A Movie I Had Never Seen Until Yesterday
Added 2021-09-02 23:13:31 +0000 UTCI admit I never saw Nicolas Refn's DRIVE (2011) for one very good reason: My younger brother was a huge fan of it when we were teens and naturally...I had to ignore it completely purely out of spite. You know...like big sister's do. He even has a replica version of the scorpion silk jacket. But I finally watched it last night. Have some initial reactions that have been marinating the last 24 hours. Surprisingly, I actually saw ONLY GOD FORGIVES (2013) a couple years ago. So...strange reversal. What do you guys think of DRIVE? And overall what are your impressions of Refn's work?
Comments
I've never really been a fan. I understand the appeal of DRIVE and appreciate its place in the early-mid 2010s "synthwave" aesthetic, but I'd much rather watch THE DRIVER (1978). Way more entertaining. His later films in the 2010s were even less successful genre exercises that barely conceal his misogyny under layers of art cinema tropes.
Grant Phipps
2021-09-06 08:41:32 +0000 UTCHm...I guess aesthetic is such a commodity at this point...that I'm not particularly enamored with Refn. There are many I think who do it better.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-06 02:55:01 +0000 UTCLove Drive and Bronson a lot, found Neon Demon and Only God Forgives quite interesting despite not being on the same level. Refn’s not much of a writer but goddamn can he creare atmosphere and aesthetic.
Dan Tedesco
2021-09-05 19:47:26 +0000 UTCOff topic: get into modeling, Maggie! Your channel, your IG, would EXPLODE!! In a good way!! Trust me!!
Tony Moro
2021-09-04 18:34:43 +0000 UTCHaha, it’s times like this that I wish I could engage in conversation with you on the matter. Though he’s by no means my favorite actor, I could make a case for Ryan Gosling being a better actor, or at least a star, than you give him credit for. Of course, I’m sure you can make the case for the opposite. In fact, I think you’ve done so in a past video. But I’ll happily meet you on common ground regarding Gosling and share with you a quality of his that has at times very much annoyed me: his voice, or rather, his “accent.” That faux-New York tough guy way of speaking that, at its worst, comes off as an affectation, like he’s trying to sound like Mickey Rourke (1980s era) or something. It can drive me up the wall. Josh Brolin, who thankfully doesn’t hold back on matters like this, hilariously called him out on it in an interview, recounting how when he talked to him, all he could think was, “You know you’re from Canada, right?”
Bennett Oliver
2021-09-04 01:41:20 +0000 UTCI am very judgmental on film fans who want to impress others with arcane filmic vocabulary which really acts as gatekeeping. In my experience, fans of Drive are reliably that exact person and it's always very frustrating. That said I've been called too negative before so you're not wrong.
Arthur Augustyn
2021-09-04 00:53:35 +0000 UTCI admired aspects of it, though it did basically nothing at all for me emotionally. And rarely was I compelled by any of it. I've seen way better post-modern genre movie attempts crossing the euro dreaminess and the rugged American action archetypes. However, I feel like a lot of the anger in your words is perhaps misguided (with all due respect). It's just a film. No one can predict the outcomes of these things and how the legacy will pan out. People like it. I may disagree...but I don't consider fans of it insufferable (unless they bully me personally for disagreeing with them). I just feel like...a lot of those people haven't seen a lot of good arthouse thrillers. But with A24 now, it's kind of a dime a dozen.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-03 23:25:20 +0000 UTCAn ex always wanted me to see Drive. So I finally indulged him. We are still friends, so we had a discussion about it.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-03 23:21:19 +0000 UTCI totally agree with you. Only God Forgives for me felt like pure fetishization of aesthetic and nothing beyond that. The pretentiousness of his work really reduces its impact a lot. I thought about Le Samourai.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-03 23:20:23 +0000 UTCI agree with you on a lot of this. However I can't agree with what you say about Gosling being magnetic. For me nothing about him seems cool, steely, magnetic. However, I did find his awkwardness around Carey Mulligan and her son quite believable actually. Ironically it was his humanity coming through that saved it for me. Which is normally not how I respond to him.
