Drive is not the Fast and Furious-esque action car movie it is portrayed as in most of its marketing. I was even a bit fooled despite reading up a bit on the film; I should have taken heed when I read an interview with Ryan Gosling where he said he wanted to make a “violent Pretty in Pink”. There are a few car chases, and they are shot extremely well without the ubiquitous  shaky-cam, but they are definitely not the focus, nor all that impressive as set-pieces (the first 10 minutes or so are brilliant stuff, though). What’s here is an 80s love story with the requisite soundtrack that turns into a slasher flick with Cronenberg-styled violence. I’ve seen that last point mentioned numerous times, but my friend said it exiting the theater; I’m taking that connection from him, not fellow amateur internet film critics.

This film is not for people who cannot stand silence. There are long pauses that I thought were a bit too much at times, where Gosling’s character (this is all I can refer to him as, since his name is never uttered) comes off too stilted. But I guess he’s so damn handsome that his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) can’t help but fall in love with him. It doesn’t hurt that he’s good with her kid and helps with the groceries, I guess. Oh, and that he’s a badass stunt driver and wears a sweet bomber jacket. What girl with a husband in prison wouldn’t die for a man like that? But obviously, once that husband is released from prison, all hell breaks loose.

The drawn-out silences and patient, long shots make the sudden and brutal violence in the film all that more shocking. There is a great scene where the violent nature under the shy and almost mute veneer of Gosling’s character is hinted at, and once he’s thrown into a situation where he needs to protect his cute neighbor and kid, it’s no-holds-barred retribution. The only previous Nicholas Winding Refn film I had seen was Bronson and that was pretty brutal, but I wasn’t expecting such explicit bursts of blood spatter in every way imaginable. That such violence occurs in what is otherwise an extremely slick and cool film could make it seem indulgent, but it works in the framework of the film. Once the switch in Driver (ok, I’ll just call him that now) is flicked, he turns into some Travis Bickle-type character; now this is the reading that I’ve stolen from other internet film nerds. And it’s not like the film doesn’t acknowledge how crazy the violence is — there’s one amazing scene in particular that cements Driver as a psychopath.

While the film is really all about Driver, the small supporting roles from Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston are both fantastic, and Carey Mulligan is perfect as the prototypical cute neighbor. I would have probably liked to see a bit more of the first two, but Drive is streamlined to a barebones plot where no scene is superfluous. So while some scenes might seem like they drag, there is nothing pointless in the 100-minute running time. There’s no backstory to Driver, the romance between Driver and Irene is set up through a few quiet scenes and a montage scored with a song straight of out the 80s (that’s a bit too cheesy for my taste), and the criminal associations in the film are relayed through brief conversations where there’s almost always something else going on.

Neither is a shot wasted (outside of one bizarre slow-motion, inside-the-car shot — you’ll know what I’m talking about). I’m glad I got to see the film in one of the big theaters in my local multiplex, because Refn, as @MilesTrahan put it, “can shoot the fuck out of a film.” The cinematography alone makes the film worth a watch, but when it’s combined with a character as memorable as Gosling’s despite his paucity of lines, a bunch of great supporting performances, unflinchingly awesome violence, and an atmospheric synthetic soundtrack, you’ve got one of the better films of the year — despite it going against mainstream expectations. Take a date if she can stomach seeing the life get stomped out of a guy’s face.

I had already seen a few of the nominees before the week leading up to the Academy Awards, and I didn’t really LOVE any of them. Avatar I’ve already written a post about. The Hurt Locker was good, but it just didn’t blow me away (get it?); I think Generation Kill should be the defining piece of Iraq War entertainment, especially since veterans have said how inaccurate The Hurt Locker is. District 9 was pretty good, but it features one of the least sympathetic protagonists I’ve ever seen — one that doesn’t grow at all — and yet it seems fairly obvious you’re supposed to sympathize. The shift into a full-blown action movie was also a bit disappointing, even if the action was very entertaining. Up was just another great kids’ movie from Pixar that adults can also enjoy and appreciate; they’ve perfected the formula so well it’s almost boring at this point.

I’ll expand my thoughts a bit more for the next six, since I just watched them, and that’s really the point of this ongoing post series. I watch movies, and then I talk about them. Pretty mundane shit, I know.

A Serious Man

Supposedly it’s a modern retelling of the Book of Job. I wouldn’t know. Either way, I probably would have voted this for Best Picture. And that’s strange, because I’m not even sure what to make of that ending, and I’m sure if you search the internet, you’d come across that sentiment a lot. But something about a man who’s just getting owned on all sides trying to figure out WHY, WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME, and only being rewarded with inanity and stupidity and disregard resonated strongly with me. And I think it only truly works because it’s the Coen Brothers. There’s just something about the way they handle such tragedy that makes it at the very least bearable, but also sometimes extremely amusing to watch. And Michael Stuhlbarg in the main role as a creeping-towards-middle-age Jewish man who likes to reiterate that he “hasn’t done anything” is perfect. His breaking down on the phone was one of the best, most heartbreaking moments of cinema in 2009. There’s no way George Clooney deserved an acting nod over him for playing himself. Again.

