At Home: Drive

I don’t sit in while you’re running it down. I don’t carry a gun. I drive.

Inspired (you would think) by Michael Mann’s crime opuses, Drive is economical in its story and its characters, surprising in an age of cinema where bigger is better and loud noises and explosions are more attractive than a deft, moody homage to 80s crime movies like Thief and To Live and Die in LA.

A lot of that is down to Nicholas Winding Refn’s direction and Ryan Gosling’s performance as the distant, enigmatic Driver (joining a list of characters with that name). It’s slow, with little action and small, sharp bursts of bloodletting. Watching Drive in the cinemas I thought it was a little too much style over substance. I still think that’s the case. Nonetheless the style showcased here makes for a dreamy (yup, that’s right), neon lit ride that’s more memorable for the moods it evokes than anything it says, or, in the case of Driver, doesn’t say.

Drive drops the viewer in the midst of night-time robbery and if you know anything about screenwriting, then you’ll know that the first scene invariably sets the mood of the film and the sets up the character. Gosling’s Driver is unflappable and cool, defined by his distinct lack of exertion or trace of worry on his face. He only opens his mouth when he has something of interest to say and that kind of action (or inaction) is a microcosm of the film as a whole. It barely wastes a moment on conveying how Driver’s life implodes after he meets his next door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan), how that interaction meshes with her husband Standard (Oscar Isaac) and gangster/businessman Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks).

Brooks is probably best known for his comedic work (Weeds, Finding Nemo, The Simpsons) but he uproots that image here with an uncompromising gangster who, like many other characters in the film, is economical in his actions, choosing his moment to strike and exposing any perceived weaknesses in the people he meets.

Like the cars that Driver mends and, well… drives, Refn’s film feels polished. Several licks of paint in the form of Thomas Newton Siegel’s natural lighting of scenes and some nice electronic, wispy sounds from composer Cliff Martinez in his score (especially in the backstage club scene). It’s like those films made before CGI, y’know, the ones that focused on character and tone rather than suspension of disbelief and cacophonous explosions.

Drive isn’t an easy film to describe or pigeon-hole (a neo-noir? Western? A fairy tale!?) but it is full of fantastically shot sequences (the beach scene is terrific) and a soundscape that’s hardly noticeable until it makes its presence known in an unequivocal manner.  Refn’s previous may have been a little too dull and opaque but here he strikes a more interesting combination of tone and aesthetic. The kind of film you could watch again and again.

8/10

At Home: Crazy, Stupid, Love

I’m going to help you rediscover your manhood. Do you have any idea where you could have lost it?

Just in time for Valentine’s Day Crazy, Stupid, Love aims to sweep you on off your feet and whisper to you cloying messages about love, soul mates and, erm, masturbation.

It is a film that searches for love in every nook and cranny, not looking for answers but poking its head in, observing and then bounding off to the next storyline. It has at least four of them and it is with some difficulty that it manages to incorporate them into one satisfying whole.

It kicks off when Julianne Moore’s Emily asks husband Cal (Steve Carell) for a divorce during a romantic dinner. Storyline number two centres around Ryan Gosling’s womanising Jacob who sees a pitiful Cal drowning his sorrows at a bar and takes it upon himself to reinvigorate him. Storyline number three concerns Jacob and Emma Stone’s Hannah, who is told her romantic life is like a PG-13 film and is urged to find someone who’s a little dangerous. Storyline number four (wipes brow) revolves around Cal’s son Robbie (Jonah Bobo), a soppy kid who believes in soul mates and is infatuated with his babysitter Jessica (Analeigh Tipton) who in turn has a crush on Cal.

Crazy, Stupid, Love is a good example of ‘busy filmmaking’, flooding its narrative with as many stars as possible and letting the charm, sincerity and cheese roll off the screen. It’s not to the level of Gary Marshall’s concoction of awful that was Valentine’s Day and New Year’s Eve but screenwriter Dan Fogelman hasn’t come up with an adequate solution of juggling the story’s multiple threads. Some characters provide comedic relief, others behave in an annoying manner and there’s the sensation that some are ciphers lacking substance.

That being said directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Philip Morris) keep it light and cheerful with fun jokes and some touching moments, managing to draw a good deal of chemistry from their cast. Bursting at the seams, the script by Fogelman is an interesting look at love through the eyes of each generation. Cal and Emily’s relationship has lost its spark after seventeen years. Hannah and Jacob’s storyline is like alchemy, changing the very essence of their nature. Robbie and Jessica’s is about young love and infatuations that aren’t reciprocated. Surprises are in short supply but the actors generate a lot of goodwill in place of the script’s failings.

