Drive is, in its way, a ‘chillwave’ movie, and not only because much of its soundtrack, as composed in a masterful score by Cliff Martinez, heavily draws on the chill/cold wave genre. Reminiscent, intentionally, of an idea of 1980’s films, as disparate as Bladerunner or Thief, director Nicolas Winding Refn’s third terrific film in three years (after Bronson and Valhalla Rising) is a further examination of the darkness of the male id, and the violence that can erupt from within, while the surface remains almost eerily placid. It’s hard to think of a better actor to portray this sort of character than Ryan Gosling, who has become the blank face of male anxiety over the last few years in a number of great roles. But don’t think that Drive is some sort of morbid archaeological dig into the ineffectual male; this isn’t some dreary indie movie heralding layabout schlubs. Drive, at its very black heart, is a superb addition to the best of the modern film noir tradition, and, in my eyes, pretty easily the best film of 2011.

Gosling plays an unnamed mechanic/stunt car driver who, when we are introduced to him, is at work on his second job, working as a driver-for-hire for criminals. He isn’t a criminal himself; his job is solely using his skills behind the wheel to drive the getaway car for a commission. He works, in all his jobs, for Shannon (Bryan Cranston), a striving garage owner with his own ties to the local mob, which is headed up by the mismatched partners Bernie Rose (Albert Brooks) and Nino (Ron Perlman). ‘Driver’, as we must refer to Gosling’s character, has no apparent aspirations in any of the jobs he works in. He seems, simply, to exist. His facade, however, begins to crack a bit when he meets his new next-door neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan), a sweet young mother with a son at her hip and a husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) in prison. Driver takes a shine to both Irene and her son, Benicio, and gradually ingratiates himself into their lives. The attraction between he and Irene is immediate, but, like all of Driver’s emotions, must remain buried beneath the surface, even as they share innumerable quiet glances in each other’s direction.

Just as Driver begins to feel as though he may have found himself a life to call his own, it’s all shaken by the news that Standard is being released from prison. Standard doesn’t trust Driver, but does not act upon it, hoping to start a new life for his family. Old debts are called in, however, and after Driver finds Standard beaten up in the hallway, and learns of the threat being put to Irene and Benicio, he offers to help Standard with the job he’s been given, a holdup of a local pawnshop. A third partner, Blanche (Christina Hendricks) is assigned to them, and, at first, the robbery seems to go off without a hitch… until it doesn’t. As in the best crime noir, things must fall apart, there must be double-crosses, misunderstandings, and, inevitably, revenge. Driver, looking to protect his new ‘family’, takes after the men who would threaten them, one after the other with scenes of sudden and shocking violence which not only cracks a few skulls, but Driver’s seemingly docile facade.

The story is simple, and engrossing. What sets Drive apart from so many other films of its ilk are the style of the film, with its overwhelming dose of neon-tinted dread, and the cast, all of whom are tremendous. Gosling, as seems to go without saying anymore, is the highlight, his usual chilly stoicism the perfect fit for Driver’s almost cyborg-like qualities. Mulligan, while not being given much to do beyond ‘object of affection’, is sweetly effective as the resigned Irene, and the ever-reliable Cranston is excellent as the beaten-down, chain-smoking loser Shannon. Both Ron Perlman and Oscar Isaac are very good in their limited roles, but the true revelation is Albert Brooks as local mobster Bernie Rose. Brooks, while a truly gifted comedian for over 40 years, has always maintained a reservoir of reserved hostility underneath the laughs, but here he is allowed to show all of his cards in a performance of exuberant menace, the perfect example of a vulgar man who will do anything for money, whether it be as a film producer or a local mob boss. Brooks never hits a false note, or tries too hard to ‘play the villain’. Bernie isn’t always a bad man, but he is more than willing to do bad things to keep himself above the fray.

