February 5th , 2012
Man, last month was great for new releases!
Two of them--Moneyball and The Ides Of March--may make my best of 2012 list, one of them--Drive--aboslutely will.
One of the reasons Moneyball was remarkable because it employs one of Hollywood's biggest stars (Brad Pitt, also one of the world's "sexiest men", apparently) and his portrayal of Billy Beane has no flash or glamour. At all. He is just a man in a circumstance. He reminded me of my brother in law, actually. Just a dude. Smart, certainly, but not some sort of icon or paragon like Hollywood usually tries to turn any of it's characters into.

Ryan Gosling stars in both The ides Of March and Drive and I think it benefits you to see the former before you watch the latter. Gosling's performance in Ides is all about his eyes. He's a slick, brainy political campaign manager who is in control until someone catches him in a lie. His body stay relaxed but his eyes show a real sequence of thought occurring in his head. Very subtle and a pleasure to watch.
In Drive, his portrayal of "The Driver" is the direct opposite of the one he gives in Ides. It's all about tension--in his jaw, his shoulders. He moves with complete deliberation until the moment comes when the situation demands he drop his reserve and all hell breaks loose.
I have been telling people--and I've been talking about this film non-stop for days so I'm almost sick of saying it--that watching this movie was reminiscent of the first time I saw Pulp Fiction. It felt like I was seeing something brand new, though it is largely influenced by the films from the 1980s directed by Michael Mann.
It's obviously the work of a director who is totally in control of his abilities who had a singular vision from day one and it remains, uncompromised to the very last frame, the last scrap of music.
Brilliant stuff.

Drive was not even nominated in any of the major categories for this year's Oscars which is ridiculous, but when you see the other nominees, maybe not so much. The last few months of 2011 was awash with very high quality films and they are justly being recognized. Drive just should have been in there too.

Thanks for reading,
Rob