Drive
A; Action, Drama, Art-house
Dir: Nicholas Winding Refn
Cast: Ryan Gosling, Carrey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Oscar Isaac
Rating: *u00a0 *u00a0 *u00a0 1/2 (out of 5)



It would be far too obtuse of me to call Drive an art-house version of the Jason Statham starrer The Transporter, as many have been describing it. This quiet little film is an unabashed cinematic pastiche of various influences, borrowing gently from filmmakers as diverse as Martin Scorsese and John Schlesinger.
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In terms of tonality, this film sits somewhere in the middle of that spectrum occupied by directors such as Quentin Tarantino and David Cronenberg, those masters at balancing simmering tedium with brutal, blood-soaked violence. It has all the elements: long, unbroken takes; steady tracking shots; minimal background music and sound design, and sudden punctuations of carefully orchestrated action.

However, as I watched Drive, I found myself wondering more than once about what Tarantino or Cronenberg would've done with this film. Refn, who won this year's Best Director prize at Cannes for this film, has a charismatic style (barring somewhat bizarre stylistic choices such as Cliff Martinez's '80s synth-pop score), but falters slightly in his storytelling, particularly when there's no bloodletting involved.