Apologies for not posting last week. The week got away from me and the post I thought I had in hand, well it got even further away. The good news is that we have entered Noirvember. To ease the transition from horror today I picked two movies that are borderline horror at times. If you have not seen the work of director Winding Refn a good word to describe it is intense. Not everyone is going to like his style. I, as you may have guessed am a fan. One of these movies is a masterpiece, the other is a messterpiece (I’m coining that phrase so pass it on).
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Drive
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Director Nicholas Winding Refn’s Drive is a prime example of love it or hate it cinema. I am hard pressed to think of someone responding casually. To me, it is magic, a rare example of pure cinema in league with Ford, Fellini, and Wenders. I will not argue that it is quite a masterpiece to match those giants’ greatest works, but it very much reminds me of them. Through sound, visuals, and acting, Refn creates a world that is realistically similar to our own, yet has one foot firmly planted in otherworldly fantasy. The blend of these two distinct and dissimilar is where the magic happens. It is also why I can see some people hating this movie. If you are not swept up by movies like this, they can feel obnoxious. Drive is about a part time stunt driver and auto mechanic who moonlights as a transport specialist for criminals. The ultra-minimalist plot has twists and conveniences included as standard fare. That is okay because here, the style is the substance. Ryan Gosling, as the protagonist, rarely speaks, and when he does, it is often in monosyllables. Gosling understands the tone Refn’s going for and plays it perfectly, giving a performance that is brilliant without being great. We meet the driver on the job and get a feel for how cool he is under pressure. We get to know him a little as he gets to know his pretty neighbour, Irene (Carey Mulligan), and her young son, Benicio. Mulligan gives a good performance; the only trouble was that she reminded me so much of Michelle Williams, I kept wondering if the uber-talented Williams could have brought a little more to the role. The driver hangs out with Irene and Benicio. It is standard stuff, but scenes like the secret source of nature in the heart of the city are so lyrical that it feels like magic. We meet the driver’s boss, Shannon, played by Bryan Cranston, who delivers a fine performance, as well as a couple of local gangsters, played by Ron Perlman and Albert Brooks. Perlman is good in his few scenes, but Brooks easily gives the best performance in the movie. Best known as a comedic actor, he has always excelled at playing weasels. Here, he pushes that familiar persona right into violence. The scene where he kills (spoiler redacted) is as deft a piece of acting as you’re ever going to see. Act two begins when Irene’s husband, Standard (Oscar Issac), returns home from jail, bringing problems with him. I appreciated that Standard was more than a generic villainous ex. He is just a guy still paying for his mistakes. The Driver steps in to help out for the sake of Irene and Benicio, and things go wrong. The hyper-stylized feel of the movie carries over to the violence, which is as blood-splattered and graphic as anything I have ever seen.. It could be argued that the violence is too much, but it certainly packs an effective punch. As much of the violence happens off-screen as on, and some of the most powerful moments are not bloody at all, like the Driver’s very memorable use of a bullet and a hammer. Tying the whole thing together with a bow is the perfect soundtrack, featuring music by credited composer Cliff Martinez and original composer Johnny Jewel of the bands Desire and Chromatics. If you wanted to describe neon to a blind person, I would use this soundtrack. I loved every part of it. Drive is Neo noir that might also be an escapist fantasy, a surreal action movie, an ode to the cinema of Fellini, or a cool Euro take on classic American muscle car cinema. Maybe it is some of them, maybe it is all of them, but for me, watching it was enjoying the pure joy of cinema.
Where to watch
Not available for streaming in Canada. Rent from the usual suspects: Amazon, Apple, and YouTube.
Thoughts? Feel free to weigh in!
Only God Forgives
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I love to read movie reviews. Did the reviewer see the same things I did? Do I agree with their takeaways? Does their perspective give me a new way of looking at what I saw? Does what they wrote help me formulate my own thoughts? Part of the reason I write them is to join the conversation. In the case of Only God Forgives, Danish director Nicholas Winding Refn’s inscrutable follow-up to his critically acclaimed Drive, also starring Ryan Gosling, I was very curious to see how other critics viewed this movie. More than 50% did not recommend it, but even among those who didn’t, there was some admiration. Ty Burr, who did not recommend it, said: “Only God Forgives” is the kind of remarkable disaster only a very talented director can make after he finds success and is then allowed to do whatever he wants.” Peter Bradshaw, who did recommend it, said: “Winding Refn’s bizarre infernal creation, an entire created world of fear, really is gripping. Every scene, every frame, is executed with pure formal brilliance”. What I loved about Only God Forgives is that I agree with both of these statements. Like Mr. Bradshaw, I am tempted to crown it a genius work of an auteur at the height of his game. I definitely agree that it is executed with pure formal brilliance. On the other hand, maybe Mr. Burr is correct, and it is just a remarkable disaster made by a very talented director. It does not recapture the touch of the sublime that Winding Renf and Gosling captured in Drive, but watching it, I was fascinated even when I was puzzled. The straightforward story is about the efforts, or lack of efforts, of an American expatriate drug dealer, Julian (Ryan Gosling), to exact revenge for the murder of his younger brother, Billy (Tom Burke). Billy is killed early as revenge for his rape and murder of an underage Thai girl. Billy’s murderer is the girl’s father. The twist is that the murder is precipitated by a local police officer, Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), who brings the girl’s father to the crime scene to offer him a chance at justice. The rest of the movie follows parallel tracks of Julian and Chang, who are on a collision course. When Julian’s mother, played with astonishing cruelty by Kristen Scott Thomas, arrives from the States, we begin to understand why Julian appears both ambivalent towards his brother’s murder and feels like he has to avenge it. I am a big fan of Scott Thomas, and she gives a very good performance as a character full of bile. Winding Refn directs her to be brash in the role, where I think subtlety would have worked better, particularly in her last scenes, where she adopts a manipulative tone that does not gel. It does not result in overacting, but it’s close. Gosling is so stoic that it feels like he is just repeating his role from Drive. It does not help that Gosling has little opportunity to show emotional range. The result is a good performance that feels flatter than it actually is. Beyond the stunning visuals, which look like the love child of a Michael Mann and David Lynch movie, what I most enjoyed about Only God Forgives is how entirely un-American it is. From the title credits, Thai with English subtitles, everything about this has a far more European and Asian flavour than the Hollywood norm. I think this includes what the movie is actually about. Julian appears to be the main character. He is the protagonist, and since Gosling is the big star, viewers are trained to think of him as the focus, but what if this movie is really about Chang? More than anyone else Chang actions drive the plot, whereas Julian is reacting both to Chang and his mother. My theory is that this movie is about Chang and his revenge against the parasitic westerners who come with their money and their white privilege and treat the locals like playthings to be bought, used and thrown away. I can’t prove it but looking back at the movie through this lens I found it even more fascinating. It also makes the potentially inscrutable ending make sense. I enjoyed thinking about this movie as much as I did watching it. It is definitely a slow burn punctuated by brutal violence. If you haven’t seen Drive, I suggest starting there. How you feel about Drive will tell you if you want to try this one or not.
Where to watch
Not available for streaming in Canada. Rent from: Amazon
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Next week I’ll be back with some more traditional noir picks. Until then shout out your favorite noirs in the comments. Here is one of mine. Can you guess what it is?
