SOME OF WHAT I SAW...

Drive Review

Drive
Starring Ryan Gosling

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

My friend asked me if I wanted to go see Drive. I didn’t know anything about it, so I checked IMDB and saw that it had an 8.6 star rating – a rarity – only 3% of the top 250 got and 8.6 rating. I looked at the cast. I skimmed a single sentence of the synopsis: stunt driver… wheelman… heist… It starred Ryan Gosling who I took notice of in The Notebook. Sign me up!

Once in the theater, the previews and commercials seemed endless. There was no break in the cycle and no majestic music indicating a movie studio introduction, just titles. The titles SUCKED! Magenta MS Mistral on a black background – really hard to look at. I wasn’t sure that this was the actual movie. I was positive it was going to be an advertisement for a remastered Silk Stalkings DVD collection. But, alas, it was Drive. I think the titles were the reason for the 1.4 star reduction in its IMDB rating. But I got comfortable and watched.

I walked out of the theater thinking, “There are so many things that I liked about this movie”. So I called my mother and this is what I told her:

While I was watching the movie I had the sense that it might have been a remake of a Steve McQueen movie. There were a lot of 70’s colors in the movie, golds and ochres. The dashboard of the car that he drove had analog dials from that era. The watch that he wore and used to time his jobs was a late 60’s early 70’s model. His satin jacket was a throwback in its styling, even in the closer fit that people wore then.

Ryan Gosling, Brian Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman and Carey Mulligan were all caricatures of a sort. The strong silent, almost robotic, type. The twitchy, well-meaning, down-on-his-luck gimp. The crotchety gangster. The bombastic, warm-up suit wearing hothead. And the sad faced put-upon waitress. The only emotional range and inflection came from the little boy played by Kaden Leos. He provides this gorgeous symbol of innocence in a movie of corrupt people, peppered with what reminded me of Quentin Tarantino’s nearly pornographic violence.

There’s little dialogue in the film. So much of the story was advanced through Nicholas Winding Refn's gifted direction. Refn provides an atmospheric quality that is a poetic homage to the 70’s action movie. And while it wasn’t an action movie, it had those elements. It wasn’t a horror movie, but there were several times during the movie that I had both hands over my eyes and turned my head (If I’d had an extra pair of hands, I’d have covered my ears as well). It wasn’t a love story, but the movie had those elements, too. I would have to say that it was a suspense/drama, but that doesn’t even adequately describe it. I came out of the theater feeling drained. I'm going to see it again.

The space between the nose and mouth is called the philtrum (sometimes spelt philtrim). The central depression under your nose is called the philtral dimple, and the ridges are called philtral columns. The word is Greek in origin and means “magic potion”. An old wives’ tale has it that the philtrum is a mark left by an angel’s finger at the moment of a baby’s birth. Or so they say. Theres more to purpose of this
The small dent is called the philtrum. And the purpose thereof?
The philtrum has no purpose. It's one of a bunch of merger-lines
known as "raphes". As our tiny embryonic selves are developing,
the right and left sides are merged at various points on the
body, leaving a raphe at the meeting point. Other raphes can be
found on the middle of the tongue, in the dent under the point
of your chin, and other, far more personal parts of your body.

Kaze No Kuro Oji - Bump of Chicken

Good translation, here is what I got, the perfect copy is somewhere in the middle I am sure.
A single shard of glass was dropped others soon followed slipping from grip happening in one minute’s silence only one was left behindAs the heart starts to beat places are taken against will in order to protect what shall not be stolen againThe hands that were once clean are now stained with blood that which was the accused now becomes the accuserIt is now certain we shall both meet again our hearts beat as one leading us back to each other I will always be there standing here calling out to you with no excuses and a new resolve I now know why I’m aliveAs long as I exist the responsibility will always be placed with me two cannot share that which was originally meant to be oneA single shard of glass was dropped shattering down to pieces in one moments silence I asked in the sunlightLooking back at the footprints left behind the numbers soon grow countless but the real questions lie between one and zeroFrom the very first time our paths crossed the actions we made lead us to one anotherDon’t ever forget that I will always be here calling out and when our reasons become the same that is the symbol of our promiseLooking back now on the things that we have done our karma is the only thing that us certainAnd even with these blood stained hands we will make it through thisI am here in front of you thought you might not feel it in this sunlight that rains down upon us we are there togetherDon’t you ever forget I will always be calling out within a shard of glass identical to yours it is certain that we will meet again someday as we look back on the actions we have madeOur promises have been made we are one