Drive

Ryan Gosling has had, at first glance, a fairly privileged career. Rarely seeming to do any "paycheck" films, of which, I'm sure, he could get all that he wanted too, he seems to have spent his career carefully picking his roles and going with the things that interest him. I've found, in enjoying pretty much everything I've seen him in, that by trusting him, I'm trusting in his taste of films, as well. Starring in Nicolas Winding Refn's new film Drive, Gosling continues to make great choices and bring his talents to really well made, or, at the least, enjoyable films.

Gosling plays an anonymous stunt driver for Hollywood, who moonlights as a heist driver. One day, he meets his down the hall neighbor, Irene, played by Carrey Mulligan, and her little boy Benicio (Kaden Leos). He quickly seems to fall in love with Irene, who he spends some time with, very innocently, before learning that her husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac), is being released from prison. When Standard is beaten by some people he owes money too, Gosling's driver offers to help Standard with a pawn shop heist that the thugs want him to pull to pay them back. When the robbery goes wrong, however, leaving Standard dead, it puts everyone in the driver's life in danger, while he seeks vengeance from those who set him up.

Refn's films (or the one's I've seen so far) seem to lean towards the stylized, and Drive is no different. It's obvious that Refn is drawing heavily from late 70's and, especially 80's cinema, with his anti-music video style editing and electro-pop soundtrack. Drive feels like it could have been made by Michael Mann, circa Miami Vice or Manhunter. Gosling is in top notch acting form. He barely say's anything throughout the entire film, yet manages to convey an endless array of emotions via his face, a trait, I think, is generally only shared by some of the best actors. For someone to carry a whole movie, and barely speak, that's talent. Carrey Mulligan is the same, though, like pretty much all of the other characters, she is in a relatively small amount of the film.

In fact, that was probably the most surprising thing about Drive was how all of the other characters come off as secondary, and their importance, at times, seems diminished because of lack of screen time, even though characters like Irene and Bernie Rose (a gangster played by Albert Brooks in a very interesting casting choice by Refn), are absolutely crucial to the film. Drive really is about Gosling's driver. The entire film is about this one moment in HIS life, and Refn seems to want to make sure that we are not cluttered with back story or parallel action. There are very few scenes without Gosling, and only enough to push the plot forward. A risk taken on Refn's part, I think, but one I think he succeeded at, because, as an audience member, I was with the driver all the way. I was the driver.

DVD - The Last Winter

The Last Winter is one of those films that you have high hopes for, and they don't exactly get dashed, but they definitely aren't met in the way you were hoping for. Actor Larry Fessenden directs this eco-horror tale about a group of oil rig workers trying to set up an ice road to bring in equipment to set up in the just opened Alaska Wildlife Refuge. Some force, however, whether natural or super natural, is killing them, one by one.

The film has an interesting and poignant enough story - it's a cautionary tale about using the last of our resources in an area we don't fully understand. It's also an attempt to show how little we know about nature and its defenses. Ultimately, though, I feel like the one-sided, and almost cliche characters kind of ruin the film. I mean, it just seems like everyone is a carbon copy of another character in a different film (John Carpenter's The Thing, seems to be the  most obvious comparison). You got the guy who just wants to get the job done at any cost. You've got the one girl who will hop in bed with whoever's available. You've got the mildly spiritual guy. There's always a young buck, and a mechanic with a sarcastic sense of humor. 

The Last Winter I think COULD have been a much cooler film if Fessenden had gone against horror conventions, and really gave these characters more interesting identity's, and not steered the plot so far into the familiar. It wasn't a bad film, I just think it could have been a lot better. The fact that the ending was so vague also really upset me. You'll understand if you watch it, and, if your horror fan, I would say watch it. It's only about an hour and a half. You may love it. If your not big on horror, you probably won't like it that much.

Hellboy 2:The Golden Army

I have to be honest, and start off by saying that I ha never read the Hellboy comics before the first movie came out, and I was not a huge fan of the first one. It just didn't capture me the way I was hoping it would. I have tried viewing it, on occasion, on TV and DVD, hoping that, maybe, my mind would change, but it never does. The new film, though, which marks the return of the original cast and director Guillermo del Torro, was a pleasant surprise.

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army picks up a little while after the last film left off, and introduces us (through a REALLY cool computer animated/stop motion sequence) to a world of mythical creatures that have learned to hide in the human world after a long and bloody war lead to a truce between them and the humans. When an exiled prince returns, though, to awaken an unstoppable army, in an attempt to defeat the humans and solidify his reign, Hellboy and the Bureau of Paranormal Affairs has to step in and stop him.

There's not much to say here, as far as performances or directing goes. They're all top notch. Watching Hellboy 2, you feel like you are in familiar territory, and there really isn't any aspect of the film that lets you down. del Torro's mind is a fantasy land, and he lays out everything in front of you, drawing you in, and allowing you to enjoy his world for a little while. I really enjoyed the little bit of back story on Hellboy that we get, and hope that, if there is a third installment, that del Torro will include even more. The new character, Johann Krauss (oddly enough, voiced by Seth McFarlane of Family Guy), is a good edition that allows for a couple of more funny moments in the film.

Even though I was not a big fan of the first one, The Golden Army definitely leaves me with a taste for another one. Here's hoping del Torro has it in him.