Have seen this film many times and I have to say, for me it’s my film of 2011.
I’ve decided to put some words down about it as I recently was fortunate enough to watch it again. We have a micro cinema set up in my office now and it lends itself to some excellent opportunities to watch movies with friends without disturbing anyone.
For those unaware, Drive marks Ryan Goslings explosion into cinema cool and I reckon he has enough cool to place this movie up there with McQueen in Bullet.
It’s a quiet movie that depends heavily on the delivery of faultless cinematography, an incredible soundtrack and the ambient backdrop of everyday noise.
It works delightfully and doesn’t at any point feel that the dialogue is too light or lacking. The visuals are striking and it’s obvious that this movie production has thought a lot about its 90’s style.
Plenty of moments to cherish, from the glance that both screen couple give each other during an awkward shared moment (and they absolutely nail it), to the surfacing of a slightly unhinged Gosling on occasion, the violence is often abrupt and shocking but served within context and meaning.
As a car buff I have criticisms and this is apparent in many car films, but no car has 12 gears and I just wish that they could choreograph car audio with actions. When you’re cornering, you’re not shifting up a gear and accelerating hard at the same time. It’s not hard to do and I can’t understand why they can’t do it properly.
Still, it’s beautiful, charismatic and Gosling walks a very fine line between uber-cool and autistic, but luckily manages to say the right things at the right time. He IS a social recluse, but this lack of social expertise makes his somewhat unbelievable delivery of justice somewhat believable. He’s unhinged enough to pull it off.
Returning to music, it’s combination of the awesome Cliff Martinez (who did Solaris and Traffic – check the soundtracks out for them if you don’t know) and a brilliant opener by Kavinsky.
Be prepared for some of the best gangster lines on TV. Oh and Carey Mulligan is simply stunning, a woman to protect indeed.
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