Ryan Gosling plays a stunt driver for movies, but moonlights as a get away driver for robberies. His character is a man of few words, he likes to drive, and is very good at it, but seems pretty empty otherwise. He meets his attractive new neighbor (the adorable Carey Mulligan) and her young son. Soon he is smitten and begins to take care of them. When her husband gets out of prison,Gosling feels displaced, but soon finds purpose in saving the family from thugs who are threatening to kill them all if the husband doesn't do one last job for them. Needless to say, the body count is high and Gosling becomes an avenger with a penchant for unique weapons.
Director Nocolas Winding Refn shows he is the real deal with this movie, that is getting rave reviews from critics. I hear it isn't as popular with audiences,and I am not surprised. It is not your usual action movie,as both the title and even trailer might have implied. It is ultra violent in parts,but these scenes are slow to come and often end quickly. The characters almost never say what they are thinking and the movie has long scenes of Mulligan and Gosling looking at each other,or away from each other, while the kick ass score plays underneath. But for me, DRIVE was a welcome relief from the shoot em up car chase movies that get made all the time. Like last years THE TOWN (a deeply flawed film) the car chase scenes in DRIVE are done like old 70's and 80's car movies.They don't have a million jump cuts of cars crashing, rolling, blowing up that I always find greatly confusing (Michael Bay I am looking at you) and always seem more to serve the directors ego of big budget then add anything to plot. Instead, DRIVE, is much more into mood. Despite it taking place now, the clothes,music and graphics used are very early 80's. The movie is cool,it is slow and it is really really realy good. I was already a big fan of Ryan Gosling, I am now obsessed. Also, I can't stop listening to the soundtrack and have included the title song below. AMAZING.
Here is a movie I have been waiting for for six years, because it was filmed six years ago! It has been stuck in limbo, supposedly because director Lonergan couldn't cut it short enough for the studio to release it, but they must have worked it out because it comes out this month (3 hours long). Starring Anna Paquin, long before True Blood, with Matt Damon and, my main crush, Mark Ruffalo! This movie has so many exciting aspects for me, Lonergan wrote and directed one of my most loved films, YOU CAN COUNT ON ME, which is also the film that introduced me to the ever swoon worthy Ruffalo, and inspired me to write a screenplay because that script has fucking brilliant dialog. Since YOU CAN COUNT ON ME came out over ten years ago I have seen nothing from Lonergan, and have just kept seeing mentions of MARGARET until I assumed it would never come out, but now it is! Delayed release is not usually a good sign, but I am hoping it will be another impressive script with stellar performances, from it's highly capable cast.
CONTAGION
dir. Steven Soderbergh
Creepy infection movie, kinda like a zombie movie with no zombies. I think this movie looks good, and it has a great cast. Mainly Kate Winslet and Matt Damon, both of whom I always like. From what I have read it is pretty ruthless and everyone dies. I don't mean everyone on earth dies (though they might) I mean that the cast is very expendable, and watching movie stars die off is always entertaining. I am not a huge fan of Soderbergh, I find most his movies pretty pretentious and the only one of his I really like is KING OF THE HILL, but he's got me sold on this one. I love mass hysteria movies, and having it done with a high production level is always a bonus.
MARTHA MARCY MAY MARLENE
dir. Sean Durkin
This movie has had good buzz all year, mainly about the lead performance by Elizabeth Olsen (the younger sister of the Olsen twins) who is getting oscar buzz. The movie looks to be a creepy drama/thriller about a girl who escapes a cult, led by the fantastic John Hawkes, and goes to live with her aunt. The preview looks good and cults are pretty fascinating (in a disturbing way of course) so I predict this will be one of my top picks for 2011.
MY WEEK WITH MARILYN
dir. Simon Curtis
Here is another movie I have been hearing about for years, although not six and all during pre-production. The casting of Marilyn was being gossiped about for some time. Scarlett Johansson was said to be the front runner, Michelle Williams simply one of the many other names mentioned as interested. I'm not surprised Williams got it. Her work has been very consistent and she has the vulnerability to pull of such an iconic and tragic role. But this movie has other famous characters in it too, Arthur Miller, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh, and I hear casting was tough with everyone. So this fall we can see how all the pieces fit together. I am a fan of Marilyn Monroe. I am also a huge fan of Michelle Williams so it is an exciting combination.
SLEEPING BEAUTY
dir. Julia Leigh
Here is a very interesting sounding movie by a first time female director based on a novel she wrote, that promises to be bold, if nothing more. It is the story of a law student who takes a part time job as a nude maid in an upscale club for old men which leads to a job being drugged like "Sleeping Beauty"and allowing the old men to do whatever they want to her. I hear there are many old man penises and a very hard to watch scene where a tube is put into her gut. Those are sure things to look forward too. I am sure this movie will create a stir, unless it gets no distribution and hardly anyone sees it, and I have no idea how I will feel about it. But the cinematography looks very impressive, and Leigh's style has been compared to Hanake, which gets my attention. A movie can't be brilliant unless it takes some risks, perhaps Leigh will be a new great director, following in the footsteps of her mentor Jane Campion, or perhaps it will be an overstylized art house porn. It's bound to be memorable either way.
