Drive

I don't know if it was my restless mood or just the movie being unnecessarily slow for me. Sometimes I even wondered if the picture was stuck. It has its charm and atmosphere though. It may be art in its own way, but it lacks excitement. Ryan Gosling has done better work, in my opinion. Of course, it's not his fault. Unfortunately, the script doesn't allow him to show his full glory. Unfortunately, I see it as just average... 3 stars. (23/03/2012)

A ride that slams you hard into your seat and doesn't want to let go for a long time. Suspenseful to the bursting point, more action-packed than Michael Mann and ideas packed into the last second. We have seen plenty of gangsters and silent heroes on the screen for quite some time. But to simply have to run back to the cinema the next day to watch a movie again, that has never happened to me before. Even if I had to just observe the continuity of slow scenes or savor every tone of the soundtrack. (17/09/2011)

The third viewing at the cinema definitely confirmed for me that trying to decide between four and five stars is pointless here. Drive is a challenge for film connoisseurs. It is something to discuss, to examine shot by shot and line by line. It’s impossible to put it into a qualitative category, and it’s impossible not to admire it. It is a hypnotically calm and slow opus that concurrently boils over with emotion and suspense. It works with several genres, but it cannot be clearly classified as belonging to any of them. The film keeps the greatest distance from the main character, not letting us understand him or feel his relationship with the girl, for whose protection he resorts to extreme, graphic violence. Though this violence thus becomes shockingly gratuitous, it is irresistibly cathartic in contrast to the romantic poetics that surround it. Through its extravagant camerawork and music, the film conceals the importance of the dialogue, which is the pillar of its story and is served sparingly, almost in fragments, but it perfectly defines the characters immediately with the first line or two. The choice of actors is original and unexpected, and with artistry reminiscent of Tarantino, the director pulls them out of their status as fades stars and eternal players of supporting roles and has them embody characters that will forever be embedded in your memory. Nicolas Winding Refn has what it takes to be the next Tarantino. However, Drive still isn’t his Pulp Fiction. For that, he will need more pieces on the chessboard and a more complex story. (23/11/2011)

Drive is a boring film. A long, drawn-out, empty and uninspiring bore that offered its best at the beginning (the scene of hiding and dodging police cars) and then didn't come up with anything I would call interesting. I think we can agree that the story is dull and boring to the point of shame, but I can’t say that it was filmed in such a way that it would stop bothering me. The fault is probably with my receiver, but I didn't see anything special. In fact, I didn't even hear it - the much-vaunted soundtrack consists, in my opinion, of only a few extremely strange and unpleasant songs, the title track being particularly repulsive. What's next in the film? Just the violence. A head shot, a head smashed, a head crushed, a fork in the eye, a knife in the throat, a razor in the forearm... And the camera shows everything. So? What of it? I feel that Nicolas Winding Refn is just a perverted guy who revels in these brutalities, and while the violence in the previous film, Valhalla Rising, had its purpose (although it really didn't have to absolutely show everything), here it was totally unnecessary, and I would even say purposeful. The last nail in the already very thoroughly hammered coffin for me was the unsympathetic Ryan Gosling. A big disappointment. (13/03/2012)

This could have been such a calm and melancholic film. A nice methodical approach to life, no disturbing elements. And then the driver rides in an elevator with the cute neighbor and it all turns upside-down. Nicolas Winding Refn took a fairly typical pulpy, though still quite high-quality, screenplay, and transformed it into a meditation on the life of a not-entirely-normal driver/stuntman. Breathtakingly shot in nighttime L.A. (almost like my favorite, Mann), the glow of neon lights is framed by 1980’s style electronic music, but Refn flirts primarily with the noir genre, although this is a sunlit version, as absurd as that may sound. Blood spatters, engines roar and the silent, inconspicuous scenes involving the two love birds appear surprisingly significant. The cast is perfect. Gosling is surprising in the role of the silent Driver. Carey Mulligan is completely believable as the main protagonist’s fragile/strong motivation. And Bryan "Heisenberg" Cranston is an absolute chameleon. An inconspicuous hit that will grab your attention if you let it. You know the story about the scorpion and the frog? (19/09/2011)