While Drive wears its influences on its sleeve, the important thing to remember is that These Are Good Influences; the collective pedigree of cast, director, cinematic borrowings, references and allusions are all derived from an understanding of what makes cinema great. This film may not be for everyone, as it is often very violent, has long stretches of nearly no dialogue, and is so heavy with dread and menace that the only brief snatches of light which are allowed to break through are extinguished so quickly you may not even remember them. That’s what the best film noir does. It pulls up the pavement, not to reveal the beach underneath, but to show that it’s just more dirt. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

This new film chronicles exactly what happened to the Norwegian team, which is conveniently augmented by enough Americans (in particular Mary Elizabeth Winstead, who inevitably becomes a Ripley-esque heroine) to allow most of the dialogue to be politely spoken in English. Winstead’s character, Kate Lloyd, is a paleontologist recruited to assist when the ancient flying saucer is discovered along with its frozen passenger. Lloyd soon butts heads with the snooty head of the Norwegian base, Dr. Halvorson (Ulrich Thomsen), who presses on with studying his new find despite her warnings. The creature escapes from its block of ice and proceeds to devour–and perfectly duplicate–its victims.

One compelling aspect of the Thing films, which distinguishes them from a great many horror flicks, is that their characters are educated and rational people, not histrionic teenagers lined up to be chainsaw fodder. The best weapon against the Thing, apart from a reliable and fully-fueled flame thrower, is the Scientific Method itself. As intense and grisly as the creature effects in Carpenter’s film were, it really unfolded more as a logic problem than an action movie. In order to eliminate the alien menace, one had to be cool-headed and methodical in figuring out exactly who was–and who wasn’t–infected by it. This is what provided most of the tension.

Van Heijningen’s prequel follows most of the same story beats as before, and it shows immense respect for the details established in Carpenter’s film. For instance, when Kurt Russell and Co. scouted the wreckage of the Norwegian camp in 1982, they spied a fire-axe embedded ominously in a wall. You can bet you’ll see how and why that axe ended up there. But, despite all of its slavish attention to detail, this one doesn’t really have much tension or menace of its own. The camera drifts lazily across character’s faces without any particular attention or style. The question of who has been replaced by the alien is given its due, even with a couple new and clever twists, but our heroes seem to come up with the same ideas used in the previous film without following the same logical steps to get there. Winstead’s character may be clever, but sometimes it feels like she’s got intuition bordering on psychic powers. Eventually too much time is spent running from room to room chasing after something that very obviously needs to be killed.

Bottom line: if you’ve never seen either of its forebears, some of the twists in this Thing might be effective. If you’re a fan of Carpenter’s version, you’ll probably get a mild kick out of seeing all of the references to it. But the movie taken on its own really isn’t as exciting, despite solid performances and mostly effective creature effects. - [DVD] [Blu-Ray]

Actors’ hands don’t look like they belong on a guitar or the sound emanating from the screen doesn’t match the number of people making Clapton faces on a stage, and that’s part of it, but most of us wouldn’t know what’s possible with an amplifier or where the pinkie finger goes and that’s still not it.

Is it the myth of feel good summertime songs and the open road? No responsibility, only working two hours a night, adoration of beautiful people everywhere and platinum records. Yeah, sure, let’s watch the myth.

They get mythic wrong too. For every Honeysuckle Rose, Almost Famous or Slade in Flame, there’s Garage Days or Once (the guy yearned so much he should have snapped in half in the first five minutes of the film).

Right or wrong? Janie Jones? A little of both.

Alessandro Nivola plays Ethan, an underappreciated songwriter sliding to the bottom of his career. He has a band and is still touring, barely, surviving on whatever mangy hair of the dog is within motel nightstand reach and hoping a South by Southwest show can turn it around for him. Then dropped into a club’s grimy, green room is Janie Jones, a thirteen-year-old daughter he didn’t know he had, from time spent with a woman whose name he can’t remember (Abigail Breslin and Elisabeth Shue, respectively). The film veers into “wrong” right away since it stretches screenwriting common sense, let alone the boundaries of jurisprudence that a local sheriff gives the choices for a child’s care to be family services or the tour bus of a disinterested rocker, but David Lee Smith, as the officer, plays it like a world weary, independent film Andy Griffith.

