Drive Me Into That Sweet Hot Pink Credit Sequence

I finally fulfilled my movie theater dream last night and went to see Drive. It was everything I dreamed of. When the credits rolled I felt like I had truly had an experience. What is also funny is that I immediately thought what people who did not like the movie were probably thinking, “It was too slow! Why don’t we ever get to know his name? Why aren’t they talking more?” What those a-holes probably will never realize that those so-called “bummers” are inherent to the story as a whole.

In typical American short story fashion the movie ends unresolved. Occasionally this bothers me, but in this film it felt completely necessary,  as was the deliberately slow pace, and lack of information which added to the allure of Ryan Goslings character and even more so made you empathize with him when he had one of his moments of emotional breakthrough whether  that be happiness, rage or panic. Once again Ryan Gosling fucking knocks it out of the park. Everything he does is subtle and effortless. The man can do no wrong.

 Rich colors and shadows add to the tense moments. Director Refn utilized slow motion scenes in the film that were punctuated by 80’s synth. The marriage of the two gave those scenes a music video quality, and I say that as a good thing. Just as a music video (sometimes) attempts to make a song come alive so to speak, the music in Drive is its pulse, and it acts as a beautiful buffer to those moments where there is not a lot of dialogue.

The driving sequences and the killing scenes were also masterfully done. I will not give away who dies or how they die but I will say is that I’m so glad the Driver is remorseless. He has to be, otherwise those times when he shows his “softer side” would seem worthless and his character void of any depth.

I guess my only issue was Carrie Mulligan. Her character, Irene, was totally necessary but I did not buy her as that person. All I have to go off of is her performance in An Education, which was wonderful but here her attempt at mousy single(ish) mom needed to pop more in a movie; but one could also argue that she needed to be the beige anchor in the sea to make all the other fish stand out.

A lot of other reviews have said that Drive has noir quality to it and I completely agree. It has the standard elements, the girl that gets everyone in to trouble, the big bad guy, his henchmen and the sidekick to the hero who is just the right amount of quirky. The color added so much to the atmosphere of the film, but I have to admit that I am kinda interested in watching this film is black and white to see if it can hold up to the true characteristic of noir, and that is the noir.

Please go see Drive. But if you were one of those people who went to go see The Tree of Life just because it was “the new Brad Pitt movie,” stay at home and watch Big Momma’s House or some other idiotic crap. Drive is genius.