This is the continuation of the best that action and noir had to offer.

Rating: 9/10 (8 November 2012)

What I cannot stand about recent developments in American cinema (whatever genre be it really), are primarily two things. 1. The terrible intellectual laziness, insensitivity, and lack of original vision, which result in copy- pasting attitude. Music, dialogs, acting, casting, shots - all of it are just plaster casts, and all directors and writers seem to have turned into laborers, filling the 'successful film' prescriptions. 2. The "rub it in your face till you understand" attitude, when it comes to laying out the plot. There can be nothing left unsaid, all jokes explained, all mysteries resolved, all romance explicit, to the point of nausea. Of course there are great exceptions, like Cohens, but even more ambitious films, or those branded as, you know, 'avantgarde' seem to be placid and based on cheap in your face effects (vide ''Black Swan"). Drive comes to the rescue. And it comes in big style. It taps right into the core of what once was great about American movies, movies like Duel, Vanishing Point, like Killing of a Chinese Bookie, hell, even like Charles Bronson films. It has vision, it is nuanced, it is stylish, and it contains that special something, the electrifying atmosphere of mystery, darkness, which all crime/noir films must have to deserve their name. I was concerned at first, because a criminal who falls in love and escapes the bad guys is a recipe for banal, teary plot, but it was just all played out with masterful skill and balance. And finally, what a relief! I was spared the irritating details of all those unnecessary cookie-cutter scenes, especially on the romance side. A Man meets Woman? A take of him standing, a take of her, next to her broken car, he approaches, cut. Period. You know the rest, and you don't need to have it explained any more. This film is a gem. And I would say it is the essence of true and great American cinema... if not for the fact that the director is Danish and main character is Canadian. They both could teach the other guys a lesson. I was tempted to give a 10. But let's just leave that score for that one movie which never will be made.