Pretentious garbage

Rating: 2/10 (15 October 2019)

I'm losing respect for a lot of movie critics. I watched _Drive_ after seeing the 90th percentile Tomatometer ratings and reading a dozen gushing, obsequious reviews about its brilliant acting, cinematography, and atmosphere. I was not rewarded.
_Drive_ is basically a grade B slasher movie pretending to be an art house film. It starts out with an intriguing car chase and a potential developing romance, but in the second half, it degenerates into a repulsive gore fest that undermines any and all viewer credibility.
A lot of people think violence in films can be artistic. Directors like Peckinpah and Tarantino have made millions from it. Nicholas Refn is clearly trying to join the club. We get to witness a man getting a fork stuck in his eye, a knife jammed into a man's throat, and a man getting his head stomped until his head implodes like a pumpkin. Oh yeah, they're all bad guys, but are you having fun watching this? Please explain why. Sorry, folks; its just gratuitous, bloody crap.
Ryan Gosling's acting consists almost entirely of staring at people with a toothpick in his mouth. Yes, laconic leading men can be interesting--Clint Eastwood, Bruce Willis, et al. Not here.
It's also shameful to see the great Albert Brooks, who built his career on creativity and comic wit, taking a role as a nasty criminal scumbag. It just doesn't work.
Carey Mulligan is not the least bit impressive as the love interest. Other than the fact that she's cute and has a cute kid, there is no plausible reason why Gosling's Driver should fall in love with her. Her character is a cardboard cut out.
To make matters worse, we're subjected to insipid techno-pop music on the soundtrack, including a song in the last scene about "heroes," which was apparently written about Sully Sullenberger, the airline pilot who saved 155 lives by landing his plane in the Hudson River. This does not compute. Sully was not a violent murderer.
Some movies are bad, but they're still well-intentioned, amusing, and entertaining. _Drive_ is just plain bad. There's nothing well-intentioned about it. It's inhumane, gratuitous, pretentious, and nausea-inducing. Do yourself a favor and avoid this one .