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I’m gonna tell you something that will make you want to see this movie: It’s iconic. Gloomy, dramatic, sometimes gory scenes masterfully put together in an independent film that turned out to get a 15 minutes standing ovation at its premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival before winning the Best Director Award. It has become a cult since then, immortalized through fan-art and memes in pop-culture, which the movie itself embodies through references to Cobra and Taxi Driver (I let the reader spot them). Besides the original script, virtuous photography and acting, one jewel in the crown of Drive is the soundtrack.
Let's dive in and find out what it's all about.
PLOT
"What do you do?"
"I drive."
The Driver lives a double life: on daylight as a stunt driver, mechanic and nice guy, at night as a cold blooded getaway driver. One day he meets Irene and her son Benicio, creating an emotional bound with them and gradually taking the place of Standard, the husband and father who was thrown in prison. But once released he brings back home his troubled past and the two worlds and identities of the Driver start to collide tragically...
SCRIPT
Like many other movies, it was adapted for the screen from the novel Drive, which has many flashbacks and time jumps. Therefore, as stated by its screenwriter Hossein Amini, it was a tricky job. But it's widely successful in my opinion, I didn't feel like there were excessive bumps or gaps in the pace, it just felt like a steadily growing suspense up to a plot resolution at the end as you would expect from any thriller, although suspense is not actually the most notable feature of this movie as it was relatively slow paced for the genre.
On the other hand I think that Nino (Ron Perlman) was not actually well integrated in the main flow of events, being somewhat more like an outsider or a puppet master if you like.
Script: 8/10
ACTING
One thing to know is that the actors were left quite a lot of autonomy in acting. For example Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan decided to trim down their original script's dialogues to the bare minimum to make room for emotional glances and long, meaningful silences which may appear somewhat awkward but it gives the sense of tunefulness between them. Bryan Cranston (Shannon) later said that he improvised much of his lines of his loquacious character to compensate that choice.
Gosling does deliver highly emotional scenes although they're isles in the mostly stoic and introverted acting he became famous for in movies like Blade Runner 2049 (where his role was again the hero, but not a real human being) or The Believer, a movie about double identity and redemption, all themes you can find in Drive.
I really appreciated Albert Brooks' acting as well suited for that particular villain.
Acting: 8/10
PHOTOGRAPHY
The abundance of scenes set at night with minimal light are clearly some of the main contributors to the aesthetics of this neo-noir film, while the daylight ones cleverly exploit natural light. Hand held camera was avoided, while the film is also made more authentic by the lack of CGI. The colors and light just look natural and close to reality.
Photography: 8/10
EDITING
Editing progressed continuously throughout the shooting as a parallel process, so much that Refn required the editing suite to be placed in his home. And it paid off, I did not really notice editing faults, it just works and scenes progress like a flow alternating day and night, the two identities of the Driver, until the mid-film climax. The action focused parts enhances the special effects and they aren't confused at all. Editing is quite minimalist and not fancy.
Editing: 7/10
SPECIAL EFFECTS
A movie about a stunt deserves nice special effects. They did a good job in this department too, from car accidents to gory bloody scenes. It becomes more impressive if you think that the director avoided the use of CGI because of budget restrictions.
Car scenes were shot using a "biscuit ring" (developed for Seabiscuit), a device allowing the car to be steered by a stunt driver, making Gosling free to focus on acting.
Special Effects: 7/10
SOUNDTRACK
The soundtrack follows the events and the feelings of the Driver in order to help the watcher see the events from the main character point of view. It's more like an external showcase of the internal world of the Driver, like his scorpion jacket. The lyrics of A Real Hero perfectly fit with the themes and leitmotivs. The choice of the songs is as good as their placement along the film.
Soundtrack: 8/10
COSTUMES
The Scorpion jacket is like a super hero cape, but at the same time an exterior symbol of curse. The Driver has a double nature and wears the jacket whenever night comes, when he stops being a next door nice guy and becomes dangerous. I find interesting that Ryan Gosling just happens to be... a Scorpio. God does not really play dices.
The rest of the clothing? What you can expect from the average Los Angeles inhabitant.
Costumes: 8/10
CONCLUSION
Script: 8/10
Acting: 8/10
Photography: 8/10
Editing: 7/10
Special Effects: 7/10
Soundtrack: 8/10
Costumes: 8/10
AVERAGE: 7.71
Despite a limited budget the people involved really proved that skill is more important than resources, unleashing something outstanding and most importantly really special. It is quite a balanced, a bit slow paced but not too much and not very action-packed, but that was not the point of the film as artistic expression. So successful that the director explicitly said that there will never be a sequel, because it's not necessary. There will never be a film like this one.
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Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Screenplay: Hossein Amini
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Albert Brooks
Soundtrack: Cliff Martinez
Cinematography: Newton Thomas Sigel
Running Time: 100 minutes
Budget: $15 million