THE SKIN I LIVE IN
dir. Pedro Almodovar
I love Almodovar. His flamboyant style and mix of dark movies and fabulous comedies make him a director I am always excited for. Most recently I loved BAD EDUCATION and VOLVAR, and now this year THE SKIN I LIVE IN comes out starring Antonio Banderas, whom Almodovar worked with often early in their careers. It is the creepy story of a doctor who uses a women as a guinea pig to test a synthetic skin he is developing. Form there, I think, they enter some weird sort of relationship as captor and captive. The preview looks good and I love the music used in it. It sounds like the movie is pretty intense, so I am thinking there must be some pretty out their surgical stuff. I am excited how Almodovar will handle the creepy dark elements in this movie.
MELANCHOLIA
dir. Lars van Trier
MELANCHOLIA got a lot of attention at Cannes this year. Kirsten Dunst won best actress and director Van Trier made some off color jokes about Nazis in a press conference and upset a lot of people. Luckily, MELANCHOLIA has no Nazis in it, instead Dunst plays a wealthy women getting married (to super sexy Alexander Skarsgard) and discovering that a planet is headed towards earth and may collide. Van Trier makes very depressing films, BREAKING THE WAVES and DANCER IN THE DARK are beyond bleak, so I expect more of that, but you never know what to expect from him. Apparently the idea came to him in a therapy session when his therapist told him that depressed people handle disasters better then happy people. He originally cast Penelope Cruz as the role played by Kirsten Dunst.
YOUNG ADULT
dir. Jason Reitman
I was a fan of JUNO, and now writer and director are together again. I haven't cared for anything Diablo Cody has done since JUNO, but this sounds good. I don't know very much about it but Charlize Theron plays a young adult novel writer who returns to her small town after getting divorced and tries to get back her married and fathered ex. The poster alone makes me want to see this movie, and I like Theron and want to see her in something good, because it has been awhile.
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN
dir. Lynne Ramsay
I love love love Lynne Ramsay. Her only two films have been RATCATCHER and MORVERN CALLAR, both are beautiful. Based on a novel, it is starring Tilda Swinton, always amazing, as the mother of a boy who commits some sort of Colombine massacre, and how she deals with the guilt. It has gotten some strong reactions at the festivals this year, some good, lots of negative, but so did her last film MORVERN CALLAR and I think that movie is pretty close to perfection, so my hopes are very high for this one. It is a difficult subject to tackle in film, the only time I have seen it done well was Gus Van Sant's ELEPHANT, which I highly suggest to patient film watchers. I am hoping that KEVIN can also do it well.
THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO
dir. David Fincher
Of course I have to put this movie on here. I am a fan of Fincher, despite most of his films being very male. This movie has been getting buzz since it first got whispered about, and the books are pretty popular, so I assume lots of people will it. I was a fan of last years Swedish trilogy, mainly because of the amazing performance by Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth. I never read the books myself, but Lisbeth is an awesome character and at first I couldnt't imagine liking a hollywood version of her at all, espeicaly compared to Rapace, but I thin the casting of Rooney Mara is interesting and she has gone through a literal physical transformation (piercings, shaved her hair off, bleached her eyebrows) so I am excited just to see what Fincher's take on this unique character is. While I know this will be much more Americanized, I think Fincher can pull it off and make it a kick in the face movie.
THE IRON LADY
dir. Phyllida Lloyd
What is there for me not to be excited about this movie? It is starring Meryle Streep, it is directed by a women and it is about Margaret Thatcher, the first female Prime Minister of U.K. Since we know Streep will do a fantastic job (maybe an oscar?), the only question is how good of a bio-pic this is. I find them often rather flat, often done very straight forward and linear, I suppose thinking the persons life should take center stage, but I hope that IRON LADY is done with some energy and that Lloyd really uses her skills to impress us, with such an interesting figure, who has accomplished much, and pissed off lots of people. Of course I also expect there to be lots of sexist dialog about the woman and how the film portrays her, since our society typically has deep hatred for powerful "cold" women.
SHAME
dir. Steve Mcqueen
Michael Fassbender is my current obsession. Having seen him in JANE EYRE and X-MEN FIRST CLASS earlier this year. Most recently I saw FISH TANK, which is superb, and that made clear Fassbender is the real deal. SHAME is the second film from visual artist Mcqueen, whose first film, HUNGER (starring Michael Fassbender) got a great deal of praise when it came out, as is this one. Fassbender plays a successful business man who is a sex addict, stuck in a cycle of casual sex and deep feelings of shame about it. Carey Mulligan (another actor I am impressed with) plays his troubled sister who moves in with him. That is all I know, but from what I know, I feel very certain this movie will be good, and perhaps very depressing. Unfortunately this movie does not have a US release date, I don't think it has been picked up here, but it is coming out in the Europe this winter, but it might not come here until next year. Just have to wait and see...
