Wednesday, February 8, 2012

DRIVE....Add DRIVE to your best ten list!

Just watched an incredibly moody, fast, and brilliantly paced noir film called DRIVE starring one of the future big name actors, the charismatic Ryan Gosling. I missed this one this summer, but now I know how much I missed.
Gosling plays a part-time stunt man who moonlights as a getaway driver for heists. He is cool, collected, and keeps his emotions pent up...until he meets his neighbor Irene who is lovely and needy. For the first time he cares for a person and her son. In a complicated plot that involves her ex-con husband, big time criminals, and the driver's unwise decision to try to help her with one more heist, DRIVE builds suspense and dread that inevitably leads to a series of dramatic climaxes, all of them violent.

DRIVE has echoes of Steve McQueen's classic BULLET, especially in Gosling's tightly wound driver, in the chase sequences (brilliant), and in a black Mustang that recalls McQueen's. As noir, this film stands with the best of them: CHINATOWN, THE BIG SLEEP (Bogart version), and AGAINST ALL ODDS. It's fresh, always surprising, and always riveting. One caveat: this film is beyond bloody, but you'll know when to look away. I suggest you do. I also suggest you see DRIVE!

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