Movie Review: Drive

Nicholas Wending Refn, whose writing/directing credits already included two movies I really wanted to see (Valhalla Rising and Bronson), is the man behind Drive, the almost equal parts cool/exciting and disturbing new film starring Ryan “I’m ready for Mainstream, Again!” Gosling, the ever-talented/beautiful Carie Mulligan, and a refreshingly de-typecast Albert Brooks, to name a few.

If you’re someone who considers themselves a film enthusiast and you haven’t seen Drive yet, well, what the hell else do you have going on in your life? Work? Relationships with people? Some other form of hogwash?

 

Drive made me madly-deeply excited to go down to Los Angeles. Drive made me want to be/be-with Ryan Gosling (in almost equally confusing measure). Drive made me want to buy driving gloves and wear my shiny Starter Michigan jacket and cruise around in my ‘84 BMW while wearing sunglasses (at night). Drive made me want to get my watch fixed so that I could have it ticking away while my left (gloved) hand rested on my '84 BMW's steering wheel. Drive made me want to live next door to Carie Mulligan and help her take care of her kid and make out with her in our apartment complex’s elevator. Drive made me wish I could actually write stuff like Nicolas Winding Refn without feeling like a shameless poser. Drive made me happy to be a movie-goer (one of two films to successfully accomplish this feat this year, the other being Midnight in Paris).

In case you can’t tell, I really liked Drive and would gladly fork over some more of my hard-earned $-$ to see it again in theaters. The cinematography, the music, the acting, all of it just totally effused cool, even if Winding Refn’s story suffered somewhat from what I’d call a “closed loop” problem (i.e., its universe was definitely a closed one and I was made awkwardly aware of that fact at a crucial turn in the film; for an explanation of why this is be a problem in/for a story, go watch yourself some Inception).

           Mark my words, Drive will be one of the defining films of/for our generation. The reason I say and believe this with such pompous conviction is because Drive managed to (1) successfully tap into one of what I understand to be our generation’s core problematics/fantasies and (2) proceed to develop said problematic/fantasy into a Hero and a Hero-Arc to match. This is precisely why yours truly, in addition to thinking Drive was super cool/exciting, also found it quite disturbing.
   

What’s the problematic? How to respond to our culture's hyper-manic Awareness of Audience, i.e., our hysteria. In the event that you have absolutely no idea what I mean about when I say “hyper-manic Awareness of Audience” go and check out Andrew Foster Altschul’s Deus Ex Machina, or, if you’re not a big reader, go and watch like two minutes of literally any “reality” TV show. Still not quite sure what I'm talking about? Then ask yourself the following question: How many times a day do I, in order to figure out what to do/how to act/what to say, try and figure out what others' percepctions of my doings/actings/sayings may/may not be? How many times a day do I adjust my doings/actings/sayings accordingly? If your answer to this last question is either "a lot" or "isn't that what I'm supposed to do?" then go and read David Foster Wallace's "Good Old Neon" to see where this ethical-train is probably leading you. If you're not a big reader, then, well, just take my word for it: This is one of our generation's core problematics.
             What's the fantasy that Drive gives us that's rooted in the above problematic? Well, of course, it’s multivalent...

First valence (for The Guys in the theater, so to speak): That someone Wonderful, someone Worthy (Carrie Mulligan’s character), will become Interested in us (Ryan Gosling’s character) and see through our pronounced, intentional Autism--an Autism that seems to increasingly be put forward as one of our generation’s best and only available responses to the above problematic and which amounts to nothing less than a refusal to "play the game"--and actually do something to get to Know/Understand us better (e.g., C. Mulligan’s tracking R. Gosling down at his work place).

          Second valence (also for The Guys): That someone else (Bryan Cranston’s character), perhaps a group of someones (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman’s characters), perhaps a group of someones with Money (ditto), will also see through our pronounced autism and see the Skill/Gift/Power, i.e., Value that we've hidden away and reward us with recognition and/or with Money.
          The fantasy's first two valences are best captured/most typified and played-into by two of the film’s songs, both of which are given full plays within the film itself:

• First the Kavinsky song “NIGHTCALL”, which for yours truly highlights the film’s damn-near perfect score (composed by Cliff Martinez), whose chorus, as sung by a female vocalist (Lovefoxx), goes, “There’s something inside you, it’s hard to explain... They’re talking about you boy, but you’re still the same.”
• Second the Desire song “Under Your Spell”, whose chorus, as sung by a female vocalist, goes “I don’t eat... I don’t sleep... I do nothing but think of youuuuu... You’ve got me under your spell, you’ve got me under your spell, you’ve got me under your spell...” (which had a somewhat ironic part of it edited out in/for the film-version of the song, for those of you who’re curious).

The third valence (for The Ladies, so to speak): That in seeing through someone else’s Autism and actually doing something to get to Know that person better, we won’t be making a tragic and/or fatal Mistake (i.e., wind up under the spell of a psycho-killer, e.g.).

            The fourth valence (again, for The Guys): That we will (1) be given an Opportunity to break out of our Autism and do something Heroic, i.e., manifest our Skill/Gift/Power/Value for the sake of the somebody or something actually Worthy and Wonderful (i.e., Carrie Mulligan and Fam. and not Albert Brooks and Co.), and (2) that we will then actually go and do said Heroic thing, thereby Proving the Worth of the Worthy's almost entirely speculative Interest/Investment in us.
            The third and fourth valences of the fantasy of the film really culminate in the other of the film’s big three songs, this one by the band College. It’s called “A Real Hero”, and the chorus, also sung by a female vocalist, goes, “Back against, the wall is ours...With the strength of a willing cause... A pursuit some called outstanding... Or emotionally complex... Against a grain... Left to stop at claims... Of the thoughts your actions entertain... And you, have proved, to be... A real human being... And a real hero.”

The fantasy that Drive gives us is thus two-fold: for "the guys," it's that we can address our generational-cultural Hysteria by adopting kind of intentional Autism and not only still be Valued by someone/something Wonderful/Worthy, but also eventually be given an Opportunity to do something Heroic and, thereby, Prove our own Value/our Inverstor’s initial Speculation r.e. us; for "the ladies," it's that we shouldn't be afraid to be interested in *gulp* Autistic people, they're probably the people with the most to offer in return for our Interest/I... n... v... e... s... t... m... e... n... t.
             As far as fantasies go, this is some pretty powerful sh*t. It's also precisely why I think Drive has been a movie on so many people's minds these past few weeks, and why it will continue to be a movie on our generation's mind for years to come.

   

The reason why I find Drive and its/our fantasy so disturbing isn’t merely because it signals the total reduction of the romantic relationship to the dynamics of an almost entirely speculative investment model (it does, f.y.i.), nor because I think it ultimately locks people into exactly the kind of appearance-driven relationships they were trying to get away from when they decided to go into Autistic-Mode (ask yourself: Would C. Mulligan's character have taken any interest in R. Gosling's had he not been fricking RYAN GOSLING?!?), but because it used to be my fantasy and I know where it took me and what life was like when I got there: