I really liked DRIVE when I saw it in the theater last year, but when I bought new the Blu-Ray edition of the film I had one of those wonderful revelations that sometimes strike upon seeing a work for the second time. It turns out I love DRIVE.
Some movies have to percolate for a while. This is especially true of something like DRIVE, a film that has such an idiosyncratic mix of styles and moods. It's at once a lovely film and a gritty film, alternatingly quiet and bombastic. Its tenderness keeps close quarters (like elevator close) with its violence. A film this original (and this derivative) needs to be seen once just so a viewer can get a lay of the land, so to speak. Repeated views add rather than subtract from the experience. It's not for every taste. It is, however, for my taste. I love this flick.
Which means I'm excited to see the next teaming of star Ryan Gosling and director Nicholas Winding Refn. Their next project is ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Gosling plays a Bangkok gangster who runs a kickboxing club as a front for a drug running operation. When his brother kills a prostitute, Gosling gets roped into a violent cycle of revenge involving a cop known as The Angel of Vengeance, as well as his own controlling mother (played by Kristen Scott Thomas).
No word yet on a release date, but I'm hoping it's sometime in the fall. DRIVE came out in a dead spot in September and did surprisingly well at the box office, so maybe the Weinstein Company (which is releasing the film) will follow a similar approach.
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