The lasting impression of Crazy, Stupid, Love is that it has too much on its plate. Kevin Bacon’s David Lindhagen, John Carroll Lynch’s Bernie and Marisa Tomei’s pedantic Kate are forgettable. I haven’t even started on the ending; one that’s artery clogging and provides the platform for a soppy speech that drags the ending on and on.

So while Crazy, Stupid, Love is bloated, it entertains; where the script trips over its surfeit of characters, the actors rescue it with their charm. Enjoyable fluff.

7/10

At Home: Blue Valentine

Tell me how I should be. Just tell me. I’ll do it.

What happens when the love is gone? According to Blue Valentine it’s filled with arguments, breakdowns in communication and a heart-rending attempt to fix a marriage beyond repair. Derek Cianfrance’s drama plays a bit like (500) Days of Summer except it’s packing a devastating punch to the gut.

With last year’s NC-17 controversy in the US firmly behind it and a solid amount of awards and nominations in its locker, Blue Valentine now exists as a film that offers insight in to the nature of modern relationships.  It’s unflinchingly raw as hopes and aspirations are derailed by reality; where rom-coms opt for fantasy as truth Valentine gets into the nitty-gritty, looking at two flawed characters who struggle to do what came so easily to them when they first met.

Ryan Gosling plays Dean, a once charming and good looking man who’s slipped into mediocrity. His wife Cindy, played by Michelle Williams, is a nurse who’s struggling to keep up a convincing facade to their marriage. The film shifts between the past (when they first met) and the present (their subsequent marriage), displaying the physical and emotional changes both have undergone, leaving the audience to wonder what happened to a relationship that had so much promise.

It’s not upbeat, favouring an authentic and harsh look at love and taking the characters into territory that’s hard to watch (one “sex scene” in particular is as far away from loving as you can get). What affects most is Dean’s attempt to salvage the marriage by taking Cindy to a couple’s motel, staving off the reason as to why their relationship has encountered difficulties by trying to rekindle a moment in their lives that’s gone. Like the motel room they stay in (the future room), their marriage is staid and artificial, with tender moments replaced by animosity. Gosling and Williams are both excellent and the low-fi look of the film adds to the realism, encasing their honest performances in a reality you don’t find in more mainstream films.

Blue Valentine is about missed opportunities, disappointments and responsibility (to each other) revolving around finding love that works. There’s one insightful scene with Williams and her character’s grandmother where she admits she never found love and it’s reflected in Cindy’s own parents, a partnership that’s fractious and untenable (interestingly, Cindy’s mother is nowhere to be seen in the present day scenes). Cianfrance delves into the things people don’t want to hear, let alone admit. Love is an intangible, ephemeral thing; if you don’t make it last it could end up wrecking you.

9/10

Trailer watch: beware The Ides of March

George Clooney, political drama, Oscars?

I think that’s a logical way of assessing this trailer for The Ides of March as with the cast assembled and the subject being discussed (just what secret does Clooney’s President-elect Mark Morris wish to conceal?), this looks heavy on the political intrigue and backstabbing that I’m assuming happens a fair bit in the political world. Personally I’m digging this trailer (that makes me sound like some bad 80s character) and its full of very dependable (and likable) actors. We’ll see how this one fares at the festivals that it’ll no doubt be showing at through the autumn and winter.

George Clooney in The Ides of March

Paul Giamatti in The Ides of March

Rachel Evan Wood and Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March

Marsia Tomei in The Ides of March

Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Ides of March

George Clooney in The Ides of March

Paul Giamatti in The Ides of March

Rachel Evan Wood and Ryan Gosling in The Ides of March

Marsia Tomei in The Ides of March

Philip Seymour Hoffman in The Ides of March

Trailer watch: Drive accelerates (cough, cough) into view

Are you excited for Drive? Because if this trailer doesn’t get you the least bit interested I’m not sure what will. Bowing at Cannes to critics plaudits and winning the Best Director award for Nicholas Winding Refn, Drive starring Ryan Gosling, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Carey Mulligan, Oscar Isaacs and Christina Hendricks is released on UK shores on the 23rd September. Looking classy and moody at the same time, Drive looks to be a respite (thankfully) from the bigger budget spectacle we’ve been seeing of the last few months. If you want to see more from Refn I’d suggest watching Bronson, not a film I love but Tom Hardy’s performance in that film is something to behold. Drive races into UK cinemas on September 23rd.

Bryan Cranston in Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive

Albert Brooks in Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive

Christina Hendricks in Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive

Ron Perlman in Nicholas Winding Refn's Drive

Ron Perlman in Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive

Albert Brooks in Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive

Christina Hendricks in Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive