Thursday, December 29, 2011

Drive- I won't lie to you, I had high expectations. When this film came out, it was most certainly that movie where everyone said "Hey, have you seen 'Drive' yet? This is my second time, it's so goooood" (Feel free to reread that statement over and over again in the condescending tone it applies) and all the reviews from critics screamed Nicolas Winding Refn's film was the most original thing they have seen in the action action genre in years. Luckily, my expectations were mostly met. Drive, while not being the most character driven film ever, fulfills both the viewer's need for an ominous dark neo-noir tone, and crazed ultra violence that one would ask for in a crime film. It's one of those odd circumstances where if I analyzed most things individually, it would only end up with okay as an average, but together, it's quite magical. Gosling delivers a mostly quiet performance, as does the film itself, keeping moments of silence and long european styled takes before pumping up the action and soundtrack to 80s style music and the ominous score by Cliff Martinez. This film certainly original, especially when it makes use of slow quiet moments more often to create tone rather than using extensive dialogue. I wish we saw a bit more of his life as a stuntman driver moonlighting as a getaway driver before we got into the big story, but overall, it's well worth the view.



- Jeff Bassin