Drive

There really ought to be an Oscar category for "Best Film Noir," since it's really one of the most important categories in American cinema, and if there were I think this film would take it easily. Ryan Gosling plays an ordinary Joe with no name, some kind of unmentioned, criminal past, violent impulses, and deep down, a good heart.

In film noir heaven, Bogey is smiling.

If it's important to you that you be able to understand the plot of the movie--perhaps you have an advanced degree in particle physics and believe you should be able to follow a movie made for teenagers--then maybe you should give this a pass. There's something about one mob group hiring somebody to steal money from another mob group so they can...so they can...oh, never mind. It's really not important. Like The Big Sleep, this movie has no plot to speak of and it really doesn't matter. It's about acting. Well, okay, acting and car chases.

"Drive" is refreshing for what the characters don't say and what they don't explain. My favorite scene is where Ordinary Joe meets his pretty neighbor's husband, just home from the big house. It's pretty clear Joe has been sleeping with the neighbor, although the movie never actually shows us. So the tension is tighter than a PG&E gas line. And then the ex-con next door says to his son: "c'mon, let's go, let mommy talk to her friend." And the entire plot turns on the forgiveness that he never explicitly grants.

Did I mention there are car chases? Ordinary Joe has many jobs. He's a mechanic, he's a stunt driver for Hollywood films, and apparently he's also a getaway driver. The car chases in this film are notable for their lack of cliche. In your average car chase, it goes to eleven right away, and frankly, I get bored quickly. This is different. There is a very exciting moment in one chase scene where Joe is...stopped at a red light. Director Nicolas Winding Refn creates scenes with highs AND lows. It's breathtaking in its originality.

Since it's a film noir, there are bad guys who are much badder than Joe. One of them is played by Albert Brooks--lots of people are upset that his performance was overlooked. Personally, I can take it or leave it.

And yes, Joe will do One Last Job, as the noir hero must do in order to pay his debts and go legit, and this job will go spectacularly wrong, as it must do in order to get the screenwriter paid. If the film has a flaw, other than its inexplicable use of the totally inappropriate and illegible font Mistral, it's that Joe crosses a line that I don't think the filmmakers mean for him to cross. There's a moment when he does something very bad in front of the girl, and you can see on her face that he's lost her...and comes close to losing us, too.

We're supposed to love him for being willing to alienate her if that's what it takes to save her, but in point of fact at that moment the audience stops identifying with Joe and starts identifying with the girl: what did you do, Joe? We liked you, but you've crossed the line.

I liked Joe, and the movie. Your mileage may vary.