Drive (2011)
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Los Angeles, the present: a stunt driver for the movies also works as a getaway driver for hire, but his neatly ordered life is complicated when he meets his neighbour and her young son and determines to help them.
Review:
Clearly inspired by Walter Hill's The Driver, Refn's film is nevertheless far from a remake. The essential crime movie elements are there: the driver, the girl, the bag of money, the mechanic; but unlike a Tarantino film, say, we are detached from the violence, brutal though it is. Partly this is a function of the hero's psychology, and Gosling plays it stripped down, smiling but impassive: the lights are on but nobody's home. When he dons a mask for one of the killings, we almost don't notice the difference. But it is also Refn's worldview coming across in his first U.S. film, the same casual European approach to violence that characterised Verhoeven's work on Robocop, for example. It's a precision tooled machine, that is for sure, but whether there is much substance under the bonnet is a moot point.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Los Angeles, the present: a stunt driver for the movies also works as a getaway driver for hire, but his neatly ordered life is complicated when he meets his neighbour and her young son and determines to help them.
Review:
Clearly inspired by Walter Hill's The Driver, Refn's film is nevertheless far from a remake. The essential crime movie elements are there: the driver, the girl, the bag of money, the mechanic; but unlike a Tarantino film, say, we are detached from the violence, brutal though it is. Partly this is a function of the hero's psychology, and Gosling plays it stripped down, smiling but impassive: the lights are on but nobody's home. When he dons a mask for one of the killings, we almost don't notice the difference. But it is also Refn's worldview coming across in his first U.S. film, the same casual European approach to violence that characterised Verhoeven's work on Robocop, for example. It's a precision tooled machine, that is for sure, but whether there is much substance under the bonnet is a moot point.
Country: US
Technical: col/2.35:1 100m
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Ron Perlman
Synopsis:
Los Angeles, the present: a stunt driver for the movies also works as a getaway driver for hire, but his neatly ordered life is complicated when he meets his neighbour and her young son and determines to help them.
Review:
Clearly inspired by Walter Hill's The Driver, Refn's film is nevertheless far from a remake. The essential crime movie elements are there: the driver, the girl, the bag of money, the mechanic; but unlike a Tarantino film, say, we are detached from the violence, brutal though it is. Partly this is a function of the hero's psychology, and Gosling plays it stripped down, smiling but impassive: the lights are on but nobody's home. When he dons a mask for one of the killings, we almost don't notice the difference. But it is also Refn's worldview coming across in his first U.S. film, the same casual European approach to violence that characterised Verhoeven's work on Robocop, for example. It's a precision tooled machine, that is for sure, but whether there is much substance under the bonnet is a moot point.