8 / 10
(Read guest review by AAA – 9/10)
By the time the first henchman had got his head stomped in, I’d worked out that Drive is not a sequel to Cars. So had the two six-year olds I was babysitting.
Ryan Gosling smoulders as the unnamed driver in this dark neo-noir crime thriller. He lives alone in a Los Angeles apartment block. By day he works at a garage and as a stuntman. In his spare time, he’s a for hire getaway driver. His rules are simple and firm:
You give me a time and a place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens a minute either side of that and you’re on your own.
That’s about his longest line in the movie. He speaks rarely, but when he does, you listen carefully.
You shut your mouth. Or I’ll kick your teeth down your throat and I’ll shut it for you.
He’s a serious kind of guy.
But then he meets Carey Mulligan, loosens up a bit and consequently loses control. Chicks, right??
Irene: So you just moved to LA?
Driver: No, I’ve been here for a while.
Drive would probably have been a good film even without Gosling, but his performance takes it to a new level. There’s something alluring about his brooding, something unsettling about his almost bored composure. And then something thrilling and threatening about his violent outbursts.
You almost got us killed. And now you’re lying to me. So how about this? From now on, every word out of your mouth is the truth. Or I’m going to hurt you.
He says to a young girl.
Dexter Morgan would say he’s driving a ‘dark passenger’.
Homer Simpson would say he’s like that little Japanese guy in the white suit who hasn’t done anything yet. Look at him. He’s going to do something, and you know it’s going to be good…
I agree with them both.
A retro, bass-heavy, electronic soundtrack throbs behind the movie – ominous, uneasy, sinister. Like a metaphor for something. Maybe Gosling’s eyes.
Drive is one of the best movies of 2011 and the best car movie since Cars (although very, very different). Go watch it. Or I’m going to hurt you.
I strongly and firmly dislike this film for many reasons. Smouldering? Did you mean the embers of his former career?
The other thing smouldering in this review is Willy’s latent man-crush on Ryan Gosling.
Are those 6 year olds still rocking silently in the corner after seeing the redhead from ‘Mad Men’ having her brains splattered all over a motel bathroom?
Greaaaayyyyte review of a sensational film. The ultra-violent head stomp (“I love you, but pardon me darling, I just need to crush this man’s skull”) is a highlight, as are Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman’s villains.
Nicholas Refn and Ryan Gosling (and Cliff Martinez, who did the absolutely pumping score) are forming some kind of Scorcese-De Niro-(whoever did the music for Scorcese’s movies)-style partnership, which should be interesting, with a couple more films in the immediate pipeline.
Thanks for the input Tom, agree with all you’ve said (including about the 6yr olds).
The scene in the elevator is quite artsy despite the horrifying violence – I liked it a lot.
And the villains are great – particularly Ron Perlman I thought. He’s a brute of a man. Makes you realise that he didn’t really require all that much makeup for Hellboy.
Look forward to seeing more from the Refn-Gosling-Martinez triumvirate. The film wouldn’t have been the same without the Martinez soundtrack. Although, there was one scene (Gosling talking to Bryan Cranston’s character, just after the shit hits the fan) where the throbbing, ominous base was wayyy too much. I was trying to simultaneously equalise my ears and hear what the characters were saying to each other. Less beef more pepper Cliff.