Ethan’s band members vacate, more because he’s a self-pitying, juvenile heel than because of Janie’s presence. His manager (Peter Stormare) and label drop him and the money is gone, but he sees that Janie has talent and unlike him, she’s resourceful and clear eyed about the world. Maybe the end of this road is their new start.

Doesn’t sound very “right”, does it? Not quite the ever-popular tortured artist effect (ask Liv Tyler’s dad, Todd Rundgren about that) but any heft to this melodrama comes from Breslin and Nivola. She plays Janie more comfortable than precocious, both can sing, know their way around a guitar and underplay throughout the movie in the best way possible. Paraphrasing the Stanislavsky quote, maybe there are no “wrong/bad” parts, only “wrong/ bad” actors.

So this film is right enough.

Pray they don’t make an American Idol movie, much less try to get it right. – [DVD]

Let’s skip the other disciplines and focus on painting alone and the urge that makes a person smudge about on a canvas, hopefully with some cause and meaning.

At least meaningful to that person, because the viewer is lost more often than not if the message seems to be something other than “ducks are cute.” Yet we’re drawn to these bohemian con-men. We’re drawn to the romance of the artistic life. We wonder if creativity is a lightning strike that only a real artist can harness in his or her fist or if an artist loves more deeply and lives more freely than the rest of us?

The answer is no. Starving in a left bank garret is still starving and mastery of any skill is long and difficult. You think you trap light and shadow between the edges of a canvas in an afternoon?

What Polish director Lech Majewski does in The Mill and the Cross is skip the narrative angle of traipsing through an artist’s life, birth to death, and instead chooses one important work, and drops the camera in to look at the creative process. That the subject is Renaissance painter Pieter Bruegel and his painting “The Procession to Calvary” and that the film starts almost mid-gestation of the work doesn’t help the viewer.

Majewski, a painter and theatre director, gives a rich tapestry of a film, a puzzle almost. Peasant children tumble out from under heavy bed covers into roughhouse play. Riders in grim, red uniforms are sheathed by lowland mist. Bruegel himself (played by Rutger Hauer) lies on the rich, green grass of a Flemish field, his sketchbook pages flutter in a breeze. Majewski uses actual sets, buildings and costumes, but he also uses CGI to achieve something akin to a painting from the 1500s, with its forced perspectives and clusters of humanity layered to the horizon line. Distracting at times, yes, but your eye is pulled like a painting pulls at you. “Come, try to drink this in,” is the request made. Through the film Bruegel ponders what he wants to achieve with this painting (a statement about Spanish oppression) both in his own thoughts and in discussions with his patron Nicolaes Jonghelinck (Michael York). The dialogue is minimal, quiet and stoic and falls somewhere between Wings of Desire’s angelic musings and something by Tom Stoppard, though a little more spacious. It’s an imperfect microcosm of a moment of creation, but enjoy your walk through it. It will do you some good. – [DVD]

Loosely based on a 1950s short story by Richard Matheson that was also the basis for a Twilight Zone episode, it’s set in 2020, when mechanical boxers have replaced human ones, and casts Jackman as an ex-fighter scraping out a living entering secondhand robots in unsanctioned matches whose life takes a turn when he takes temporary custody of his preteen son (Dakota Goyo).

The script is equal parts Rocky and Over the Top, and so is predictable, and is peppered with dialogue that will have some rolling their eyes. “I want you to fight for me,” Goyo tells Jackman at one point. “That’s all I ever wanted.” As well Goyo is improbably made out to be an expert robot programmer simply because he plays a lot of video games.

And yet, the film works, incredibly so, in part because Levy not only manages to fashion such an interesting, lived-in world, with its myriad styles of robots and the idea of a World Robot Boxing league, but makes the bot battles themselves fun and energetic exhibitions full of rock music and crowds of people cheering wildly as mechanical behemoths pound away at each other.

What’s more, Levy (Night at the Museum) infuses the film with lots of heart, making the characters feel surprisingly real and ensuring that we genuinely care for them. As corny as it may sound, the film really is about Jackman and Goyo bonding, and less about fighting robots, though I suppose an exception could be made for Atom, the instantly endearing sparring robot Goyo saves from a junkyard.

