Drive

DRIVE is seductive. I can imagine it playing at Cannes to its warm responses, foreigners jubilating over the seductive American action movie that has been so perpetually hinted at, but never delivered. I can see why it won best direction at Cannes as well. It is, to be sure, very well directed, but past that truth, the seductiveness of an American 21st century feature is more appealing. Shot in an old fashioned manner, and possessing a lot of the silences of the 70's and 80's, this is at heart, however, a film very much of the 21st century. First, in tone, in color (wonderfully so), DRIVE is oblique and melancholy, paying tribute to Michael Mann, but also a lot like Fincher's SOCIAL NETWORK in its use of technology (and being not fearful of that medium).
Can ROSS DRESS FOR LESS look good in a picture? So often the commercial strips of towns seems so unartful and ugly, but here, in DRIVE, director Nicolas Winding Refn uses these 21st century marks to accentuate his frame. ROSS DRESS FOR LESS is very blue, so he puts it against black, red, tan colors, a pallid frame. This is a great cinematic gesture.
Past this even, Refn's hero, known only as The Driver is possessed cleanly and perfectly by Ryan Gosling, who emits a certain cool in DRIVE unlike any other role of his. There is some heart, but an existential mind at work: a brutality and a manner-of-fact way of looking at things. Very much like the great NIGHT MOVES, Gosling's driver doesn't belong in this world. He sparks up a relationship with tender Carey Mulligan and her son. The father is in jail for unknown reasons (a lot like how everything about the Driver is unknown; he strolls into places, working at a garage for Brian Cranston's crippled father figure, working as a stunt driver for films, and by night: acting as the getaway car driver for heists). It is even appropriate that that seemingly important bit of knowledge was stored away in parentheses, the driver and his motives are what matter. The father is in trouble, and by association, so are his child and wife. The driver coolly steps in to assist, and everything goes to hell, bringing in a cast of ugly, evil creatures.
This is no apologetic film though: The Driver is existentially who he is and he does things the way he wants them to. Artistically, DRIVE is great, and as a symbol of what American seduction should be, it is likewise, great.
Drive: ★★★★

Collateral

Michael Mann's COLLATERAL is a thrilling, introspective, existentialist masterpiece. It tells of two men and the relationship between them in the style of that of Tony Scott. But this is Mann's film: stylistically riveting and occasionally stark. There's a quality to it that is very integral to Los Angeles, where it is set, but it contains universal themes, and small reminders of a larger world or larger truths. The film begins with Max (Jamie Foxx), a cabbie who's just trying to make end's meat, but has been doing so for 12 years. One day a woman (Jada Pinkett Smith) and it begins a sort of cosmic decided fate for the cabbie. He knows the streets extremely well, and is quite charming with the woman who reveals herself as a lawyer, and, before she leaves, reveals her number. Max is overjoyed, and sits in his cab dazed until a man taps on his car and essentially wakes him. The man who enters is Vincent (Tom Cruise), slick and gray-haired but fast talking and existentially compelling. Vincent gives Max $600 to "hang with him" for the rest of the night as he goes and visits friends. Max is reluctant at first, but then agrees. However, at the first stop, Max discovers Vincent's true identity to be a gun-for-hire. Mann's film here reveals itself to be a noir film. Max is at heart a good guy, good enough to get the number from a woman out of his league, good enough to make Vincent want him to drive him around. However, as Max's self-guilt is brought out by the existentialist musings of Vincent, he is driven to change himself to fight back and become a darker, more rash man. This suspenseful film is then adorned with wonderful camera movements and images, and the acting from Cruise and Foxx are first-rate (even to the point of being so authentic its hard to notice their acting). Mann pulls no punches, although he could have done so to be universally entertaining, rather, his film is entertaining because it is specific to a time and place, or to two people.
Collateral: ★★★★

Undertow

UNDERTOW is the third film from David Gordon Green. His films are recognizable and textile, and the added bits of implanted importance in UNDERTOW make it all the better. The best way I can describe the film is as a mix of the plot of NIGHT OF THE HUNTER, a sultry southern evening, and cautionary tales of family. The film is concerned with the lives of two strange and isolated children living under a demanding father (Dermot Mulroney). One day, their lives are changed when their absent uncle shows up, tells a tale of mexican gold, and begins to chase the frightened children. There really isn't much to UNDERTOW except emotion and appearance. It could be called a slow film, but its nice to revel in moments rather than skip them by. Green creates a poetic and engrossing film that never feels pretentious, and in its awkwardness it is, perhaps, grand. The way that Green creates a romance at the beginning and adds all the tension to be mustered within it is brilliant, as later on we see how a seemingly simple act can doom a character later on. There's a sense of constant renewal and returning in UNDERTOW, as if the boys have returned to a truth, or where they were going to end up inevitably. UNDERTOW is almost as good as Green's great first film, GEORGE WASHINGTON, and has many of the same dark themes.

The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me!

The Sound of Fury is a fine, 1950 film noir. It has all of the marking of noir, and although it is devoid of striking camera movements, it is at times inventive with them while maintaining the main theme of film noir. This is, of course, the average man who is sucked into evil by unfortunate circumstances. And so we are left to consider Howard Tyler (Frank Lovejoy). He is unemployed but dearly loves his family and their approval. Seeing no alternative, Howard turns to crime for the allure of big bucks is to much to pass up. He gets mixed up with Jerry Slocum (Lloyd Bridges, father of Jeff Bridges). Slocum and Howard end up robbing a few minor stores, but pulling in a decent heap. The media makes a big deal out of all of this, instigated mostly by a journalist played by Richard Carlson. Eventually, things begin to go downhill for Howard, as the evil of his actions begin to arise. Now, the beginning of The Sound of Fury is quite good. The family portrait and the descent into shadiness is well done, and the opening title is a wonder. The film is especially good at conveying the normality of man, and how it can be twisted around to form spectral figures in our heads that we can demonize. This is not a great film, however, because the end finally feels preachy and self-righteous. Not to minimize some truly great scenes that come before this however, The Sound of Fury is a good film.
The Sound of Fury/Try and Get Me!: ★★★

After Dark, My Sweet

After Dark, My Sweet is a film directed by James Foley. The man has a forgettable name, and that's too bad, for his talent is under-appreciated: as seen in this film and in Glengarry Glen Ross. Perhaps the hidden genius within his films allow for him to go unnoticed. For, in After Dark, My Sweet there are scenes and cuts that you only fully realize later. The film is languorous--steamy under Californian skies and ambivalent. Many of the things that actually happen in the film happen because the characters were bored. They are so empty and lazy, that they allow for insanity to seep into their lives. Consider the main character: Collie (Jason Patric). He is strange and too amicable among those who should not be given a second look. He seems to do things out of a shrug. "What else was I gonna do?". One day at a bar, Collie meets Fay (Rachel Ward) after a scuffle with the barman. She drunkenly takes him home and offers him work, but after Collie meets the odd Uncle Bud, he flees. He eventually returns after fleeing from a doctor who suspects he is insane. Now that he's accepted this odd menagerie of people, he allows the insanity of Uncle Bud to pervade his life. The trio decide to kidnap a young boy, and all goes to hell. This is a noir film, and that was probably inevitable. There is so much anti-life in After Dark, My Sweet that it becomes sort of fascinating. The movie is no easy watch, for it is constantly challenging and languorous. And then at the end, we get to see everything that we have already seen in a new light. After Dark, My Sweet is so odd and contemplative, that it becomes sort of great.