Nicholas Winding Refn does an excellent job

Rating: Null/10 (26 September 2011)

Drive, you almost had me, you almost did! Drive has been branded the masterpiece of 2011. It isn't, it's just a really, really good film. Firstly Nicholas Winding Refn does an excellent job with direction. The city of LA comes to life in this movie and Refn shows us how beautiful a city can look at night. So visually stunning is the cinematography, the city becomes a character on its own. I grew up watching Michael Mann's Miami Vice, then Heat. I played Grand Theft Auto Vice City and I've seen Walter Hill's The Driver, which you could say Drive pays homage to. I could say Drive is a mixture of all the mentioned and it probably is. You could also say that Refn directed a film without the intention of using cliché's. Either way he's done a splendid job using a lot of wide angled shots and steady cam to great affect.
Performance wise, I have no complaints at all. Gosling performs well without saying or doing very much. Gosling's character is mysterious and has a Man with no name vibe to him. He doesn't carry great screen presence but he's perfect for the role because of that. And it's because of this he is able to show different sides of the character he's playing. Carey Mulligan does a great job also without saying much either. A lot of her acting was done in silence and she conveys the right emotional response every time she's on screen. Oscar Isaac impresses as does Christina Hendricks who shows she's not just a pretty face with an hour glass figure.
Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman do a fantastic job of playing the mobsters. Albert Brooks is particularly scary as the mob boss, which is a change from him because he usually does comedy. But standout is Bryan Cranston as Gosling's mechanic partner who is just a joy to watch and it's no wonder why everyone I know harps on about Breaking Bad. He really is a great actor and I really enjoyed his performance in this film.
If I have any complaints about Drive is that it can become slightly boring at times, especially in scenes when there's break between dialogue and Gosling and Mulligan just stare at each other, telepathically trying to read each others thoughts. Also the film is not as clever as it thinks it is. I more or less gathered where this story was going, but because the direction is so good you could easily say that this is a masterpiece but it's nothing more than a really good thriller, with solid writing that's been shot very well, and it's very violent too. It's nothing that I haven't seen before so it's hardly original but it's more than worthy of its cinematic release. Refn is bound to get a nod at either the Globes, SAG's or even the Oscar's. By no means is it the most perfect film ever made, but it's definitely one of the best directed films you'll see this year.
I'm going to watch this again at some point. The soundtrack is the best I've heard this year. If you're studying film, GO SEE THIS NOW! If love films in general, GO SEE THIS NOW! It's one of the films of the year.