Pastiche doesn’t always work. But although Nicolas Winding Refn’s neo-noir recalls Risky Business, Blade Runner, Collateral, To Live and Die in LA and more, everything funnels effortlessly into a certain sleekly stylised tension. It’s aloof yet heartfelt; visceral yet mechanical.
Its electropop soundtrack, particularly, nails a cool, perplexed yearning. Just as Cut Copy sang, “There is a feeling in me, and I don’t know why,” Refn’s nameless protagonist (Ryan Gosling) gets a pulsating theme song expressing surprise that he has “proved to be a real human being and a real hero”.
Don’t expect a thrill-packed action flick; despite its tautly stylish opening sequence, Drive has a pageant’s processional rhythm. Gosling inhabits his character with watchful melancholy; Carey Mulligan is less charismatic as his pretty neighbour with a cute son and a jailbird husband (Oscar Isaac). Their vulnerability inspires a fatal heist that brings the wrath of two gangsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman) upon Driver and his hapless mentor Shannon (Bryan Cranston).
Refn intersperses dreamlike moments of stillness with shocking, explicit violence. One of his final shots is particularly audacious, compressed with meaning. But Drive is full of astounding sequences that will etch themselves on your memory.
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