Deepfocuslens
2021-09-03 23:18:33 +0000 UTCReminded me of when Louise from Bob's Burgers dressed up as Ryan Gosling from the major motion picture trailer Drive as she was too young to actually see the movie.
Ronet Jankovski
2021-09-03 15:27:30 +0000 UTCThief it is not
jared Clarke
2021-09-03 11:24:31 +0000 UTCI saw it in the theater and hated it for being euro arthouse bullshit. Stare Porn and Pretension: The Film. Made worse by its insufferable fanbase, and I'm referring to the Refn stans who say its an artistic masterpiece not the /b/tards who post absolutely hysterical green texts about acting autistic by pretending to be the Driver in real life. That said, I think you have a higher appreciation for this kind of movie than me so I wouldn't be surprised if you enjoyed it (more visual storytelling, ambiguity, etc.). I've tried giving it a second and third shot but each time I'm disappointed.
Arthur Augustyn
2021-09-03 01:02:02 +0000 UTCAfter Fight Club, I’m sensing a pattern here. Are you re-evaluating your brother’s taste in films?
Bennett Oliver
2021-09-03 00:34:34 +0000 UTCOverall, I'm not the biggest fan of Refn based on the three films of his that I've seen - Drive, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon. I saw Drive when it came out and liked it quite a bit then, but it's been a decade since it came out and I imagine I might have different feelings about it today after having seen Walter Hill's The Driver and Jean Pierre Melville's Le Samourai. I hated Only God Forgives and felt like a lot of it was for shock value rather than actually telling a good story. I felt the same way about The Neon Demon but didn't hate it as much, the story had a little more substance. I definitely think he's talented as a director, very good at setting a tone, but some of the choices he makes when it comes to his scripts often make him seem like a poser who is trying to imitate the filmmakers that influenced him like David Lynch and various genre filmmakers. I guess you could say I dislike him in the same way detractors of Tarantino do. All style, no substance. In general, I'm not really interested in seeing any of his new films, but I am curious about Bronson and the movies he made with Mads Mikkelsen. Also his interview with David Poland is one of the cringiest things I've ever seen.
Stephen
2021-09-03 00:28:08 +0000 UTCI enjoyed it quite a bit. The score obviously was pretty amazing. The cast was rock solid, ESPECIALLY Albert Brooks who CRUSHED it!! The action scenes were top notch and really violent, but never felt cartoony or whatnot. It was gritty and brutal. I thought the pace would kill me, but, that was one of the best parts of the film, which allowed a ton of tension to crank up. It really reminded me of an even slower paced Mad Max 1 but in a good way.
Tony Moro
2021-09-03 00:10:51 +0000 UTCI actually enjoyed this
Tony Moro
2021-09-03 00:08:15 +0000 UTCI think it’s a cool, enjoyable film, but not the masterpiece that everyone says it is. Refn gives the film a moody, retro-synth style that’s reminiscent of the early Michael Mann, especially in that great opening scene, which is like a bravura, masterful short film built into the rest of the movie (better than anything in Baby Driver). Given that he’s not required to give a performance so much as project a presence, Ryan Gosling is pretty solid in the lead. Whatever you may think of his acting abilities, he’s handsome and magnetic enough to give off the steely cool vibes of, say, McQueen or Alain Delon. But despite him and a nice against-type performance by Albert Brooks, the film starts to go downhill for me once it turns violent, and poor Joan gets her head blown off. I know graphic violence is something of a staple for Refn, and I can enjoy a good splatter sequence like anyone else, but I thought it was a big misstep for the film, the wrong direction to go. It needed to stay on the road. That’s what Gosling’s character—and the film—does best.
Bennett Oliver
2021-09-02 23:58:51 +0000 UTCDrive is his masterpiece. Everything before is not so stylized and everything afterwards he delves deeper into his auteur style
Ryan
2021-09-02 23:17:30 +0000 UTC
