Review: Drive

Ryan Gosling, a scorpion jacket, toothpicks and a pulsating electro soundtrack. This film is cool. Thankfully it avoids falling into any hipster style traps that the likes of Spun fell into by avoiding being all style and no substance.

Drive tells the story of a Hollywood stunt performer (Gosling) moonlighting as a getaway driver, who becomes involved with his neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan) and ends up getting tied in with the mob. The tension is high from the opening getaway and rarely lets up throughout thanks to the omnipresent threat of the ultra violent kill scenes that frequently appear out of nowhere. Even the tender scenes between Gosling and Mulligan are loaded with a sexual tension thanks to the lack of dialogue between the two, instead relying on stolen looks and glances to tell the story of the attraction between them.

Gosling is great, and is on a hell of a roll with this, Blue Valentine, Crazy Stupid Love and The Ides of March all out this year. Here he channels his inner James Dean and Steve McQueen and does the strong but silent thing with ease, but it almost a shame to waste someone as good as Gosling with so little lines.

The real star however is the soundtrack, a perfect fit for the sleazy, neon noir world in which the characters inhabit, wisely taking the good bits from the Collateral soundtrack and going easy on the Audioslave (Michael Mann take note next time).