Expect audience reactions to the film Drive to be wildly polarized. From the advertisements and marketing, viewers are probably expecting to see the new Ryan Gosling actioner as a slightly repackaged, art-house reworking of The Transporter (2002). However, when I saw the movie recently, the audience was clearly (and in some cases, loudly) baffled, laughing at odd moments while shifting uncomfortably during others. Indeed, the film is set to confound expectations, for Drive is a fever-dream neo-noir film masquerading as cheap, commercial multiplex fodder. It is a mysterious, subversive work of art, veering close to the edge of self parody while also playing its material in ardent sincerity. With this essay, I want to explore Nicolas Winding Refn’s new film Drive as a metatextual exercise, and as such, will reveal spoilers along the way.
Drive is a highly stylized pulp noir action-drama from acclaimed Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising, 2009). Ryan Gosling plays Driver, an inscrutable loner who is a stunt driver for Hollywood by day and the wheel man for armed heists by night. He instantly falls in love with his neighbor Irene, played by Carey Mulligan, and soon becomes part of her son Benito’s life. When Driver learns that Irene’s ex-con husband Standard, played by Oscar Isaac (Robin Hood, 2010), will soon return home from prison to reunite their family, Driver is willing to step aside. Unfortunately, Standard’s past follows him home and Driver agrees to drive for one last job to settle Standard’s debt. Nothing is what it seems, and Driver sets on a course to keep Irene and Benito safe at all costs.
Once I’m sitting down in front of that big screen (or even small screen), I tend to forget what I’ve read or seen about a movie. It’s like clockwork. I forget the trailers, the commercials, the music, and sometimes aside from the big stars and directors, who’s even supposed to be in it. I just let it wash over me. All that said, when watching Restless I couldn’t help but compare newcomer Henry Hopper’s character to the film’s director Gus Van Sant.
See, Hopper plays Enoch Brae, a young man who has dropped out of the business of living by crashing funerals and hanging out in cemeteries after a car accident claimed the life of his parents. It’s at one of these funerals where he meets Annabel Cotton, a lively and charming naturalist with an affinity for Charles Darwin and a deep love for the world despite having terminal cancer, played by the delightful Mia Wasikowska (more on her in a minute), and they develop a unique and quick personal bond, despite their worlds crashing in on them.
Looking at this fall’s movie releases, it doesn’t take much to get excited. Some of today’s best and brightest filmmakers have their latest works hitting theaters, many of which primed for Oscar consideration and box office dominance. I mean, look at this list. LOOK AT IT!
It’s not often that this many top filmmakers release their films so close together. It’s a bit overwhelming, so let Limité guide your movie list for this fall. This is going to be a great season.
Note: All non-authored pieces’ loglines are courtesy of IMDb.com.
Michelle Williams stars as Marilyn Monroe in MY WEEK WITH MARILYN, which is slated for a November 4 release.
Logline: Set in Middle America, a group of teens receive an online invitation for sex, though they soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
CONTAGION
Director: Steven Soderbergh
Cast: Bryan Cranston, Marion Cotillard, Matt Damon, Laurence Fishburne, John Hawkes, Jude Law, Gwyneth Paltrow, Kate Winslet
Logline: An action-thriller centered on the threat posed by a deadly disease and an international team of doctors contracted by the CDC to deal with the outbreak.
Warrior is poised to do for mixed martial arts (MMA) what The Karate Kid did for local karate gyms everywhere. After 14 years apart, estranged brothers Tommy’s and Brendan’s paths collide in a once-in-a-lifetime MMA event.
Tom Hardy (Inception) plays Tommy, an ex-Marine who escaped his abusive, alcoholic father, played by two-time Oscar nominee Nick Nolte, with his mother. Fourteen years later, he returns to Pittsburgh—without warning—and enlists his father to train him for the largest MMA event in history, Sparta, which holds a $5 million purse. Tom Edgerton (Animal Kingdom) is Brendan, an ex-fighter-turned-school teacher and father of two who is hit hard in the economic downturn. He returns to fighting for extra cash and sees Sparta as the long shot that could change his life.
In his short films, director Rashaad Ernesto Green was never reluctant to tell difficult stories, and his first feature film pushes that personal aesthetic of his even more.
