Drive - 2011 – Nicolas Winding Refn

Drive is a rare thing in film these day, something unique. I went into this movie knowing almost nothing other than a few people on Twitter said it was really good. I had a little better idea of what I was in for when I saw the credits in a wonderful font right out of 1984 and the name Nicolas Winding Refn. Somehow I paid so little attention to Cannes 2011 that I did not know Refn won the best director prize for this film. Opening with a trailer ready line about giving his client a five minute window, it seems as if the movie is going to get straight to the Tony Scott style action and it does, sort of. We get a heist and chase scene right off. This leads into the brilliant opening credits sequence with the song Nightcall, a song from 2010 that could easily be from the mid eighties. From there we take a dramatic turn away from the Hollywood style. Drive is an odd beast in that it is of and about Hollywood in ways that only the work of an outsider can achieve. With Los Angeles as the setting and Ryan Gosling's character being a stunt driver, the film is unashamedly dripping with Hollywood presents. Swap out Gosling for Jimmy Caan and Refn for William Friedkin and this movie could have been made in thirdy years ago or forty years ago with Alain Delon and Jean-Pierre Melville. The tone of the film is timeless.

 The performances are solid across the board with Albert Brooks being exceptional as Bernie. Depending on who you ask Gosling is either wonderful and a revelation or awful and stilted. With how purposeful everything else in the film is, I learn towards the thinking that he delivers exactly what Refn asks of him. The biggest problem with Gosling is the crowd that is name draws, not anything he does in the movie.

 Shocking violence enters the picture around an hour in and never lets up. Before that you are aware that you are watching a crime movie but, it stays clean. After the blood starts to flow, the level of brutality that is presented is on a level with the Coen brothers. When people die it is not pretty to look at, I don't know if it is more realistic than a normal action movie but it is more impactful. The progression of violence throughout the last half of the movie is shown through the white Members Only jacket that Gosling wears. The motivations behind the town being painted red are classic; love and money. Gosling's character loves the girl down the hall and the mob wants their money, stripping away the details that is what you are left with. We also get the best use of a hammer since Oldboy.

The love story aspect is a little tricky and delightfully so. Gosling’s character is a white knight, he is more interested in protecting Irene(Carey Mulligan) than being with her. He feels an abstracted kind of love where the good with the bad would not be acceptable. He is literally willing to kill and die for her but, not to be with her.

 I would highly recommend this movie to the right kind of person. If you can handle the violence and do not expect action movie pacing you will be rewarded with a powerful experience. Nicolas Winding Refn is a director to follow for me regardless of what he chooses to do in the future