Drive

Drive is an art house crime movie from 2011 about an unnamed getaway driver who gets drawn into a chain of events leading to tragedy and mayhem.

The film stars famously nice and pretty Ryan Gosling who manages to come across both charming and sociopathic. The supporting characters are very strong with Bryan Cranston (of Breaking Bad) playing the driver's unfortunate boss and mentor and Albert Brooks (who was robbed by not getting a best supporting actor nomination) as a creepy mid level mobster.

Drive's director Nicolas Winding Refn (a Danish director better known for ultra violent European film festival fare) has a created a very interesting mix styles. The film is clearly set in the modern day, but the choices of music and fashion give the film a feeling of being set in the late 70s or early 80s. Much of the film has an almost dream like quality, especially some of the nicer romantic scenes, but sudden bouts of vicious violence can whiplash the mood.

Things don't go well

This was one of my favourite films of 2011, but it's certainly not for everyone. The film features violence, but is by no means an action movie, the conflicts are very quick and brutal. The film features cars and driving, but the chase scenes are relatively rare and rely on build up and tension as much as the exhilaration of the fast cars and crashes.

With the artistic direction and juxtaposition slowly drawn out scenes and high impact (but not especially gory) violence this is definitely a film worth watching.


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