92% Drive

As Kingsley Shacklebolt says to Cornelius Fudge in OoP, "You may not like him, but you gotta admit, Dumbledore's got style." Drive is a veritable smorgasbord of style - smorgasbord being both a complimentary and damning descriptor. I'm unfamiliar with Refn's previous work, but I've heard that he is indeed, a style auteur. The hot pink Mistral opening credits and Driver's ivory silk scorpion bomber jacket are just so obviously lame that they're cool. I also enjoy the pulsing beat of the soundtrack, the crooked low angles of Ryan Gosling driving, the silent chemistry of the romantic leads, the slo-mo kiss goodbye, haloed in ethereal mist. However, right around there, the style starts to clash with the narrative, and as such, the latter gets all wonky (to further borrow from HP). It's easy to categorize Driver as a badass. He's a stuntman who moonlights as a getaway driver, but what I like so much about Gosling's performance in the first half of the film is his utterly unassuming, cuter-than-a-puppy demeanor. He seems unaware of his badassitude, and both the character and the film seem perfectly fine with that. The second act reveals the animal that rages within, and it just doesn't ring true to me. What is Driver's motor, if you will? Is he purely motivated by love? That storyline isn't terribly developed since Irene doesn't have much of a personality other than being portrayed by the cherubic Carey Mulligan, whose face I want, Silence-of-the-Lambs-style.Is Driver actually capable of kicking a man's head in so savagely? The bloody firefights are thrilling, but the tone of the movie is inconsistent.

November 1, 2011

Source: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/drive_2011/

ndamukong suh ndamukong suh caroline manzo caroline manzo the haunting in connecticut drew brees drew brees