Drive

Drive premiered at Cannes Film Festival on May 20, 2011, before being released on September 16, 2011, in the United States and Canada. It was written by Hossein Amini, based on the book Drive, by James Sallis, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, and stars Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, and Albert Brooks.



WARNING: While there will be no spoilers in this review, I will be talking about the end of the film in detail, without spoiling anything.

Goddamn, I love Oscar season. Even the films that don't get nominated are good (which, unfortunately, is probably the case with this film). You've got art on one side, highly intelligent films on another, excellent biographies, and then the bad films. But no one cares about those films, simply because you've got all these other films to choose from. I love Oscar season.

And this film is sheer proof of that. Warrior was a very good film, and the first of Oscar season I saw. This is 10 times better. Not only is this a damn good film, but it's the best film I've seen this year. Seriously.

Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan are actors, that while very good, I've never really cared about. To be honest, I haven't seen a lot of what they done, and I'm not really intrigued with the majority of their work, mostly Carey Mulligan. Recently, I have been showing more interest in Ryan Gosling, but the majority of his work is indie films, that are hard to find. I will find more of his films though, and I have decided to now pay attention to Carey Mulligan as well, as she is now doing films I do find interesting. If you can't tell, this film changed my opinion of them. Both of them were TREMENDOUS, working with so little too. No, the writing was not bad, it was actually very enjoyable. But these two characters don't have a lot of lines throughout the course of the film, Ryan Gosling's character (we'll call him Driver, as he has no name) has, supposedly, less than 20 lines in the entire film. Carey Mulligan has what seems to be a bit over 20 lines in the entire film. Every other character (aside from Christina Hendricks, but we'll get to that later) has more lines then them.

Driver is very reminiscent of film noir characters, Clint Eastwood's Man With No Name, and Steve McQueen, at just how cool he can be at some points. He plays a stunt driver by day, and a getaway driver by night. He meets Irene (played by Carey Mulligan), a young mother, with a husband in jail. They start to fall in love, but eventually, the husband is released. He intends to go straight, but has to pay protection money to people he knew in jail, and they want him to do a job for him. Driver offers to do the job with him, telling the people they're doing the job for that after this, his debt is over. The reason why Driver is doing this is because he genuinely cares for this family. Not just Irene, but her husband and child as well. He's a very quiet character, which contributes to his performance greatly. He should be nominated for an Oscar, but probably won't be, like many other parts about this film. Irene is also very quiet, but a different kind of quiet. Her quiet is calm, and trusting. It's a great performance from her as well.

The rest of the cast does good as well, Bryan Cranston and Ron Perlman being the other stand out performers. Ron Perlman, unfortunately, has a small role, so he isn't seen much. However, whenever he is on scene, he steals the scene. Bryan Cranston, famous for his Emmy-winning role on Breaking Bad, does a great job here as Shannon, Driver's boss/mentor/friend. He evokes this sympathy of sorts, so that every time we see him, we feel sorry for him, without really knowing why. It's quite chilling. Now, you may be wondering with my earlier remark about Christina Hendricks. She is fourth in the cast list, which she shouldn't be, due to her extremely small role in this film. Was she important? That's arguable. Overall, I'd say that her role could almost be cut out of the film entirely. She is fourth in the cast list because she's a very famous actress, who was used extensively in the trailers. Also, she is extremely attractive, which I'll admit, for the entire 4 minutes she was on screen, was enjoyable.

Speaking of Christina Hendricks, this film was violent (spoilers?). Damn violent. There wasn't a lot of violence, but when there was, my god, it was violent. But I must commend this, because not only was it violent, it was realistic. People get a shotgun to the head, they fly to the ground. A man gets his head kicked in repeatedly. There is skull and brain everywhere. I know, I just turned some people off of this film. But I just had to talk about the violence.

One of my favourite things about the film was the script. It didn't use a lot of dialogue with the two main characters, using silence a lot. I like this. Silence isn't used a lot in film nowadays. Did it work all the time in the film? No, but for the majority of the film, it worked superbly. It was very good writing, and definitely deserves an Oscar nomination, and I do believe that this film will get a nomination for Best Adapted Screenplay. The directing was also good. I love the choice to make this film look like a modern day film noir. It works greatly to the film's advantage, making it one of the better thrillers today.

This is the bit about the ending. The ending is both ambiguous, and yet, reminds me of the ending of Thelma & Louise. That film, despite being in all actuality, depressing, was very uplifting, and left us cheering for the two characters, despite of what was to come. This film does the same, but much more ambiguously. We see a certain fate for Driver, but he just keeps on going. It's hopeful, but realistically depressing, like Thelma & Louise, and yet ambiguous. Damn good ending.

Overall, this film was superb. The best film of the year so far, and leaves me excited for The Ides of March, Ryan Gosling's other film this year. I give this film a 9.5/10. If you want to check it out, check it out. But, be wary of the violence.

P.S. My only real problem with this film, the reason why it isn't a perfect 10/10, there weren't enough driving action sequences. I can think of 2, when they're should've been at least 4. My only major problem with this film.

P.P.S. I saw a trailer for a film starring Johnny Depp, about him being a journalist in Puerto Rico. I think Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. His character takes a copious amount of alcohol, and starts to see things. Fear and Loathing. I see that it's based off of a book written by Hunter S. Thompson. I think sequel. (In all actuality, no, it's not a sequel to Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, but I'm gonna think of it as a spiritual sequel.)