I saw the Nicholas Winding Refn-directed movie Drive this week. It’s really great. **No spoilers ahead.**
If you’re already familiar with Ryan Gosling’s outstanding performances in Half Nelson and Blue Valentine, you won’t be surprised to see him delivering subtle complexity and outright intensity in his role as “The Driver.” Carey Mulligan, another actor who seems incapable of anything short of brilliance, is impeccable as the leading lady. Her signature heart-melting smile is the perfect cinematic antidote to Ryan Goslin’s brooding glare. A sputtering Bryan Cranston, a demonic Albert Brooks and a disheveled Christina Hendricks are a top-notch supporting cast.
The tempo of Drive is a large part of what makes the movie work so well. It could have so easily formed in the relentless grind of so many action flicks. But that’s not Drive… knowing very little about it before entering the theater, I at times mistook the movie for several other kinds of movie, all the while enjoying whatever I was feeling. It needs to be seen again.
Ask anyone who’s seen it and they’ll mention the fantastic soundtrack, filled with electronic dream pop that contributes a steady stream of cool comfort under the movie’s often blazing heat.
“A Real Hero” by College feat. Electric Youth is the movie’s main theme. I love it… and it reminds me a lot of a song I did with my former band Red Abbott, called “The Spare Room.” We, as a band, had always planned to do more songs like this, but now we don’t really need to.
Here’s “A Real Hero.”
