I write these words knowing full well that they may be the last sane ones available to me for quite some time. After I finish with this review I am going to watch Salo, courtesy of Netflix. This is widely considered one of the most disturbing movies of all times and it may shatter my psyche.....nah, just 'effing with you. Yes, I'm going to watch it, but graphic violence doesn't bother me as much as awkward, horrible situations. So far in my quest to view the most disturbing films of all times, only the rape scene in Irreversible and every scene in Happiness have really bothered me.
Now, that isn't to say I can't be bothered at all. I just try not to let it linger (if any of you suddenly started humming a certain Cranberries song, HAHA!). Drive is a perfect example of the sort of movie that can make the viewer uncomfortable for a myriad of reasons. This is going to be a divisive flick!
On to the review!
In case you haven't noticed, critics really, reaaaaaally like Drive. It has received a big ol' 92% fresh rating at Rotten Tomatoes, and Metacritic seems to like it too, giving it an 80 out of 100...or an 8.1 out of 10? Something like that. The problem with high rated films is that many of them are labeled 'critic's choice' movies. What the hell does that mean? It means that critics love it because it's something fresh and new and different, or at least different from the last fifty flicks they've just seen. It does not in any way mean that it's palatable for the casual cinemagoer who couldn't give two fucks about camera angles, lens width or sound cues. (I just made all that up, feel free to tell me if any of those are real movie-making considerations.)
The reason I'm really enjoying doing these reviews is because I'm trying to write them from the point of view of the casual (if picky, kind of asshole-ish) movie watcher. I have no knowledge of film studies and I haven't taken a single class in acting, directing, film, etc. So when it comes to a movie like Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, I get the suspicion that lots of everyday folk are going to hate the shit out of it.
The plot is pretty straightforward. Ryan Gosling stars as a stunt driver/getaway driver who is never given a name. They refer to him as Kid most of the time, so I'll go with that. He falls for his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), but her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) gets back from jail and has to come up with protection money from when he was behind bars. The Kid seems to just want to help, so he offers to be the driver for a heist. Shit goes bad and Kid ends up on the outs with some seriously bad people. Those bad people are Ron Perlman as Nino and Albert Brooks as Bernie. Nino is a great character for Perlman to play because he gets to just walk around cursing up a storm and occasionally look menacing.
Also, Brian Cranston plays the Kid's mechanic boss/getaway job contact, Shannon. He does an absolutely fantastic job of playing a low-level mafia type who has no real power and absolutely knows it. But here's the thing: EVERYONE in this movie is phenomenal. There is not a single weak link or middling performance in the entire film. The Kid is a total cipher, which is kind of incredible in this day and age. He has less lines in the entire film than most action movie protagonists get in the first ten minutes. Perlman and Brooks ooze menace and confidence whenever it's called for. Isaac plays the loving yet suspicious husband perfectly. You would swear that Carey is actually in love with Ryan Gosling and is torn between him and her real life husband/boyfriend. That's not what is going to turn away audiences.
What is going to make some people hate this film is the fact that it is not the action movie that is advertised. This is an indie action. An auteur thriller, if you will. The camera lingers on every scene, often spending long, potentially agonizing seconds just panning up to a character's face before lingering there for more moments before the character even utters a word. If you were to cut out every tracking shot or establishing take, this movie would go from 100 minutes to about 45. Many people are not going to like all this silence and establishment in their movie.
For the patient people, you are going to get a very well-written and perfectly acted movie with lots of realistic violence. Oh yeah, that's the other thing. This movie is super realistically violent. You will swear that when a guy gets his head bashed in, they paid a hobo down the street 50 bucks, got him drunk and then curb stomped him. It's pretty brutal.
So go see this if you want something different or are willing to wait for the payoff. I promise it will be worth your time, but the theater I was in had lots and lots of restless shifting for the first half hour.
One other thing: Do NOT be a complete shitstain and bring a kid to this movie. About ten minutes before the preview starts, two girls and a guy sit down to the left of me where there are 4 seats open, leaving one between us. Five minute later, a little girl comes walking up and the two girls have her sit right next to me.
So here I am, about to watch a hard R film next to a girl who could not be any older than 10. Just as I'm about to politely get up and move a seat to the right because there are easily A DOZEN GODDAMN EMPTY CHAIRS THEY COULD HAVE CHOSEN, a group of a half-dozen guys files in and sits down to my right, leaving only one chair between us. The rest of the theater is pretty packed, my row had been the only open one.
My dilemma now being to either stay put and deal with some possibly uncomfortable moments or move right one seat and actively move closer to a male stranger, I chose door number 'you lose no matter what' and stayed put. Then I spent the rest of the movie feeling really bad for this poor young lady. You can tell she was not the sort of kid whose parents always let her watch whatever she wants. It looked like her older sister was forced to babysit and just dragged her along, because the girl had her head buried in her hands for a good quarter of the film.
So please, dear readers, don't be that person. That makes you a terrible douchebox and nobody will be your friend because you're selfish and ignorant and a piece of shit that makes little kids have nightmares after watching a guy get stabbed repeatedly in the neck.
Anyhow, this isn't my favorite 'action' movie this year, Warrior still holds that title in its frighteningly firm grasp. It is a good film in the indie category, though. Again, you have to be patient, but it's a solid, entertaining movie that definitely does not worry about silly things like words or exposition.
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