Granted, Levy gets a lot help from his cast, starting with Jackman, who gives a great performance, capably conveying con-man charm, don’t-bother-me-kid gruffness and palpable paternal feelings. He gets a wonderful co-star in Goyo, who possesses surprising poise and emotional range for a 12-year-old, and lends the film a contagious exuberance. He and Jackman play off each other so well you almost forget about all the impressively rendered CGI automatons around them.

To all that you can add ex-Lost beauty Evangeline Lilly. As Jackman’s childhood buddy/romantic interest, she combines feistiness, intelligence and vulnerability into a very appealing package, becoming more than just the shoulder Jackman cries on. I especially liked the scene in which she fills Goyo in on his father’s career, though her rooftop reconciliation with Jackman is a nicely tender moment.

As well Danny Elfman’s excellent score not only sounds like something Trevor Rabin might have composed (a good thing in my book), it succeeds in making the action feel rousing and triumphant, and the quieter moments poignant. Suffice it to say that, if you don’t smile when Goyo teaches Atom to dance, or cry even one tear during the big-match finale, then you must be a machine. – [DVD]

Action/Drama/Sci-Fi

Rated PG-13

DVD Release Date: 1/24/12

It’s difficult to create an effective, respectful, and entertaining treatment of the cancer topic. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, in one of his best roles ever, plays Adam, a 27-year-old clean-living Public Radio producer who, as the movie opens, is living with a beautiful and narcissistic, crummy artist played perfectly by Bryce Dallas Howard (daughter of Ron Howard). Adam’s best friend is Kyle, casted very appropriately with Seth Rogen. I say appropriately because 50/50 is inspired by the true story of Will Reiser, who worked with Rogen on Da Ali G Show and got his cancer diagnosis at age 27. Seth’s character is loosely based on his role as Will’s best friend in real life.

Anjelica Huston is Diane, Adam’s mother, and it is truly a joy to watch her. I haven’t enjoyed her shtick this much since she played Vincent Gallo’s mom in Buffalo 66. Actually, she and Rogen are responsible for a majority of the laugh-out-loud humor that pervades the movie. This is why I’m kind of liking Seth (at least in this role) now. I’m not a fan of raunchy humor, so I didn’t like his movies like Knocked Up and Superbad. I know lots of viewers love this type of comedy and, by the way, you’ll get a little of that in 50/50, but it’s not over the top. Tasteful raunch. Anyway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt was not in Superbad but instead, he chose projects as various as Mysterious Skin, 500 Days of Summer, and Inception. I also have to mention Anna Kendrick, who plays Katherine, the psychologist. Anna was nominated for an Oscar for Up in the Air, and she’s even better in 50/50. I won’t reveal any more of the plotline here because you should have the pleasure of enjoying each element of the story as it unfolds. I’ll just say that for anyone looking for an excellent comedy that has depth, great acting and smart dialogue, this is it. – [DVD]

Comedy/Drama

Rated R

DVD Release Date: 1/24/12

Lots of docs to recommend this month! Take a look through the list below to find out more about our latest documentary releases:

Bombay Beach (2011) – Decades ago, the Salton Sea, two hours outside Los Angeles, was a tourist hotspot and a symbol of 1950s-era American optimism. Now, a victim of environmental decline, it stands mostly abandoned, its boomtown communities now decaying relics of a bygone era. Visionary filmmaker Alma Ha’rel investigates one such town – Bombay Beach – and weaves together the stories of its inhabitants with surreal poetry and beauty. – [imdb]

Eames: The Architect and Painter (2011) - The husband-and-wife team of Charles and Ray Eames are widely regarded as America’s most important designers. Perhaps best remembered for their mid-century plywood and fiberglass furniture, the Eames Office also created a mind-bending variety of other products. But their personal lives and influence on significant events in American life – from the development of modernism, to the rise of the computer age – has been less widely understood. – [imdb]

From the Sky Down (2011) - In the terrain of rock bands, implosion or explosion is seemingly inevitable. U2 has defied the gravitational pull towards destruction; this band has endured and thrived. This documentary asks the question why. – [imdb]

