92% Drive

There aren't all that many movies that I walk out of excited about. Don't get me wrong, I love movies and watching anything of some standard is possibly the most fun I have while my clothes are still on, but there are maybe three of four films a year, possibly less, that I actually come away from wondering if I can fit in another session right there and then. Drive is one of them: brutal, beautiful and brilliant. And I'm not just talking about Ryan Gosling. Drive follows the story of a part-time film stunt driver and part-time armed robbery getaway driver as his world suddenly gets turned upside down. In any great film there's a tough balance between style and substance. The good ones get it right. The bad ones don't. Nicolas Winding Refn walks a tough tightrope with Drive, intertwining a twisting mob story with an intoxicating film noir style. He walks it well though, making sure that the more surreal moments are lavished upon with style and mood while the realism is played completely straight; long lasting shots with minimalistic camera work helping to create a sense of reality in a stylised world. His camera work within the confines of a simple car is brilliant, making more inventive use of an enclosed space than would have been though possible. Despite the fact that a good deal of the film is in slow motion, it's used to great effect; highlighting situations and moments rather than slow-mo for the sake of it. But it's his confidence which is the most astonishing. Apart from a few cult hits, Refn's repertoire isn't as stellar as Drive would suggest. From the ice-cold opening scene, Refn is obviously not disposed to spelling anything out to anyone, continuing this tactic throughout the rest of the film. He relies instead on the subtle nuance of a character or a moment, trusting the audience to be patient through the moments they don't understand. The film also moves at a glacial pace at times taking an age while focussing on a moment or a feeling before moving like a bullet through the next scene. It's a challenging ask for the audience at times and can often prove disconcerting. It's this unhurried, unashamedly different pace which gives the film its power, as any moment could give way to an explosion of violence or devastation or, just as likely, nothing at all and keeps the audience guessing until the very last second. Refn continues this sense of unpredictability throughout the entire film, making any moment tense enough have you on the edge of your seat. Based on James Sallis' book, Hossein Amini's screenplay is a thing of minimalistic beauty. There are no enigmatic speeches or famous last cliches. Instead, we have a stripped back document of searing realism, relying on a word or phrase to convey an entire point of view. The Driver's sporadic speeches are made that much more poignant and rivetting by their absence throughout the rest of the film. Hours of lip-biting and googly-eyes is summed up in a phrase, volumes of emotion conveyed by a sentence, even at times a simple word. This precise writing style grounds the film when the more surreal moments threaten to take away from the movie's realism. Amini also shows an affinity for depth of character, with everyone on the screen being as intricate and complex as real life, especially with his main character. This complexity helps to inform and enhace both the direction and the performances of the film, creating a beautifully bleak environment for the film. Cliff Martinez's elctro score is quietly brilliant, underscoring the drama deftly with a sense of understated eeriness which permeates throughout the film. The standout piece, however, is College's "A Real Hero," which becomes the film's de facto theme song. It's a curious blend of electro-pop with an ethereal feel to it, paradoxically working perfectly with the movie. The piece's main refrain, "to be a real human being and a real hero," almost sums up the entire feeling of the film, as the Driver's journey eventually makes him into both these things were he never was before. Speaking of the Driver, we come to the film's coup de grace. I like to think of myself as pretty open-minded when it comes to performers, bar a few exceptions, but I never thought that Ryan Gosling had it in him. His performance as the Driver is so self-assured, so quietly confident, so inexplicably cool, it's impossible not to be amazed. He is incredibly restrained during the first half of the film, his emotions leaking out in almost imperceptible nuance with a small half-smile or a flicker of contempt on his face, and becomes even more powerful during the second half, his unshakable calm giving way to some raw emotion. But there is no Oscar-baiting breakdown, no scenery-chewing here; just a finely tuned inhabitance of an almost exclusively internal character. This is Gosling's career-defining performance and it, for lack of anything else, makes this film completely unmissable. But it's not just Gosling who

October 28, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drive_2011/

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