It’s Fall y’all. Can’t you tell by the Spring ’14 shows? I felt like doing something Mens-y. I was thinking cool, real cool, like winter cool. But in LA we get jacket weather, not really coat weather. And believe me, we’re excited by it. Oooh, I get to wear a jacket, or Ooooh, I get to wear a sweater. Fun!
So I was thinking what was a big mens-y thing I watched recently, and sadly couldn’t think of anything blog-worthy. Then I thought about “Drive,” directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Moody, atmospheric, with the lust-provoking Ryan Gosling. Oh, Ryan Gosling… When I read you were taking ballet– BALLET y’all, not hip-hop or something more masculine, at The Edge in Hollywood, just cuz- dude, you had me at changement. He is pretty f**king cool. This generation’s sensitive Steve McQueen.
Driver (he has no name in the movie), Ryan Gosling, is a stuntman/mechanic by day, driver for nefarious activities by night.
The rigid denim trucker, looks great on anyone, especially him.
Driver develops a crush on his neighbor, Irene, Carey Mulligan.
Uh… Car seat anyone? Nicely framed.
Insert woman doing tiger sound fx here. Don’t you love coveralls?
The whole film has an 80’s vibe. The music, the saturated colors look, the neo-noir feel.
There’s always a money shot, or maybe jewels or whatever. But it’s usually literally a money shot. Driver and Irene’s husband, Standard were supposed to rob a pawn shop and give the gangster he owes, the goods. But it doesn’t go so smoothly. Standard is shot dead and Driver and a gangster moll, played by Christina Hendricks, make haste.
This could be a magazine editorial shot, the reflection matches the jacket and the red door is a nice frame.
Driver wants out of this clusterfuck and shows the gangsters he means business. Nice gloves.
When you got Jewish gangsters, there’s always a Chinese restaurant scene. Driver gives Bernie Rose, Albert Brooks (!) brilliantly cast against type, his ill gotten gains.
A scuffle and ambiguous ending give “Drive,” a genre flick body, but the style and Gosling give it some extra horsepower under the hood.
