Drive: Feel the Heat (Influence)
Living in Singapore, I catch a lot of movies - even the ones I’m dying to see - later than I’d like. Drive, released months ago but just now available on iTunes, is a case in point.
Two quick thoughts on one of my favorite movies of 2011:
1. I’m not that familiar with the work of director Nicolas Winding Refn, but I’m guessing - and it really is a guess - that he’s a Michael Mann fan.
Los Angeles as a character unto itself, a hazy, dreamlike world with a seedy underbelly. Morally conflicted criminals who live and die by masculine codes. Synth-heavy compositions overlaying nearly wordless action. It’s all there in Drive - but also in Collateral and, for my money Mann’s best film, Heat.
Many examples, but here’s one: seeing Ryan Gosling’s unnamed getaway driver weaving his way through LA freeways brought to mind Al Pacino’s Lieutenant Hanna pursuing Robert DeNiro’s Neil McCauley with a police helicopter overhead, finally pulling McCauley over and inviting him to a historic cup of coffee (the first scene ever shared by these two actors). From the adrenalized soundtrack to the driver POV shots to the sense that the car we’re in is the coolest place in LA at that moment, these scenes share a lot.
The key to Drive’s power, however, is the feel of homage done right, evocative yet distinct. I’ll remember it both for what it reminded me of and for what set it completely apart, and viewers will no doubt be reminded of Drive when they see a certain kind of movie for years to come.
2. The entire cast is fantastic, from an underplaying Gosling to the great Bryan Cranston to a barely recognizable Christina Hendricks. But spare a thought for Albert Brooks, who got absolutely rooked by the Academy.
Brooks reminded me of Bill Murray here. No, Murray hasn’t played any brutal killers lately. But both are legendary comic actors who reveal in their more serious, later career roles the world weariness, the borderline depression, that has always driven their comedy. They have a depth of character that’s hard earned and nearly impossible to fake.
How many Oscars have been given out as glorified career achievement awards? How can you not throw a nomination Brooks’ way for that alone? (Seriously, do yourself a favor and watch Lost in America sometime.)