Hell and Back Again (2011) - In 2009, U.S. Marines launched a major helicopter assault on a Taliban stronghold in southern Afghanistan. Within hours of being dropped deep behind enemy lines, 25-year-old Sergeant Nathan Harris s unit is attacked from all sides. Embedded in Echo Company during the assault, photojournalist and filmmaker Danfung Dennis captures the frontline action with visceral immediacy. – [imdb]

The Hellstrom Chronicle (1971) – A scientist explains how the savagery and efficiency of the insect world could result in their taking over the world. – [imdb]

I Am (2010) – Director Tom Shadyac speaks with intellectual and spiritual leaders about what’s wrong with our world and how we can improve both it and the way we live in it. – [imdb] – click here to read our review

The Last Lions (2011) - This beautifully shot short film tells the tale of Ma di Tau and her fragile cubs as they must take a perilous journey through raging fire fival prides croc-infested rivers and deadly buffalo in order to survive. Narrated by Jeremy Irons. – [imdb]

Life 2.0 (2010) - LIFE 2.0 follows a group of people whose lives are dramatically consumed by the virtual world of Second Life. They reside in this new reality, where inhabitants assume alternate personas in the form of avatars – with digital alter egos that can be sculpted and manipulated on a whim. – [imdb]

Revenge of the Electric Car (2011) – By 2006, as many as 5,000 electric cars were destroyed by the major car companies that built them. Today, the electric car is back… with a vengeance. Narrated by Tim Robbins, and from the director of Who Killed the Electric Car?, the film goes behind the closed doors of Nissan, GM, the Silicon Valley start-up Tesla Motors and an independent car converter to find the story of the global resurgence of electric cars, following the race to be the first and the best, and to win the hearts and minds of the public around the world. – [imdb]

Serving Life (2011-TV) – Actor Forest Whitaker narrates the story of a group of inmate volunteers who staff their own hospice inside a maximum security prison in Louisiana where the average sentence is more than 90 years. – [imdb]

Shut Up Little Man! An Audio Misadventure (2011) - When two friends tape-recorded the fights of their violently noisy neighbors, they accidentally created one of the world’s first ‘viral’ pop-culture sensations. – [imdb]

Clooney has come a long way since my crush on him was first initiated, on the TV series Roseanne. He appeared in a long list of various and sundry television shows and bad movies before his portrayal of Dr. Doug Ross on E.R. made him a household name. In the late-1990s, he began a more permanent transition to the silver screen. At the Telluride Film Festival last September, Clooney admitted that a big budget doesn’t guarantee a good movie. He self-effacingly joked about his box office bombs Batman and Robin (1997) and The Peacemaker (1997), and his realization that he could generate more passion for smaller projects with better scripts. His choices have grown more substantive in recent years. His work often addresses political or ethical conflicts as in Three Kings (1999), Syriana (2005), Good Night and Good Luck (2005), Michael Clayton (2007) and Up in the Air (2009). The Ides of March continues this topic of exploration. The $12 million budget was raised piecemeal as Clooney pitched the movie over and over to foreign executives “like a door to door salesman” because Hollywood studios wouldn’t back the controversial material. As a director, Clooney believes that the purpose of film is to reflect what goes on in our culture and to raise questions. When discussing movies that influenced him, he announced that in his opinion, the best era of filmmaking occurred between 1964 and 1976. He named Network (1976) as his all-time favorite movie. In addition to his keen awareness of film history, Clooney understands the importance of the camera as a character. His skills have been recognized. He received a Golden Globe nomination for Best Director for Ides. Stay tuned for the DVD release of The Descendants, for which Clooney won the Golden Globe for Best Actor. In the meantime, you can revisit his comedic stint in the Coen Brothers‘ cult classic O’ Brother Where Art Thou? (2000).

