Not Just Ken: The Films of Ryan Gosling at Showroom Cinema
Tom Grieve, Cinema Editor
Romantic lead, blank faced cypher, song-and-dance man, auteur fave and natural comedian, there’s no doubt that Ryan Gosling is one of the movie stars of his generation. It feels like Gosling is riding the crest of a new wave, coming off the back of his Academy Award-nominated performance as Ken in Greta Gerwig’s Barbie and the upcoming release of The Fall Guy (showing from Thu 2 May), and Sheffield’s Showroom have decided to pay homage with a curated greatest hits showing this May.
Depending upon your sensibility, Ryan Gosling might well have first caught your attention as the passionate lead in 2004’s The Notebook (Fri 17 – Sun 19 May), or as the serious, ultra-violent, stuntman-cum-getaway-driver in Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 Drive (Fri 3 – Sun 5 May). Together, the roles nicely capture the duality of Gosling, and help explain his wide appeal to both audiences at the box office, and the world’s top filmmakers who cast him again and again.
Showroom’s Not Just Ken is keen to showcase all facets of the Gosling phenomenon, from his serious-minded indie work alongside director Derek Cianfrance in romance Blue Valentine (Fri 10 – Sun 12 May) and thriller The Place Beyond the Pines (Fri 17 – Sun 19 May), to the actor at his most inspired and silly, alongside Russell Crowe in Shane Black’s hilarious detective flick The Nice Guys (Fri 10 – Sun 12 May).
Along the way, there’s also the opportunity to catch a couple of the Gosling’s biggest critical and box office hits, with screenings of Denis Villenueve’s spectacular Blade Runner 2049 (Fri 24 – Sun 26 May) — which sees Gosling paired with Harrison Ford — and of course, opposite Emma Stone in the modern musical smash La La Land (Fri 24 – Sun 26 May) from director Damien Chazelle.
Tickets for the season can be bought individually, or there’s a discounted pass for Gosling mega-fans looking to catch all eight films.
