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DRIVE
(directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, 2011)



I loved this movie, yet I don't understand what all the fuss is about. I think that Drive has a sort of old, classic, 1960's, 1970's obscure, Taxi Driver kind of feel to it, and I love how bloody and violent it gets (eventually....)

But there's something wrong about it. Let me try to explain to you what I'm feeling is wrong: Okay, so, hopefully you all know what Drive is about. In short: Ryan Gosling plays a Hollywood car stunt driver for the movies who also works as a mechanic. He lives next to a woman in an apartment building - the woman has a young son. Her husband is in jail. Her husband gets out of jail. Unfortunately, trouble still finds the husband once he gets home. Ryan Gosling, as "The Driver", gets caught up in it all when he learns that the woman and her son now have their lives threatened because of the husband. He wants to protect them and an interesting, surprising twist unfolds.

For starters, Ryan Gosling is gorgeous. Ryan Gosling interests me.

BUT HE'S A MANNEQUIN!

And everytime I see Ryan Gosling in a movie, I feel like I'm watching an autistic actor or something. Drive full on exploits this. He plays the ultimate male mannequin character. He is a Crash Test Dummy. Actually, I take that back, because I remember the Crash Test Dummies and they actually had more life in them! All Ryan seems to do in this movie is just... be quiet! He's like Michael Myers in Halloween. In fact, I think Drive would have been a lot better if it had been a horror movie. Ryan Gosling is the perfect quiet murderer. There is something about him that just screams... crazy. In Lars and the Real Girl, he was having sex with that love doll (mannequin!!!) In All Good Things, he was a wacko that eventually became a mute transvestite murderer. Ryan Gosling is just... he's the sexiest mental patient in the world. I want to see him do strait jacket porn.

I don't really like the ending. Yet, I think my feelings about the ending are contributed by all the other elements that I feel are wrong with Drive. Technically, I think Drive works, as a story -- but technical is emotionless. Major spoiler below....

WARNING: "Drive" spoilers below
He should have went back for the woman and her child. I'm very glad that he lived -- I had seen a picture of him getting stabbed and I feared it meant he died. I was so relieved that he lived, but it feels wrong that he drove off and I guess left town without the woman and her child. I get that in a way it's saying a pretty serious job was taken care of by him - the man who is incredible - but for all that protection he did for her... willingly... and for the passionate love he seemed to have for her... it feels so wrong to me. I don't agree with it. The ending left me unsatisfied. If he and the other guy had both died... I actually, even though I didn't want it, think it would have been more suitable.


There is a very narcissistic aspect to the Driver character in Drive. Drive is about male beauty. The movie is really a woman's movie disguised as a rough and dirty violence and cars male movie. Note the soundtrack: All of the songs, from what I remember, are sang by women. And it feels odd to me. I'm also noticing that this movie is extremely popular with girls. This is a movie about a Ken doll if Ken wanted to go and do something - a motion picture - without Barbie - but the Barbie corporation still had to have a hand in it. This is Ken meets Quentin Tarantino. And in the end, when all is said and done, Ken must leave Quentin and go back to Barbie.

Drive's failure to pick up any Oscar nominations is because of what I'm saying here. Imagine if Justin Bieber had played the Driver -- it would look ridiculous. Yet, he COULD have played the Driver, because that's what Drive is -- it's a pretty boy girly film trying to be manly. It's very covered up because that's what Ryan Gosling is required to do -- he is a very masculine looking stud, but he is also doing a mannequin role here. He is window dressing. He is the ultimate secret agent.

The fact that The Driver never truly feels invincible -- the fact that he does seem like he could be killed -- adds to the truth that he's not quite a real man. He is a silent pinup male model -- he never feels invincible. This movie reminded me of the Pam Grier 1970's Blaxploitation films that I love, like Coffy and Foxy Brown, where Pam is a badass mofo who is getting revenge and always succeeding. Pam had more life and power than Ryan Gosling does here. It bothers me that Ryan Gosling didn't. I blame the script for the most part. Ryan's silent presence doesn't come off as silent but deadly. He's sexy, but it's all surface. He is not sexy under the surface. If any ugly guy had played that character, nobody would care about Drive. Nobody. He really needed more life in him. It was frustrating just watching him act like a stump. The other men in this movie were loud and intimidating -- I can't really buy that Ryan Gosling was able to do battle with them. At least when Pam Grier went to battle, she was loud, she was sassy - she was a killer mama. Ryan Gosling is like cancer -- he might win, but he might lose. And for a movie like Drive, where he's a stunt driver and a mechanic... I don't think it works. He's hollow and he should be filled up with all kinds of complex stuff. There's nothing interesting about his mysteriousness. Even his apartment is really seen only in darkness. There's nothing to give him life. He's dead.

I even feel like there's a possible homosexual undertone to the Driver character, as well. But I've written a lot already and I've only seen the film once, so... not now.

Besides all this, though, I liked the movie.