Best Art-house movie ever made, with shi#t blowing up!

Rating: 9/10 (26 September 2013)

Nicolas Winding Refn, the Danish director of "Art -House" genre, who already had explored various themes in his films with a beautiful-looking: the Danish mafia in the "Pusher" trilogy; a violent prisoner in "Bronson"; a mute-dumb badass Viking without an eye in "Valhalla Rising"; all with a beautiful direction and full of metaphors on the subject on study, and FULL of violence. But his greatest critical success and ultimately the public's attention would be with this masterpiece!
"Drive" tells the story of Ryan Gosling's character, a mysterious man with several jobs: one as a part-job being a movie-stuntman making stunts with cars; the rest of the day as a mechanic; at night he enters in the world of crime as a getaway driver. Everything seems to change in his life when thanks to his boss of the workshop, Shannon (Bryan Cranston), the driver begins to approach his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), who has a long nurtured passion. Days pass and the driver gets closer and closer of Irene and her son creating a great relationship. But everything changes when Irene's husband returns from prison bringing with it immense dangers to the only family that the Driver ever had.
I know, the synopsis sounds like another cliché action movie with a badass character, but that's where the genius of the film begins. Nicolas Winding Refn is known for putting in his films varied metaphors in the topic to be explored. And what is the topic of the movie? Well, it is simply the action genre (a theme exploring another theme, intriguing right?). Perhaps this is the reason for the poor reception that the film had with the young crowd, the trailers and synopsis sounded like a good action movie just for good popcorn, and ended up going much deeper than that, but all the clichés are here.
Gosling's character is the typical movie's action hero: don't talk much and when he speaks are phrases that make you crack a smile on your face and think (wow, what a badass); know how to handle weapons well and never gets hurt after a fight; drive cars as a master engaging in awesome car- chases; and of course, has a soft heart. Nicolas along with screenwriter Hossein Amini try to explore the human side of this type of hero, they are human with its good and pure side, but at the same time dark and violent side. Giving the film a lot of metaphors.
Nicolas is known for its intense moments of silent in his films that many consider boring, but serve as reflective moments. Here, these moments are not only reflective but show the reality of the film (come on, ask yourself, how many times have you been in a room with someone you doesn't know without saying word embarrassed? Neither the badass hero escapes this.). And this is possibly the film of Nicolas with more people talking, even the driver (no main character of the films Nicolas almost never said a word), giving the film an excellent, realistic and even humorous narrative to its characters.
In technical aspects, the film is almost perfect. As always, Nicolas deliver's a beautiful direction and the right use of lighting and slow motion at the silent and dialog moments, and also the superb action scenes. And the movie contains a varied and beautiful soundtrack; all songs have the same theme, what is to be a hero, also serving as a metaphor.
In performances, all exceptional: Ryan Gosling predictably has an extraordinary performance, even not speaking much he shines as the troubled-badass hero in the quest to be a good person; Bryan Cranston, if you ever watched "Breaking Bad" knows how great it is here. He also another cliché in the movie, at the same time he is the old mentor he is the comic-relief; Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman as the villains Bernie and Nino, both superb but also serve as a metaphor for the story, even the bad guys are human villains with their own problems.
Surely, the masterpiece of Nicolas, a magnificent direction, with a great narrative, splendid performances. All together and put into a theme that seemed inexorable, that ended up being an excellent aesthetic and human study of the action genre in perhaps the best art -house movie ever made, with amazing sh#t blowing up.
9/10