Keep on driving, Ryan. Keep on driving.

Rating: 10/10 (31 January 2012)

I finally know why everyone talked about Drive last year. Drive, which was that popular movie that not many saw, should have been seen. For too many reasons.
Ryan Gosling plays an unnamed lonely guy named Driver, or nicknamed Driver. He is a movie stuntman moonlighting as a getaway driver for criminals, and damn is he good. But he begins to see an actual life outside all of the chaos when he meets Irene(Carey Mulligan), and her son, Benicio.
He begins bonding with them, and becomes incredibly close, but it's not really a sexual relationship with Irene, though he cares so deeply about her. But this bond is broken when her convict husband returns from prison, and soon Driver's quiet espionage-like life is turned upside down.
Remember Ryan Gosling from The Notebook? Remember Ryan Gosling from Crazy Stupid Love? Yeah, this is him. But here he does something that I don't think i've seen him do before. He's those characters from the other films, but with a brutal side. An ass-kicking Jacob Palmer. Every scene with him, which is nearly every one, you can not take your eyes off of. He's fantastic. He's a guy who has found something to love.
Strangely, the film is a love story in it's own violent way. Yes, it is violent, but not that violent. Violence I can tolerate, even though I have made a vow never to see Hostel. Blehh.
The acting from everyone is fantastic; Mulligan, a fellow Oscar nominee, Albert Brooks as the mob boss who seems harmless up until he sticks a knife in a guy's eye, Rob Perlman as his partner, and Bryan Cranston as Driver's friend.
The action sequences are fantastically shot; the film is a mixed genre. The first ten minutes is a thriller, then the following half hour is a drama, your typical Ryan Gosling indie-flick, then after the first forty minutes, the story plot kicks into gear and we're forced to (cheese alert) buckle up and go for a ride.
Drive is a strange movie, but it's one that will definitely keep people talking. I didn't quite agree with some of the year's Oscar nominees, but damn it this should have been one of them. And Gosling is constantly overlooked. I felt like he did better than Michelle Williams is Blue Valentine, and it's a crime that he wasn't nominated for any of his movies this year.
Why wasn't Drive nominated? Because it was awesome, strange, and very violent? I don't know, but i'm positive that some day, they'll regret their snubbing. They'll realize what a classic it is, and feel very stupid.
A