On June 17, “Drive” held its U.S. premiere at the LA Film Festival, complete with red carpet arrivals by director Nicolas Winding Refn and stars Ryan Gosling, Christina Hendricks, Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks.
The first showing of “Drive” was this past May in the French Riviera at the Cannes Film Festival. It won Refn the Best Director award at the Festival and was nominated for the grand prize—the Palm d’Or. The thriller is set to debut stateside in theaters on Sept. 16.
"Drive" red carpet at LAFF: Oscar Isaac, Christina Hendricks, Nicolas Winding Refn, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ryan Gosling and Ron Perlman (photo by: Alberto E. Rodriguez)
With a brilliant and flawless opening scene, Refn quickly sets the stage for what exactly “Drive” is—an amazing vehicle (no pun intended) for Gosling to showcase his enormous acting chops and ability to hold an audience’s attention in the palm of his hand. Dark and mysterious, “Drive” begins with Gosling slickly and expertly driving a getaway car for some mediocre thugs. He’s brilliant at his job but why he is in this line of work is unclear.
Never even given a real name, Driver works as a Hollywood stunt driver and a car mechanic by day moonlighting occasionally as the perfect getaway driver by night. He has strict rules and little expression. This quiet and unflinching persona could be ruined by a lesser actor, but Gosling fully embraces it making the personality quite attractive.
Driver works for Shannon (Bryan Cranston) at the mechanic shop, but Shannon has other plans for the talented lad. He begins talks with some serious mobster-like acquaintances to invest in Driver’s abilities in the race car department. Bernie Rose (Brooks) must meet him first, and within a moment, he is sold on the young man’s talents too.
However, his colleague Nino (Perlman) is not so sure about any form of money funding these pipe dreams. A violent bunch, Shannon wants to remain on their good sides, but this proves difficult.
In the meantime, Driver is quickly and innocently befriending his next door neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son.
Irene is a working mom with her own problems, including her husband being in jail. Intrigued by Driver, she continues to allow him in their lives, accepting his help with chores around the apartment and enjoying his company. They take romantic drives around Los Angeles and have quiet chats, but Driver remains mysterious and thoughtful. Somehow Gosling makes his character solemn and off-putting in a likable way—a fete many actors would love to achieve.
Their lives are disrupted when her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) is released from jail but saddled with a giant debt to local thugs. Soon, Standard’s and Driver’s lives collide in a mish-mash of seedy transactions, forcing the two to be on the same side in the violent underworld of Southern California.
Stars Ryan Gosling (enjoying Sweet Tarts), Christina Hendricks and Bryan Cranston helping introduce the film. (Photo by: Alberto E. Rodriguez)
What begins as a gorgeous ode to Los Angeles with breathtaking shots of downtown quickly changes into an insider look at the corruption that lives in the city and the blood bath that surrounds these characters. An edge-of-your-seat thriller, Hossein Amini’s screenplay is not cluttered with unimportant dialogue but edited to only include the most important and memorable lines.
The provocative film takes a no-holds-barred approach to storytelling with many closeups to reveal every inch of expression on the talented ensemble cast’s face. Refn’s direction is seamless from the humanity and love between Mulligan and Gosling on one side of the spectrum to the complete villainous opposition with Brooks and Perlman pulling off realistic and believable bad guys.
Mixing silence and a spellbinding soundtrack, the tone perfectly straddles whimsy and gritty realism putting “Driver” in a league of its own when it comes to filmmaking. The noir feeling of the first portion of the movie turns hostile when the gore and blood of the action begins to seep in, however, Refn never loses focus, and his cast never loses sight of what they are attempting to create.
After Gosling’s performance in last year’s “Blue Valentine,” he’s quickly being named the best actor of his generation by critics and audiences alike. Mulligan also continues to garner acclaim in her choices since she broke onto the scene with “An Education,” and dependable co-stars Brooks, Perlman and Cranston don’t ever disappoint.
Though not for the faint of heart, “Drive” has elevated current filmmaking to an entirely new level putting Refn and Gosling in the driver’s seat of Hollywood.
