Drive

Hey Ryan, those are some nice gloves!

"Some Heroes Are Real"

Hello and Happy Halloween! You're getting an early Thursday post, because I still have no power, and so had to seek an alternate location for posting! I want to also give a quick shout out to the like 400 people who visited my blog today searching for The Crow, I assume because it is Halloween! Thanks for stopping by! Anyway, I've been meaning to write a post about this movie Drive for a long while now, but I always ended up doing something else instead. No more! Today I give Ryan Gosling his due, and talk about this movie, which came out of nowhere one September day to dazzle and then horrify me. Starring Ryan Gosling as the nameless Driver (no one ever refers to him by his name). He is duh a driver, stunt by day and criminal get away by night. He doesn't seem to do this because of any particular ambitions, other than to be the best driver (like no one ever was?) He works as a mechanic with his... friend I guess Shannon (Bryan Cranston, who while he wasn't being in Breaking Bad was in Total Recall) who does have aspirations that get him into trouble. Driver meets a girl (Carey Mulligan, who is British I guess? News to me) and her son, who live in the same building as him, and we see a gentle side to this otherwise hardened criminal.

Aww isn't this heartwarming, soon there will be blood.

That doesn't last though, and in order to try and help this girl's husband, who is a petty criminal in too deep with mafiosos Nino (Ron Perlman, in a movie that neither sucks nor is Hellboy. Surprising!) and Bernie (Albert Rose), the driver ends up embroiled in what you would probably refer to as some seriously heavy shit. That brings me to my first real point about this movie. Much like the main character, this movie seems to have a dual aspect. Roughly half way through its run time, Drive becomes a totally different movie. While there are some darker moments that allude to things to come in the front half of the film, for the most part the first half of the movie is filled with light, happy scenes (and they are literally filled with light too, this is clearly deliberate) and a quiet, sort of dreamy aspect. I can point out the exact moment where the movie becomes a different movie, and that's also the first instance of gruesome violence in the movie (I don't want to spoil it, but you will probably be given pause by how savage it is). 

Don't get attached to Christina Hendricks' bangin' rack, or
her face for that matter. Neither will be around for long.

That is one of the things that stands out about this movie. There is no dressing up the grisly nature of crime and violence in this movie, and there are no comforting cuts away as people are brutally murdered, and left to bleed out on the pavement. You see a character who is trying to struggle against a fate that might be inevitable. He wants to live in the light, but his reality is one of darkness (and believe me, shit gets dark). Despite that, and the fact that he is undoubtedly a person who has committed plenty of crimes, the Driver is a likable (if kind of weird and unsettling) character, and you get the impression that his inner most motivation is a good one. In the end he does what he thinks is right (and what seemed right to me too) despite the consequences to himself.

That's a shame, that jacket looked expensive.

The movie's presentation is otherwise stylish, with an appropriate soundtrack and a really stylish, retro aesthetic. Like I mentioned earlier, the cinematography is clearly trying to allude to things going on in the movie (in a fashion so obvious that even I can pick up on it loud and clear) but it does it in a way that didn't make me stop and go "god this is pretentious".

Overall, I was surprised to find out that Drive actually grossed pretty well in the box office, grossing almost 75 million dollars against its very modest 15 million dollar budget. Despite that, I still feel like this was a movie that went in, and then right back out of the box office without anyone really noticing, and that is really too bad. I definitely recommend you give this a watch if you get the chance, I don't think you'll regret anything except eating right before if graphic violence makes you squeamish. Consider yourselves warned.

Well that's it for today! I have to go back to sitting in the dark now, so I'll see you all whenever power is restored, which I hope is before all my fish die! I don't think I'll be able to pull this stunt a second time this week, so there might not be a Saturday post, and if there isn't you have my sincerest apologies. At latest, regular function will resume Tuesday. Until then, take care. I'll see you at the movies Tagliners!

I may be alone in the dark, but at least I'm not directed by
Uwe Boll.