Drive

A stunning minimalist film, a unique experience for lovers of a blend of bearable art-modernism and uncompromising realistic rawness. I would devour everything about the main character, the music perfectly underscores it, and the action is uncompromising. Overall, a very meticulously styled film, whose creators have a knack for feeling and aesthetics and know exactly what and how to do it. (28/10/2011)

It’s hypnotic (almost everyone talked about the soundtrack after leaving the movie theater), clings to details (cinematography, sound), and constantly goes against established audience expectations. When I got up from my seat, sweat was pouring off me and it wasn't just the heat in the movie theater. (14/09/2011)

The third viewing at the cinema definitely confirmed for me that trying to decide between four and five stars is pointless here. Drive is a challenge for film connoisseurs. It is something to discuss, to examine shot by shot and line by line. It’s impossible to put it into a qualitative category, and it’s impossible not to admire it. It is a hypnotically calm and slow opus that concurrently boils over with emotion and suspense. It works with several genres, but it cannot be clearly classified as belonging to any of them. The film keeps the greatest distance from the main character, not letting us understand him or feel his relationship with the girl, for whose protection he resorts to extreme, graphic violence. Though this violence thus becomes shockingly gratuitous, it is irresistibly cathartic in contrast to the romantic poetics that surround it. Through its extravagant camerawork and music, the film conceals the importance of the dialogue, which is the pillar of its story and is served sparingly, almost in fragments, but it perfectly defines the characters immediately with the first line or two. The choice of actors is original and unexpected, and with artistry reminiscent of Tarantino, the director pulls them out of their status as fades stars and eternal players of supporting roles and has them embody characters that will forever be embedded in your memory. Nicolas Winding Refn has what it takes to be the next Tarantino. However, Drive still isn’t his Pulp Fiction. For that, he will need more pieces on the chessboard and a more complex story. (22/11/2011)

Drive is a boring film. A long, drawn-out, empty and uninspiring bore that offered its best at the beginning (the scene of hiding and dodging police cars) and then didn't come up with anything I would call interesting. I think we can agree that the story is dull and boring to the point of shame, but I can’t say that it was filmed in such a way that it would stop bothering me. The fault is probably with my receiver, but I didn't see anything special. In fact, I didn't even hear it - the much-vaunted soundtrack consists, in my opinion, of only a few extremely strange and unpleasant songs, the title track being particularly repulsive. What's next in the film? Just the violence. A head shot, a head smashed, a head crushed, a fork in the eye, a knife in the throat, a razor in the forearm... And the camera shows everything. So? What of it? I feel that Nicolas Winding Refn is just a perverted guy who revels in these brutalities, and while the violence in the previous film, Valhalla Rising, had its purpose (although it really didn't have to absolutely show everything), here it was totally unnecessary, and I would even say purposeful. The last nail in the already very thoroughly hammered coffin for me was the unsympathetic Ryan Gosling. A big disappointment. (13/03/2012)

I don't know if it was my restless mood or just the movie being unnecessarily slow for me. Sometimes I even wondered if the picture was stuck. It has its charm and atmosphere though. It may be art in its own way, but it lacks excitement. Ryan Gosling has done better work, in my opinion. Of course, it's not his fault. Unfortunately, the script doesn't allow him to show his full glory. Unfortunately, I see it as just average... 3 stars. (22/03/2012)