But enough about George. The Ides of March also stars one of my other favorite actors, Ryan Gosling, who has an impressive range of characters that continues to expand. In the last year, we’ve seen him portray a working-class husband in Blue Valentine (2010), an alleged wife murderer in All Good Things (2010), a ladies’ man in Crazy Stupid Love (2011), and a quiet stunt/getaway driver in the much acclaimed Drive (coming out 1/31/12 on DVD). My personal favorite, however, is the socially awkward but totally endearing Lars in Lars and the Real Girl (2007). Other performances worth checking out include Gosling as: a high school teacher with a drug habit in Half Nelson (2006), a Jewish neo-Nazi in The Believer (2001) and a high school sociopath in Murder By Numbers (2002).

In The Ides of March, Gosling plays an up-and-coming staffer to a Democratic presidential candidate (Clooney). During the course of the campaign trail, he loses his idealistic innocence and learns to play the dirty game of politics. The impressive supporting cast includes Philip Seymour Hoffman (Best Actor winner for Capote, 2005) and Paul Giamatti (nominated for Best Supporting Actor in Cinderella Man, 2005) as rival campaign managers, Marisa Tomei (Best Supporting Actress winner for My Cousin Vinny, 1993) as a New York Times journalist, and Evan Rachel Wood (who also stars in the recently released series Mildred Pierce) as the flirtatious and wise-beyond-her-years intern.

The titular reference to Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar reveals the film’s conceptual theme. Loyalty is hard to find in a world where every move is a strategy to advance one’s own career or obtain votes, where “back-stabbing” and betrayal are common. Who can you really trust if every word is scripted and promises are extended without any intention of being kept? These topics are especially pertinent as we hunker down for the next election.

The capably-acted film turns out to be more of a thriller than a drama, but the suspense is less about who will win the primary than if anyone in politics can escape the game with his or her integrity intact. Some interesting cinematic moments include an homage to the poignant “rainy window” scene from In Cold Blood (1967).

If you can’t get enough of the this season’s presidential candidates on the news, perhaps you may be inspired to rent some other films featuring fictional politicians: The Contender (2000) starring Joan Allen, The Candidate (1972) starring Robert Redford, Bob Roberts (1992) starring Tim Robbins, Bulworth (1998) starring Warren Beatty, or Dave (1993) starring Kevin Kline. And there’s always The West Wing, with Martin Sheen. Or the based-on-a-true-story options: John Travolta as Bill Clinton in Primary Colors (1998) and W (2008) with Josh Brolin as George Bush. If you are feeling a little adventurous, I would recommend Death of a President (2006). We also have plenty of political documentaries. All available right here at The Video Station. Upholding your constitutional right to rent movies of your choice since 1982. Don’t forget to vote for your Oscar picks! Ballots coming soon… – [DVD]

Drama

Rated R

Toast

Set in Britain in the 60’s, the story starts with young Nigel (Oscar Kennedy), a seemingly unobtrusive boy, who wants lots of fancy food, but his Mum (Victoria Hamilton) can’t cook anything that isn’t in a can, except of course for toast. When his mother dies of a lung disease, Nigel is left alone with his curmudgeonly father (Ken Stott). They try to struggle on, but aren’t doing very well on their own. Enter Mrs. Potter (Helena Bonham Carter), the new cleaning lady, whom Nigel suspects of having eyes for his father. Not helping matters is the fact that Mrs. Potter is a glorious cook, causing more ruffled feathers with Nigel. The third act of the film jumps ahead to when Nigel is 17, and now played by Freddie Highmore. He’s taking home economics, and learning to cook, challenging Mrs. Potter for the role of meal preparer, leading to a tense tug of war for his father’s affections.

Don’t be fooled into thinking this is a Benny Hill sketch, Toast has a lot of serious drama. Oscar Kennedy, who can go from sullen to surly in nothing flat, makes you feel the loss of his Mum in a way I wasn’t expecting. Ken Stott’s distant and disapproving father was so real, I would never want to meet the man for fear that he would be mad at me. Helena Bonham Carter is good as usual, and it’s nice to see her not playing a witch, or a monkey, or a bobble-headed queen. The only thing that really disappointed me was the under-use of Freddie Highmore. He really is only in the last third of the film, and his section makes me want this to be a 4 hour epic.

Toast is a well acted, well executed drama. Highly recommended for fans of the British section, and anyone who likes a good story. – [DVD] [Blu-Ray]