Blood. Music. Ryan.

USA, 2011
Directed by Nicolas Winding RefnWritten by Hossein Amini★ Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston
        
Even though DRIVE has only been a moderate success at the box office, it's already considered a cult classic by its fans. Once they saw Ryan Gosling driving around in L.A. at night time to the blooming electronic beats of Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx, they were hooked. So was I.
While few films truly live out their ideas, DRIVE has its own spirit that shines through in every single scene. The extreme brutality may seem arty to some viewers, to me it was just perfect. A little shocking at times, but nevertheless perfectly right.
The complete contrast to the brutality is existent in many calm and slow scenes, and both sides are connected in the character of the Driver, who is a quiet yet two-fisted person. If you haven't been falling for Ryan Gosling yet, this movie will certainly make you. Ryan is the greatest star of the movie, taking the spotlight from every single one of the excellent supporting actors and actresses. His character is best described in the lyrics of one of the hyper-cool songs of the soundtrack: „A real human being, and a real hero“.
Though he shows traces of humanity by falling in love with Carey Mulligan's character and being wounded a few times, the Driver is an invincible hero. Maybe it's this utterly cool hero that I've been missing in many films of the recent times, at least he's one of the main reasons why I loved DRIVE. The way his silver jacket with the golden scorpion shines in the light, the dark sunglasses that hide his beautiful blue eyes, and his calm smile... absolutely everything about him is so perfect it hurts.
It is hard for me to write about a film I love, and therefore, this review isn't very long. I want to apologize for this, but the words just won't come... it's only emotions, sounds and images in my head. The pink letters, the short yet always perfectly fitting dialogue, the moment when me and my mom couldn't bear the absurd brutality anymore and were caught by a fit of laughter in the theater... which, in case you would like to know, was after one of the gangsters hit a fork into the eye of another gangster.
The haunting alternation of silence and slaughter, and the moment when everything was over and I realized how outstanding this movie is.

I always fear to be too impulsive rating movies, therefore the rating is a bit lower than I  would actually like it to be.