Drive
I need to get in the habit of updating. I've been saying this for the best part of 3 years now but never quite got round to doing it. So to end 2011, I'm going to try and do a few entries about particular things I enjoyed this year.
So to start...favourite movie of 2011.
Some years this would be a tough choice but not this year - it has to be Drive with Ryan Gosling. If you have watched the trailer and thought it looked like one to miss then I dont blame you - I initially thought it was going to be like the Fast and Furious and was really surprised when Refn won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival. There might be car chases - two of them - but they dont drag on too long and the first one at the start of the movie is really quite gripping. I should stop pretending otherwise - i was brought up on a diet of the A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard and Knightrider...a good car chase will always have a place in my heart - i'm just avoiding placing too much importance on the inclusion of a car chase or two. ;-)
Anyway it is basically the story of a Hollywood stunt driver who has a side job as getaway driver. He is an enigmatic loner who falls in love with his neighbour then through helping her husband out gets in trouble with some gangsters. It is basically a modern film noir mixed with European art house with some pretty graphic violence in places. The Driver (we never find out his name) might be a psychopath, but godamnit he is one cool psycho and after watching it i walked out the cinema wanting to get a white satin jacket with a scorpion on the back, wear driving gloves, aviator shades and chew on toothpicks.
Gosling plays the part very well (and was also impressive in the Ides of March which was released around the same time)...he is one of the better actors about at the moment. Once the fame, celebrity and acclaim take a grip things tend to change and it is harder to ignore the associated baggage that their celebrity image or past roles bring. Can you remember the last time the likes of Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson or Robert de Niro played a role that wasn't them playing a variation of themselves? Yet they were all once good actors. But Gosling isn't at that stage yet so it is just nice to see someone hit their stride and still not have the whole "movie star persona" behind the role.
Anyway back to Drive. Not only is the film good, the soundtrack is worth a mention too. I particularly liked the inclusion of Tick of the Clock by the Chromatics in the opening scene (which is a car chase cooler than anything in Bullet which i guess is considered the high water mark of cool car chases...and there i am talking about car chases again) which is then followed by Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx (from CSS) which soundtracks the opening credits is just the most perfect bit of 80s synth pop. The difference being it was made in 2010, and is not shit, which frankly most 80s synth pop is despite the revisionism. The rest of the soundtrack is rather ace too, would be a contender for my album of the year but i'll think of something else instead so I have an entry for another day.
So to start...favourite movie of 2011.
Some years this would be a tough choice but not this year - it has to be Drive with Ryan Gosling. If you have watched the trailer and thought it looked like one to miss then I dont blame you - I initially thought it was going to be like the Fast and Furious and was really surprised when Refn won the best director award at the Cannes Film Festival. There might be car chases - two of them - but they dont drag on too long and the first one at the start of the movie is really quite gripping. I should stop pretending otherwise - i was brought up on a diet of the A-Team, Dukes of Hazzard and Knightrider...a good car chase will always have a place in my heart - i'm just avoiding placing too much importance on the inclusion of a car chase or two. ;-)
Anyway it is basically the story of a Hollywood stunt driver who has a side job as getaway driver. He is an enigmatic loner who falls in love with his neighbour then through helping her husband out gets in trouble with some gangsters. It is basically a modern film noir mixed with European art house with some pretty graphic violence in places. The Driver (we never find out his name) might be a psychopath, but godamnit he is one cool psycho and after watching it i walked out the cinema wanting to get a white satin jacket with a scorpion on the back, wear driving gloves, aviator shades and chew on toothpicks.
Gosling plays the part very well (and was also impressive in the Ides of March which was released around the same time)...he is one of the better actors about at the moment. Once the fame, celebrity and acclaim take a grip things tend to change and it is harder to ignore the associated baggage that their celebrity image or past roles bring. Can you remember the last time the likes of Johnny Depp, Jack Nicholson or Robert de Niro played a role that wasn't them playing a variation of themselves? Yet they were all once good actors. But Gosling isn't at that stage yet so it is just nice to see someone hit their stride and still not have the whole "movie star persona" behind the role.
Anyway back to Drive. Not only is the film good, the soundtrack is worth a mention too. I particularly liked the inclusion of Tick of the Clock by the Chromatics in the opening scene (which is a car chase cooler than anything in Bullet which i guess is considered the high water mark of cool car chases...and there i am talking about car chases again) which is then followed by Nightcall by Kavinsky and Lovefoxxx (from CSS) which soundtracks the opening credits is just the most perfect bit of 80s synth pop. The difference being it was made in 2010, and is not shit, which frankly most 80s synth pop is despite the revisionism. The rest of the soundtrack is rather ace too, would be a contender for my album of the year but i'll think of something else instead so I have an entry for another day.