Drive
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DVD | Blu-ray
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac, Kaden Leos
FilmDistrict
Originally Released: May 20, 2011

Let me just begin this article by pointing out the final paragraph of this post is the most important of the review.

Featuring Ryan Gosling amidst an impressive cast, the Nicholas Winding Refn-directed Drive is one of those rare films that become immediate classics. While touting some action and crime thriller material, the film is essentially a character study, with extraordinary technical work and some significant symbolism – all of which when combined demand your attention throughout the entire movie.

Drive focuses around an unnamed protagonist known only as The Driver, who leads a life of dichotomy involving cars – working as a mechanic and stunt driver by day, but by night works as a getaway driver for criminals in Los Angeles working heists. Moving to a new apartment, he lives next door to neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her son Benicio (Kaden Leos). The three develop a new friendship that seems to put The Driver onto a new passageway in life.

Drive
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Albert Brooks, Ron Pearlman, Bryan Cranston, Oscar Isaac and Kaden Leos
Release Date: September 16, 2011

Immediately are we distanced from the majority of groggy thrillers as director Nicolas Winding Refn, working in astonishing form (he won best director award at this year’s Cannes Festival), achieves insistent thrills from the beginning of his new film Drive. Unfurling from the opening credits onward is an excellence and master-class in control and discipline that cannot be disputed. It is a simple chase scene, a getaway driver discreetly navigating a silver Chevy Impala away from the authorities, set during a gorgeously neon-lit night in the heart of Los Angeles. Refn establishes an atmosphere so distinctive that it calls to mind Mulholland Dr., a great atmospheric film with the same vindictiveness Drive has of Hollywood. Drive‘s atmosphere is one that glorifies and harbors masculinity, violence, and existential crises.