In Gun Hill Road, Green tells the story a family in transition — in more ways than one. Esai Morales plays Enrique Rodriguez, who unceremoniously returns home from his latest three-year stint in prison to find not only his wife rejecting his attempts to reassert himself as head of the household, but a son about whom something seems seriously off. Not helping is a deep secret that Enrique is living with that constantly consumes his thoughts, but he chooses to focus on re-forging his relationship with his wife and son.
On July 28th, ActNow: New Voices In Black Cinema presents the Brooklyn premiere of The Wonder Year, a year-long exploration into the life of CEO, NAACP ambassador, Duke University professor, husband, father, son and GRAMMY Award winning producer 9th Wonder.
Directed by Kenneth Price, in collaboration with LRG (Lifted Research Group), the documentary follows one of soul music’s most dynamic figures from his childhood home to late nights in the studio to teaching at Duke University, and everywhere in between, and also features Drake, DJ Premier, Phonte, DJ Green Lantern, Murs, Young Guru, The Alchemist & more.
Funny man Conan O’Brien was dealt a bad hand when he was edged out of hosting TheTonight Show after only seven months. Instead of wallowing in self pity during his six-month exile from television, he took his grief on the road and shared it with his fans. Conan O’Brien Can’t Stop is a new documentary from Rodman Flender (Let Them Eat Rock) that follows O’Brien’s Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. The film encompasses the tour from its inception to its final performance for an up-close-and-personal look at O’Brien in raw form. It also provides a behind-the-scenes look at a comedy writing staff working fast and under stress to pull off a multi-city comedy/music tour.
The film is mostly vérité style, but there is a strong narrative throughout — likely because O’Brien is very comfortable in front of a camera and he just can’t stop being funny. In the film, O’Brien is candid that the tour will allow him to exorcise some demons. He admittedly craves being in front of an audience. But he does not come off as arrogant — he is incessantly humble with fans and generous with his time. When the tour is announced via Twitter, venues sell out within minutes, yet O’Brien remains anxious as the news rolls in. He seems surprised that people would actually pay to see him. He remains genuine and does not take his success for granted.
Craig Roberts as Oliver Tate in Richard Ayoade’s film SUBMARINE
Submarine is the off-beat coming-of-age comedy about an intellectual and introverted Welsh teen named Oliver Tate. At 15, Oliver’s world view is quite advanced, but borders on delusional. Instead of rebelling against his parents, he analyzes their neurosis as a therapist would, removed and objective. He takes to monitoring their sex life by recording the level of their bedroom dimmer switch and performing “routine checks” of their wardrobe chest. When his mother’s old flame Graham moves into the neighborhood, Oliver’s misguided attempts to save his parents’ marriage set off a series of comic turns. Meanwhile, Oliver’s own pursuit of self-discovery drive him to join the school bullies to catch the attention of the self-proclaimed pyromaniac Jordana. The trials of their relationship is the stuff of teenage first love blossomed through blackmail and nurtured through coerced diary writings. Oliver’s safe and easily decipherable world is turned upside down as reality, life, love, loss, and pain set in. Submarine is a clever mixture of comedy gags strung together into a story of burgeoning maturity that feeds the imagination through its artful, visual style and provides quite a few laughs along the way.
In 2003 filmmaker Michael Galinsky read a NY Times article about a New Jersey Nets stadium coming to Brooklyn. Eight years and three lawsuits later, the Forest City Ratner vs. The People vs. The State of New York vs. The Borough of Brooklyn saga has played out for all of New York City to bear witness. A main character in this real estate tragedy has been Daniel Goldstein, the Prospect Heights man who refused to be bought out by Ratner developers. His organization, Develop Don’t Destroy, led the anti-Atlantic Yards movement and mobilized thousands of people toward his cause.
Battle for Brooklyn starts at the very beginning of this debate and follows it through its devastating conclusion. We see how Goldstein’s life was upended when he took on Ratner, and how he changes over the course of this near decade long struggle. New Yorkers pride themselves on being stubborn and vocal, and Goldstein certainly earns this pride. If you’re a Brooklyn resident who heard about all the hoopla but didn’t understand what people were actually fighting for, now is your chance to learn about the (anti-) development in your own backyard.
