Drive (Film District) | Under The Radar

Drive

Studio: Film District
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn; Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Bryan Cranston, and Ron Perlman

Sep 19, 2011 By John Everhart Web Exclusive

In an early scene in Drive, Ryan Gosling's taciturn character, a stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway man, cryptically known only as "The Driver," successfully completes a white-knuckle chase, fortuitously culminating in a basketball arena's garage just as the game's ending. He parks the car, throws on a L.A. Clippers hat, and casually walks away, anonymously blending in with the legions of exiting fans while evading the pursuing police. It's the first arresting jolt in a film replete with moments as exhilarating as a shot of cortisone, but what's most impressive about the scene is that it metaphorically establishes the stark dichotomy at the heart of Gosling's character-mundane everyman who abruptly shifts on a dime into a righteous yet brutal anti-hero.

Gosling is superb throughout, but his supporting cast is equally stellar. Carey Mulligan (Irene) dazzles in a restrained role as Gosling's neighbor, the romantic tension between the pair largely kept simmering beneath the surface despite the boiling cauldron of lurid violence enveloping them. Albert Brooks shines as the crime boss Bernie Rose, exhibiting an astounding command of nefarious psychological maneuvering straight out of a Scorsese fever-dream. And Bryan Cranston (Shannon) imbues his mentor role to Gosling with equal parts tenderness and jadedness, painfully aware of the grave risk of wanton aggression endemic to swimming with sharks.

Nicolas Winding Refn, who was deservedly rewarded with best director for the film at Cannes, does a masterful job of blending all the essential elements needed in a great movie-tremendous acting, a wonderful score of synth-laden songs that never detract from the on-screen action, dizzying fast-cut camera tricks. But most impressively, it's the brazen liberties and risks he takes adapting a James Sollis novel that makes Drive so spectacular, emphasizing nuanced facets that could've easily been rendered insipid, but instead resonate with spring-coiled adrenalized tension.

Drive has its fair share of antecedents—David Cronenberg's A History of Violence being perhaps the most obvious recent one. But Refn's idiosyncratic instincts and risk-taking impulses ensure that the film is a singular, superb entity into the seductively fabled mob flick canon. (www.drive-movie.com)

Author rating: 8/10

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Average reader rating: 9/10