Oh yeah, I’m kicking myself that I missed it in the theater, I didn’t know about it at the time, and now I kinda don’t want to watch it at home. It just screams BIG SCREEN to me. I will see it, I’m dying to see it. I just wish a theater here would bring it back, maybe as part of a NWR retrospective. The trailer looks insane, and I want to see Tom Hardy. I’ve only seen him in Inception and Warrior.
Wow - that told me Equipoise. Thanks for your condescension! I knew he was from Denmark, have seen Bronson and Valhalla Rising, watched many scores of European art-house movies but it seems that I’m just plain wrong! My opinion is invalidated on the grounds that … it differs from yours.
I know you and I share views on other movies cf Attack The Block (I even thought of you as I bought the dvd last week) so the tone of your dismissal is puzzling.
My argument is that it ISN’T a European art movie for the same reasons you say it is. (I’m replicating your capitals there, I don’t really believe capitalizing a word wins a discussion point.) It may have started with that mindset and thus the Danish director and (I think) British Iranian writer(?) but if you grow Pinot grapes in California they will not make french wine.
Having reflected on the film some more, I wondered whether the lack of depth and vapidity I felt after watching it was the point; ie the Gosling character was like that and we are seeing things through that prism. But maybe I’m just trying to hard to see why so many people like it when I don’t.
I would not say they were ‘wrong’ though.
MiM
I’m still shocked at how slow and boring the movie was. I generally film noir cinema; not this time. Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston were the best part of the movie. One of my litmus tests for a movie is how aware I am of theater around me during the movie. I was totally aware of everyone around me; of every movement, sight, sound of the other patrons. Drive didn’t once draw me in to the story so much that I wasn’t aware of my theater surroundings.
Snooze Fest.
I apologize Made in Macau. I mistook you for some other people in the thread. And no matter what, anyone who appreciates Attack The Block is automatically on my I LOVE YOU, YOU ROCK! list.
Ugh. Cubsfan’s review sounds like one of the reviews I have written for countless other films. I’ll pass on this one. The last good movie about driving was made 15 years ago and had James Spader in it.
I was looking forward to Drive and saw it this weekend. Once again, I was duped by previews. Terrible movie, it’s about a guy who drives for a living, so where’s the driving? It was slow and tedious. I swear half the movie was silence between lines of dialog.
In the first car chase how much good did the white Impala (most common type of car in the area) do him? Not any from what I could tell. Was the plan to go to the parking garage and leave the crooks in the back seat, or did he abandon them when the heat got too much?
Where exactly were they going with the driver having dinner and being friends with his love interest and her just-out-of-jail boyfriend? I can’t see that having a happy ending in any way.
I’m rather glad the racing angle never happened, that wasn’t a storyline I was looking forward to.
How about a prequel movie where we actually see him doing some driving?
I thought it was awesome. However there aren’t a lot of explosions or guys leaping through the air killing dozens of mooks by firing twin .45s. Some of the staring did drag a bit, and I was wondering what the chinese restaurants dress code was, but mostly i took it for a moody atmospheric noir. Argent I think you might like it, though I can’t promise you would. Cool soundtrack, very 80s.
I figured I’d re-ask this in case anyone here had some insight.
I saw this movie this weekend because an acquaintance was in it.
I didn’t expect to like it nearly as much as I did. Gosling is unexpectedly good at portraying a lot through very subtle facial expressions. I
I am having trouble recommending it to people, because many of my friends would be turned off by the level of violence in this movie. I’m as desensitized as they come, and I still went “woah” at a few scenes.
From what I recall he was just making sure he was dead. But I don’t recall the scene clearly.
Not to many mentions about the music. I thought it was great
I wanted to see this one at TIFF but could not get tickets (and wasn’t prepared to risk the Rush Line). After finally seeing it a couple of weeks ago I am now getting around to giving my thoughts on this one.
I saw *Valhalla Rising *a couple of years ago at TIFF and was blown away by it. I really enjoyed *Drive *as well. Now, having said that I totally get why people hated both of these films. They are marketed as what they are not. They are (as others have said) violent European Art films. (complete with very interesting, but different, musical choices)
From a 30,000 foot view the main characters are very similar (despite being separated by over a millenium) … they are both silent, deadly killers who have a surprising soft spot for a child. Why is never explored, but it does seem a common theme in Winding Refn’s films. The stories themselves are very different, but are both predicated on the relationship with the child.
People are confusing the relationship between Gosling and Mulligan. That only exists because of the son. We see much more of a tender relationship with the child than we do a romantic relationship with Mulligan. Gosling gets involved because of the son, not Mulligan.
I haven’t seen anything else by Winding Refn (yet … Pusher is in my Zip queue) but I expect this archetype is present in most of them.
I really liked it, but I can understand how some would be put off by it.
So he’s probably a pedophile too.
Bump, since it has now been released for ownership/rental.
I thought it was great, really, really great. I didn’t have an issue with pacing or with the limited driving scenes.
All of the actors were great. I felt an interest in all the characters. The tension was well built and Gosling did a great job bringing his character to the edge before regaining control.
My only wish was that I wanted to know more about the Gosling character’s past and why he is who he is. I believe all the other characters made some mention (even if brief) of their past, but his did not. Some peek, even small, would have been better.
All in all, a great film and one that I’ll probably buy.
I don’t think that it’s right for you to imply that Ryan Gosling has more than one facial expression.
Didn’t like the movie. I, too, was led on by the trailer. Also, his spiel "you have me for 30 minutes…’, of course contrived, never had a resolution. Isn’t the implication that he would either a. walk away in the middle of the job if the 30 min mark was reached, and/or b. have to do some James Bond kind of hustling a la Goldfinger to get something done in 30 minutes in the climax? Also, his ready giving in to the inevitability of his fate as explained to him made no sense. And the mask thing at the restaurant was totally bizarre. I could understand the rest of the movie, even though I didn’t like it, but that mask thing was pretty darned weird.
It was 5 minutes, wasn’t it, and the implication was that if the crooks weren’t in the car by that time he’d cut and run.
I saw it last night, coincidentally. I thought it would just be an action movie, so when I realised it was arthouse I was pleasantly surprised, and my expectations became confounded a second time when it became shockingly violent.
I liked the subtlety, and was glad to be watching a movie that gave space to the characters, silence, pauses to let the audience gain an impression rather than have plot handed on a plate.
That said I found it left me feeling pretty unfulfilled in the end, and I’m not sure why.
I think the marketing was appalling and misrepresented the movie very badly, which would explain some of the more extreme reactions to it.
Probably was 5.
I literally just finished it. It was a last-minute rental, and I didn’t think I’d enjoy it all that much but I don’t mind staring at Ryan Gosling for a couple of hours.
It was fucking brilliant. I don’t get the dislike…yeah, it’s moody; yeah, things movies fast between the driver and the woman; yeah, the backstory is nonexistent and the action is brief, but that is what separates it from the rest, from the dreck that is stamped out on a regular basis.
I crave something that makes me genuinely curious what happens next, I want a movie that makes me actively refrain from guessing what’s next and this did it.
And all the disappointment about him not being that great of a driver…he’s not superhuman, he is just skillful behind the wheel. As was the other driver in the first chase scene; both very very good at what they do. Going into it expecting typical action-fare chase scenes does the movie and the character a disservice.
Just had to weigh in!
He drove them into the middle of a crowd where it would be impossible to identify them among several thousand exiting basketball fans. And this was his plan all along. There’s a reason he was listening to the basketball game on the radio, and he timed his route to the end of the game. That’s how it establishes just how good he is.