The Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) is nearing its end for the year, and it’s a shame that I’ve yet again managed to miss seeing one of its films. One of the most anticipated films, Drive, has been receiving positive critiques since its first showing, and has Canadian actor Ryan Gosling in the driver seat. I’m thankful that its theatrical release is not too distant from its TIFF release because it’s a film that should not go unnoticed by the general public. The film is similar to the Quentin Tarantino-directed Death Proof, starring Kurt Russell. It takes some time for the action to begin, but once it begins, it really begins; don’t expect a simple shooting or getaway scene. If you can’t handle violent and gory scenes, don’t check out Death Proof or Drive. However, the difference in quality between the two films is like day and night. I’m not a huge Tarantino fan, who has typically directed lower budget films with a lot of dialogue. While Death Proof is literally just dialogue for the first hour or so, Drive has very little talking, and it focuses on the relationship between Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan. Both of them are good actors, and you will stay entertained even while waiting for the action to being. Besides that, I actually consider Drive to be a good movie, while Death Proof to be relatively boring and lower in quality.
In Drive, Ryan Gosling plays a stunt driver who works on the side as a driver for robbers; they go in, steal what they’re after, and he drives them to safety. After one job goes wrong, and this happens almost an hour into the film, he ends up being chased and hunted, and has to find a way out for himself. Gosling does not do very much talking in the film, and there are many silent scenes where the actors are simply exchanging looks. It works well, and it’s a nice change from the bigger Hollywood films that try to use dialogue to add humour and end up going overboard usually. Quieter films are fairly rare nowadays, and they usually end up receiving more acknowledgement form the Academy than the dialogue-filled films. One example is last year’s 127 Hours, which had James Franco stuck under a rock for over an hour. It was nominated for Best Picture, and I wouldn’t put it past the Academy to nominate Drive, as it should. The acting was good all over, from Gosling and Mulligan, to Bryan Cranston, Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks. The latter three are veteran actors and you’d expect them to give good performances. As for Gosling and Mulligan, even with their limited talking in the film, there is evident chemistry between the two which only makes their scenes together more of a joy to watch.
Ryan Gosling is impressing in that he is able to almost completely transform his character from the beginning to the end of the movie. As you’ll see, he is nearly speechless in the majority of his scenes, but he goes from a calm speechless to a vicious and dangerous “not to be fucked with” speechless. He is the main reason to watch the film, aside from the direction, and delivers a worthy performance that should be noted by the Academy members.
The direction by Nicolas Winding Refn is terrific, with the murder scenes actually being visible, unlike in most other films. And Refn was also able to make the muted scenes entertaining to watch, which requires more than just good actors in those scenes. The soundtrack was from the 1980s, another nice change from the majority of the films being released today. There isn’t much I can say about the writing because of the limited dialogue in the film. I’m mainly impressed with the Refn’s directing, keeping the audience engaged and transitioning between certain scenes in an interesting way, and I hope he gets nominated for the Oscar he deserves.
I know that Drive is a great film because there aren’t many films I would pay to watch more than once. It has good actors, but it’s a lower budget and smaller film, close to an indie, with a good story, good performances and excellent direction, and there is no doubt that word-of-mouth will spread about how good Drive is. The only other films I’ve watched more than once have been blockbusters, so it’s nice to see a smaller film such as Drive joining that list. It’s not for everyone, especially those who can’t handle violent films, but it’s been some time since I’ve seen an Oscar-worthy film (and one that actually has a chance of winning – unlike Harry Potter, which still might not get nominated), and I can’t wait to see the other TIFF films I missed out on this year. Whether they’re as good as Drive, we shall find out soon enough.
Score: 9/10
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