Drive (2011)
“You give me a time and place, I give you a five minute window. Anything happens in that five minutes and I’m yours. No matter what. Anything happens either side of that and you’re on your own. Do you understand?” – Driver.
Drive (2011)
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Written by: Hossein Amini (screenplay), James Sallis (book)
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks
This movie is so slick. Loved every minute of it.
Considered one of the best films of 2011, Drive made $85 million off a tiny $15 million budget, was nominated for a Best Sound Editing Oscar, and is STILL incredibly underrated. I haven’t met too many people who have watched this, so let’s remedy that and get some more eyeballs on this gem.
Ryan Gosling stars as ‘the Driver’, a Hollywood stuntman and mechanic who moonlights as a getaway driver. After getting close with his neighbour Irene (Mulligan), her ex-con husband Standard (Isaac) is released from prison. When Standard reveals he’s in debt to some bad people, our hero volunteers to help him in order to keep Irene safe. However, when Standard’s ‘simple job’ turns into a botched million-dollar heist, the group gets tangled with local mobsters Bernie (Brooks) and Nino (Perlman) and have to navigate the ensuing danger.
Before I get into the cool production story behind this film, here are some quick dot-points/first impressions:
For those who watched Baby Driver and thought “Nah, this is too lighthearted and unrealistic. I wish this was more serious”, then Drive is exactly what you’re looking for.
Great cast (Brooks and Gosling are particularly impressive).
It’s a very gritty and dark movie – not too many laughs.
Cinematography is flawless throughout.
Soundtrack is really fun.
Now for a quick recap of the production, as it’s pretty unique. [Note that this is a bit of a movie nerd deep-dive, so if you don’t care about this stuff skip the paragraph]. The novel Drive (by James Sallis) was published back in 2005. Almost as soon as it was released, producers Marc Platt and Adam Siegel optioned the movie. After Hossein Amini adapted the screenplay, Platt formed a list of ‘talented individuals whose work inspires [him]’. Hugh Jackman was at the top of this list, and he was announced as the lead in 2008. However, Jackman’s availability fell through when the movie was delayed, and Platt contacted Gosling. This might seem like a no-brainer in hindsight, as Gosling is probably one of the five most bankable actors in Hollywood at the moment. And even in 2011, yeah, he was a big deal, still carrying weight from his roles in The Notebook, Lars and the Real Girl, Blue Valentine, and receiving an Oscar nom for Half Nelson in 2006. However, he wasn’t an action star, and therefore this was off-brand for him. Believe it or not, the gamble paid off, as Gosling then went on to have a pretty incredible run following Drive, including:
Crazy, Stupid, Love
The Ides of March
The Place Beyond the Pines
Gangster Squad
The Big Short
The Nice Guys
La La Land
Blade Runner 2049
First Man
That run of movies is all-time, probably only usurped by the runs of Leo (never makes a bad movie), mid 90s-2010 Denzel, and 1990-mid 2000s Tom Hanks. So shout out to the Gos.
Another fun wrinkle - after signing on for the role, Gosling was given the option to select the director for the first time in his career, settling on Danish filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn. Refn has a unique way of casting his actors (similar to Tarantino) – instead of having actors read lines for him, he meets with them in person and casts them on the spot if they ‘feel right’. This worked wonders here, as he assembled an amazing cast of established stars, with even the smallest roles in the film filled by heavy-hitters Cranston, Isaac and Hendricks.
Ok, enough production chat. Onto the movie itself. I can’t really think of a more enjoyable genre, as the movie is some amalgamation of a romance-drama-action-crime-heist-thriller. Gosling’s un-named ‘Driver’ is a quintessential brooding, strong-but-silent hero. You feel obliged to root for him throughout the movie, but then feel conflicted when he shows flashes of anger and violence. This is one of the best things Refn does here – the characters’ motives are often masked and the ethical lines are often blurred. If a good character does something bad to a bad character, does that then make them a bad character? This is what makes the film so ‘dark’ – it’s realistic. The violence is brutal, the romance is complicated, and the reality facing most characters is honestly quite depressing – but that’s life, right?
As I stated above, the combination of slick cinematography and a groovy soundtrack means that the movie drips of cool from start to finish. The getaway driving scenes are extremely well shot, the acting is seamless, and the plot is genuinely enthralling.
I could keep heaping praise on this movie for a lot longer, but you should all just go and watch Drive. One red flag is that the violence can go from 0 to 100 really quickly, so this might shock some squeamish viewers, but if you can handle this it’s well worth a watch.
Rating: 8.5/10