Inglourious Basterds

In terms of pure entertainment value, there’s no nominee that has this beat. I’m sure there’s plenty of people who think Quentin Tarantino had a bit TOO much fun with it, and I can’t garner up points to refute that — but I know I had fun watching it. I think the opening scene and the scene in the tavern basement are as tense as anything in The Hurt Locker. And the ending is just totally. fucking. awesome. It’s the ultimate Nazi-killing fantasy.

Looking up the film on Wikipedia just now I found out that Tarantino originally sought Leonardo DiCaprio for the role of “Jew Hunter” Hans Landa. I think we can all agree that would have been pretty goddamn disastrous. Luckily, the role fell to Christoph Waltz, an actor that no one in America knew, and he fucking killed it — in four languages. I think he’s deservedly won every acting award there is.

The Blind Side

I guess I’ll start with a compliment: the movie isn’t offensively bad. There’s just nothing of note. It feels exactly like every other by-the-numbers feel-good story out there. Both its Best Picture nod and Sandra Bullock’s WIN are totally goddamn mystifying to me. What did Bullock even do in the movie other than call some tough black guy a “bitch”? She put on a blonde wig and spoke in a Southern accent. Oscar-worthy? I guess so.

Oh, and the black kid in this movie had the dumbest, most fucking annoying glum face on for 90% of the time. I wanted to take a lead pipe to his massive mug. I’ll just sit here and not talk like a big fucking retard. Oh, and I need my new white mommy to tell me what to do so I can be good at football DURRR. Jesus Christ.

On second thought, maybe the movie was offensive.

Fuck you, Academy, for nominating this piece of shit, which enabled me to convince myself to watch it.

Precious: Based on the Novel “Push” by Sapphire

Let’s just say this isn’t a movie I would usually be interested in, but I decided to allow this little blog post idea to expand my horizons. Now this is a good movie starring a big black teenager. Precious actually had some semblance of a personality, unlike the black kid in the movie above. She has dreams of being a star, shown in flashes after she gets knocked to the ground or against the wall in some way. She takes quite a beating over the course of movie. But I guess she’s a big enough girl to handle it.

Even though the awful situation and living conditions Precious had to grow up in seem so goddamn over-the-top and ridiculous, they feel more real than anything in The Blind Side. Mo’nique gives a great performance as her mother, and all the other roles fill out the world extremely well — even if they include LENNY KRAVITZ AND MARIAH CAREY WHAT. I went in expecting to watch a melodramatic piece of garbage, and it certainly can be a bit melodramatic, but when dealing with rape and abuse like that, it’s probably hard to avoid. I found a movie with pretty damn great acting across the board that doesn’t sugarcoat anything or come out with an especially uplifting ending.

Up in the Air

Oh hey, it’s another movie where George Clooney gets to have fun as a handsome, confident dude who can manipulate people very effectively. I’m not even sure what message the movie is trying to spit out, but I did enjoy it. I can hate on the Academy slobbering over Clooney, but I can’t deny that he’s entertaining to watch. He’s just so charming, isn’t he?

The movie does play with your emotions by alternating between funny and depressing and shocking, but I can’t find much fault with it. Managing to juggle comedy with laying off people is tough, and it works most of the time. I did appreciate one twist in particular. If you know me, you can probably guess. On the other hand, it’s hard for me to praise the movie too much though, after what I’ve heard about Jason Reitman, and how he’s pretty much the biggest douchebag on two feet. Between trying to take full credit for the screenplay, lying about writing parts for certain actors, and a massive sense of entitlement, he sounds like a spoiled Hollywood kid. Oh wait, he is. Maybe I should watch Juno so I can hate him for making that, since I’ve only seen Thank You For Smoking and Up in the Air, and thoroughly enjoyed both.

An Education

The shortest movie on the list, and easily the most intimate. If Precious is about a teenage girl getting destroyed by outside forces, An Education is about a teenage girl letting her own emotions get the best of her. What 16-year-old isn’t going to be enthralled by some man twice her age taking her the most cultured places she could imagine? Of course in real life, the older man wasn’t as dashing as Peter Sarsgaard — he wouldn’t need to pick up a schoolgirl after orchestra practice.

Carey Mulligan plays a giggle-happy teenager better than I thought any 24-year-old could. She is extremely cute and charming (as she is in real life, as evidenced by an interview I saw on The Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson), but also a childish innocence and that false sense of arrogance teenagers have. School is worthless! I want to travel the world with my handsome, worldly sugar daddy! Ok, have fun fucking up your life. Oh wait, all you need to do once everything goes south is then appeal to a teacher you horribly insulted and then study for a while for your exams and everything will be alright. I guess that actually happened, so I probably can’t rip on the ending too much.

But yeah, Carey Mulligan was robbed. At least the BAFTAs got it right.