Review: Drive

Ryan Gosling plays Driver (one order of existentialism, please) a stunt driver by day and getaway driver by night, a loner that meets and falls for Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her young son (Kaden Leos). Her ex-husband (Oscar Isaac) is an ex-con who’s in debt to the wrong people. Gosling plays the mysterious wheelman perfectly radiating much of what Clint Eastwood had in High Plains Drifter and Pale Rider. While this movie could have easily been about fast cars and loose women director Nicholas Winding Refn (Bronson) showed great restraint and focused instead on the core of the story; Driver giving into his urges.

Bryan Cranston takes time-off his fatherly duties on Breaking Bad to play the fatherly mentor figure to Driver. Likeable and yet at the back of your mind a voice whispers “don’t trust him”. However, the true delight, and surprise, is Albert Brooks in a tour de force that screams Oscar. Playing against type Brooks is Bernie Rose a former movie producer turned loan shark. Just like the movie that spawned him he is an unsuspecting villain; pragmatic and borderline psychotic. Who knew Brooks would be more of a badass than Ron Perlman?

The slow story may be detrimental to Drive’s box office earnings but it only makes the violence ever more epic and more gruesome than anything seen in the Saw movies, simply because it’s unexpected. Lets not fool ourselves, violence is an urge and however you may feel about it when it explodes on screen try not to cringe.

Refn has laid cinema bare before us and allowed us a peak at what the art form can truly accomplish much like Tarantino once did all those many years ago; a pure cinema of images and actions. Or you may just think it’s nonsense. Drive is a polarizer, probably its best quality.

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Review: The Ides of March

“As goes Ohio so goes the nation,” an unseen Rachel Maddow (the only person I trust to tell me about American politics) explains to her audience and lets us know of the importance of Ohio for Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris (George Clooney) who is fighting a tough Democratic primary against Senator Pullman (Michael Mantell) in the state. Morris an apparent ideal candidate, and a slick campaigner, long ago lost his idealism, the price of life in politics, echoes of Obama in 2008 (right down to the posters). The job of putting the Governor into the oval office is up to campaign manager Paul Zara (the ever reliable Philip Seymour Hoffman) and press secretary Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling). In their way, at the moment, is strategist Tom Duffy (a calculating Paul Giamatti) who aims to lure Stephen over to Pullman’s campaign. In the midst of this is the temptation offered by sexy young intern Molly Stearns (Evan Rachel Wood – Queen Sophie-Anne for all you True Blood fans) who may have bedded more than her fair share of campaigners.

Based on the 2008 play Farragut North by Beau Willimon, who worked on the 2004 presidential candidacy of Howard Dean, Clooney changed the title to allude to the warning given to Cesar by a Soothsayer who had foreseen his demise in Shakespeare’s Julius Cesar. A rather apt choice for a movie based on the lust for power, the corruption of one’s soul and loss of innocence. While these have become clichés in political dramas Clooney (as director and part of the team that wrote the screenplay) delves deeper into the matter through Stephen’s fall from grace much like in The Candidate which charted the corruption of Robert Redford’s Bill Mckay.

Gossling moves marvellously through the calm and collected big man on campus to the frantic and wild pariah feeding off Clooney’s chillingly perfect portrayal of a man who’s moved that line in the sand once too often. While the acting is exemplary and Clooney should be applauded for putting together a stellar cast the slow moving story may be a barrier for some but be warned that no scene is superfluous and with every minute he scratches the surface of his flawed characters to reveal the price of their souls. He is able to build momentum patiently and in one final swoop allows it to erupt when Stephen confronts Paul and the movie suddenly hits fifth gear.

Now confident in his ability George Clooney’s fourth outing as a director has yielded a subtle political thriller in The Ides of March. His minimal camera movements, little time on exposition and riveting storytelling is a delight but may leave some off-balance – so pay close attention you won’t regret it.

Review: Crazy, Stupid, Love

(via Collider)

Romantic comedies are a genre long since devoid of creativity and originality which is what makes Crazy Stupid Love remarkable. While the movie flirts with cliché it never truly crosses over with directors Glenn Ficarra and John Requa (I Love You Phillip Morris) daringly walking that razors edge without blinking.

Steve Carrel plays Cal Weaver an unfashionable 40-something who’s slept with only one woman. That would be Emily (Julian Moore) his wife who’s tired of being taken for granted so much so that she sleeps with co-worker David Lindhagen (the ever reliable Kevin Bacon seeming to find his niche as a douche these days) and promptly kicks Cal to the curb. From the ashes of Cal’s crumbling world rises Jacob Palmer (the comically apt Ryan Gosling – apparently omnipresent in 2011), a smooth talking and Old Fashion drinking player of the highest calibre. You see where this is going – or do you? Like I said it flirts with cliché. While Miyagi-ing Cal Jacob falls for hard to get Hannah (the beautiful Emma Stone) and like cream the love and the crazy rise to the surface.

This touching story of first love, lasting love and all the loves in between is a cut above. Don’t let the title fool you there is nothing stupid about this movie.

New Gangster Squad trailer

Now with 100% less theater shootings and 50% more family friendly gun violence. I’m assuming there is such a thing.
Following the July Aurora shooting Gangster Squad changed its release date to January, removed the theater shooting that took place in the original print and reshot a few scenes. We’ll probably have to wait a few years to see what impact the new scenes have on the movie but the trailer is looking sharp. While Ryan Gosling took up most of the trailer much of its gravitas came from Nolte (Who’s looking more like The Thing from Fantastic Four these days. Just scary.) and Penn (who’s in a league of scary of his own). Brolin was almost missable. However, I trust we’ll see more of him in the movie.

 

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In theaters January 11

New Gangster Squad images

New images for Warner Bros’ Gangster Squad starring Sean Penn, Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling have been released.

(via the official website)

Here’s the official synopsis:

“Los Angeles, 1949. Ruthless, Brooklyn-born mob king Mickey Cohen (Sean Penn) runs the show in this town, reaping the ill-gotten gains from the drugs, the guns, the prostitutes and—if he has his way—every wire bet placed west of Chicago. And he does it all with the protection of not only his own paid goons, but also the police and the politicians who are under his control. It’s enough to intimidate even the bravest, street-hardened cop…except, perhaps, for the small, secret crew of LAPD outsiders led by Sgt. John O’Mara (Josh Brolin) and Jerry Wooters (Ryan Gosling), who come together to try to tear Cohen’s world apart.“

Directed by Ruben Fleischer (Zombieland) from a screenplay by Will Beall (TV’s Castle) Gangster Squad is described as “a colorful retelling of events surrounding the LAPD’s efforts to take back their nascent city from one of the most dangerous mafia bosses of all thime.”

It also stars:

“Oscar® nominee Nick Nolte (“Affliction,” “The Prince of Tides”) as LAPD Chief “Whiskey Bill” Parker; Emma Stone as Grace Faraday, Cohen’s moll and the object of Wooters’ attention; Robert Patrick (“Flags of Our Fathers”) as Officer Max Kennard, a deadly cop who patrols the Olvera Street beat; Michael Peña (“Battle Los Angeles”) as Kennard’s over-eager sidekick, Navidad Ramirez; Giovanni Ribisi (“Avatar”) as the force’s Conway Keeler, an electronics expert who takes as much pleasure in fixing his son’s bike as he does tinkering with experimental, military-grade equipment; and Anthony Mackie (“The Adjustment Bureau”) as Coleman Harris, a switchblade-wielding cop who proudly patrols one of the most crime-ridden areas of the city.“

In theaters on September 7.

Gangster Squad trailer

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