Drive Review
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Drive
Film District
R 100 min
Yes I realize this one’s been out for a while, so I won’t spend a lot of time non it but I’d written it off initially and it seems that was unfair.
It’s been out for a month and technically still in theaters but I assume it will be on DVD soon enough so here goes.
At first glance I’d figured this on to be another of those miserable noisy car chase and crash flicks with a dash of James Caan’s THIEF as the hook. Well both those elements are present but it seems director Nicolas Winding Refn (huh?) has tried to make an art film. Or art lite.
To me that often means sullen characters and deadly slow pacing interspersed with brief scenes of ultra-violence often shot in Peckinpah-esque slow motion.
Ryan Gosling is a stunt driver who is fond of a woman and her son whose husband is about to be released from prison. Hubby owes the mob money and they want him to commit a robbery to make it square.
When the wife and kid become targets for this extortion Gosling helps execute the crime which almost immediately goes south. I never really bought Gosling as the tough anti-hero nor Albert Brooks as the evil crime boss. I was never really clear on the dynamic amongst the mobsters or even Goslings bond with the family. Despite the numerous revenge killings you’re left with almost no sense of closure. I guess that’s how the Europeans like their films, but I (and most Americans) prefer to see somebody win.
C
WSS
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Right Steve, that is what we said. This was an attempt at making "Fellini meets Peckinpaugh".
Something that at one pace was numbingly lugubrious, then furtively gross. Maybe Fellini isn't the right reference, but who knows.
(are those good pretentious critic terms?)
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Critics love it. As I found it ok. If you are a fan of Ryan Gosling. He is a good actor but Albert Brooks is getting Oscar buzz talk.
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Well you guys are right about that. Whether it's Fellini or Bergman or any other european film maker we all know that the guys across the pond like their movies differently than we do here in the good old u s of a.
The europeans seem to just love those miserable sad endings.
Usually if hollywood makes an american version of something from europe, we will at least change the ending as to where the bad guy gets blown up. Sometimes american director, like clint eastwood, will mess around with that formula as he did with THE UNFORGIVEN.
I loved that one by the way. Drive wasn't even in the same ballpark. And though I have nothing particularly against ryan gosling, I'll just need to see a couple of great performances from the kid before I put him on my a list.
WSS
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