DRIVE
/
2011
DIRECTOR: Nicolas Winding Refn
CINEMATOGRAPHER: Newton Thomas Sigel
WRITER: Hossein Amini(screenplay)/ James Sallis(book)
BUDGET: $15,000,000
GROSS: $77,187,281 (Worldwide)
Ryan Gosling plays a nameless Hollywood stunt driver who moonlights as a getaway driver for hire. He’s a man without a past (at least not a past that we’re ever told about). A quiet loner. And then he meets his neighbour and her son. A bond begins to grow and when her husband gets out of jail and an event occurs that could threaten them, the driver must take matters into his own hands to protect them.
If the story and the characters sound simple and archetypal, that's cause they are. This is a "super hero" story. And in thinking about it, it brought to mind Unbreakable. Now, while Drive doesn't take the same ode to comic books approach that Unbreakable does, both films are playing in that obvious and archetypal playground and doing it really well.
Both films are genuine and earnest about it also. They aren't doing the ironic, winking or self-referential regular-guy-turns-super-hero thing like Kick Ass, Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World or Super (all films that I like by the way).
As the whole super hero thing and the Unbreakable connection continued to play in my head, another moment stuck out. In Drive's final act, as he goes after one of the bad men, he does so wearing this full prosthetic, pull-over face that he’d used for some driving scene in a movie he was working on. You with me here? a MASK of course! This "ah ha" moment lead back to Unbreakable and the poncho/CAPE that Bruce Willis is wearing when he finally realizes his climactic hero moment.
In interviews Winding Refn has talked about his love for John Hughes and films from the 80s that were able to pull of corny and sweet. Now, I wasn't thinking John Hughes or Pretty Woman or any such films while watching Drive. But it’s impossible to miss the ode to the 80s in the film. From the bright pink and cursive writing of the credits to the Casio keyboard pop music of the soundtrack. Ya, it’s a little corny at times but Winding Refn knows it, owns it and is able to make it work.
If I was going to make any director comparisons it actually would have been Michael Mann. But not because of Miami Vice - as you might have assumed. The Mann comparison is most evident to me in how the film is able to capture L.A. at night. Winding Refn's use of quiet and his ability to slow the pace of the film right down one minute and then, the next minute, create intense action and/or tension.
Drive is a film that rises above the "action" genre.