Drive (2011)

When Ryan Gosling said "..." I felt that. And I think that joke lands precisely because it shouldn't. The Driver barely speaks. He just exists, behind the wheel or behind those pale blue eyes, radiating something impossible to fully name. Threat, tenderness, cool, sadness. All at once. It shouldn't work as well as it does, and yet Drive is, without any hesitation from me, a five-star film. Flawless. I'll die on that hill.

I'll be honest with you: I couldn't tell you exactly why it hits me the way it does. There's something almost irrational about how much I love this film. But I think that's actually part of what makes it great. The best films don't always arrive with a neat explanation attached. Sometimes they just get under your skin and stay there, and Drive burrowed into mine from the very first scene.

That opening sequence. I genuinely believe it's the greatest introduction in cinema history. The Driver, a getaway wheelman moonlighting in Hollywood, talks a client through a job over the phone with a quiet, methodical precision. Then the job happens. And in about ten minutes, without a single wasted frame, you understand everything you need to know about this man, this world, and this film. The way it uses the city at night, the police scanner chatter, the patience of it all. It's extraordinary film-making. Nothing is over-explained. Nothing needs to be.

The script throughout is deliberately light, and I mean that as a compliment. Nicolas Winding Refn trusts his images and his music to carry the weight that dialogue would normally shoulder, and it pays off completely. The Kavinsky soundtrack, that pulsing, neon-soaked synth-wave sound, isn't just atmosphere. It's structural. It tells you how to feel when the visuals are being deliberately opaque. "Nightcall" alone might be one of the greatest pieces of music ever paired with an opening title sequence.

And then there's the cast around Gosling. Carey Mulligan brings a quiet warmth to a role that could easily have been thankless, and the chemistry between her and Gosling is built almost entirely out of glances and proximity. Oscar Isaac is absolutely magnetic in his supporting role, doing a huge amount with limited screen time, which probably shouldn't surprise anyone who's followed his career since. And then there's Bryan Cranston. This film came out while people were still getting their heads around the fact that Malcolm in the Middle's dad was now Walter White, and Drive arguably cemented that reinvention. He's wonderful here, warm and weathered and genuinely moving.

The violence, when it comes, is sudden and brutal in a way that genuinely shocked me the first time. Refn lulls you into the mood of the thing, that dreamy, lo-fi romanticism, and then floors it. It's jarring on purpose. It tells you something about the Driver that all his silences couldn't quite manage on their own.

If you loved this as much as I did and want to follow Refn and Gosling further down that particular rabbit hole, I'd point you towards Only God Forgives, though go in with adjusted expectations because it's a much stranger, colder beast. And for more of Gosling doing extraordinary work in morally complicated crime drama, The Place Beyond the Pines is essential viewing.

Five stars. No caveats. Drive is the real thing.

Rating: ★★★★★  | Year: 2011  | Watched: 2025-04-06

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Where to watch

Watch in the UK
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Related on Movies With Macca

More from Nicolas Winding Refn: Only God Forgives (2013)
More with Ryan Gosling: Only God Forgives (2013) · The Nice Guys (2016) · The Place Beyond the Pines (2012)
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More drama: Viy (1967) · Wonder (2017) · A Better Tomorrow (1986) · Beautiful Boy (2018)
More thriller: Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956) · Angst (1983) · The Long Walk (2025) · Punishment Park (1971)