Movie Review: Drive

Drive has gotten some rave reviews and I don't understand why. It's not bad, though it does have the worst credits I've ever seen and some song choices I just hated. Seriously, a noirish thriller with pink hand written script credits, what's up with that? I may be a nod to the 80s, but Miami Vice, Sixteen Candles and even Pretty in Pink had far more traditional credits, I checked.

So, Ryan Gosling (who's always good) plays a driver, in fact his character is just known as The Driver. He's a stunt driver and on the side a for-hire getaway driver, and an aspiring race driver. He likes driving. Far more than he likes talking. Rather than go through the plot, which is fine, it suffices to say it's a noir crime thriller. He gets involved in a heist and with a girl and stuff gets complicated as people want him dead. Fine. It's actually a good plot and there is some good direction, interesting camera stuff and some inspired casting. Albert Brooks is great as a mobster and not in the way you'd expect.

But Drive is also all style and no substance. And the style includes some very uncomfortable violence. I'm ok with that, but this film isn't for everyone, I suspect it's not even for most people. My problem is that there's all this potential, it's clear the director has some masterful control over what's on the screen and made some interesting choices, but in the end, it's really for no reason, especially not for the story.

The scene that comes to mind that really turned me against the film is one where one character, shall we say incapacitates another, in the dressing room of a strip club. There are a lot of nude strippers in the room and rather than scream or run out of the room screaming or have any reaction at all, they all just freeze. Posing to make an image in the movie frame. It's very Kubrickian. And while I'm a big Kubrick fan, his images serve a larger whole. Drive's are just to be there, to be cool or arty or something. It's as absurd as the increasingly bloody jacket The Driver wears throughout the film.

In the end, I found it empty. There aren't even a lot of good car chases. There are two and the opening one is very good. It's odd because I did like the plot and cinematography and editing and many of the performances were great given the sparse script. These actors are all up for that. I just didn't like the main character (I mean cypher), the music, credits or whole tonal shift. I think my expectations were misset by a mistargeted ad campaign and critics that get numbed seeing a lot of bad cookie-cutter films. This may be some arty Euro noir but Point Blank did it much better. I think this Salon article gets it very right, The "Drive" backlash: Too violent, too arty or both?.