just the last ten or so.”

******

And, as promised, here are a few of our favorite quotes from the evening.

“It’s no secret that comedy comes from pain. So I would be remiss if I were to accept this award without thanking my Uncle Basil, for raping me anally at a remote lake north of Sudbury, Ontario….”
– Jim Carrey

“Michelle Bachman told supporters that our founding fathers ended slavery. She’s the presidential candidate for voters who like Sarah Palin, but are intimidated by smart women.”
– Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog.

“There’s a PETA demonstration going on outside. I think they’re calling for a dog with a cigar to be put down.”
– Sean Penn

“I’ve got to call Clint Eastwood and ask him how he displays his balls.”
– Keith Richards, picking up the “Brass Balls” award