Drive Review

Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is a slow-burn of a film, but it pays off massively.

Starring Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman, and Bryan Cranston. It sound like a recipe for success, because it is.

The synopsis of the film is that Gosling’s character ‘The Driver’ is a Hollywood stunt-driver and mechanic by day, but a getaway driver by night. He begins to form a bond with one of his neighbors Irene played by Carey Mulligan and her son Benicio played by Kaden Leos who has one of the best performances by a child actor that I’ve ever seen. Irene’s husband Standard played by Oscar Isaac is in prison, but is getting released soon. After Standard is released from Prison some thugs he owes money jump him on his way home, and threaten his family. The Driver then decides to be the getaway driver for Standard in a robbery that he is doing to payback the aforementioned thugs, but things go awry.

The violence in the movie is hyper-stylized, but isn’t gruesome just for the sake of being gruesome. The lighting in the film is some of the best I’ve seen in a long time, and it’s complemented well by the film’s color palette. The soundtrack is euphoric and suits the film very well. Not only does the soundtrack fit the film well, but it also just has some damn good songs such as Nightcall by Kavinsky and Under your Spell by Desire that have been in my rotation since I saw the film.

The standout performances in the film would have to be Gosling’s and Albert Brooks’. Gosling’s performance is mostly physical, since his character doesn’t speak a lot. Brooks’ who is usually a comedic actor knocks it out of the park in his role as a menacing organized crime boss.

If you haven’t seen this film yet please give it a chance, because I believe it is the best film of 2011.