Review of Drive

The thing about this film is, I just couldn’t get it out of my head for the next two hours. Usually that’s something we equate with music not film, but in the case of Drive that is the effect it had on me. It got under my skin and infiltrated me in a way music does and it was all down to the atmosphere it created. Watching Drive is like a long summer evening after a barbeque, when your still a little tipsy and then suddenly out of nowhere a thunderstorm erupts. 

Nicolas Winding Refn’s film is so aesthetically pleasing that he really could have got away with anything in it. The music by Kavinsky and the use of the colour purple gives the film an eighties quality that is very Prince circa Red Corvette era. It’s these choices by Refn that give the opening of the film an exciting feel, as a viewer you immediately become attached to Ryan Gosling’s ‘Driver’. You don’t really understand who he is but when he meets Carey Mulligan’s ‘Irene’, you sense the beginnings of a love story and that everything will be all right. 

Refn said eloquently on BBC breakfast ‘Violence is like fucking...it’s all about the build up’. As the film progresses it emerges that this opening with it’s cool eighties soundtrack, cars and edgy protagonist has all been one massive tease, suddenly the film kicks off into a violent orgy of shootings and beatings. Yet Refn continues to titillate his audience with that soundtrack and all the things we were turned on by at the beginning of the film.  ‘Driver’s’ varsity-style jacket remains on him throughout, gradually getting more and more soaked in blood. 

What Refn does is give us something stylish and sexy to entice us and then he sabotages it right in front of our eyes. We see our hero do things we could never of imagined he was capable of. I have to admit that at this point in the film I got slightly frustrated with it, it reminded me of the Cohen Brothers’ No Country for Old Men where things just get a little confusing and dragged out. But NCFOM didn’t have the atmosphere that Drive has, so it didn’t stay with me as long. 

I turned the film off feeling a little unsatisfied, yet the mood of the film remained within me, so whether I enjoyed the film or not seems irrelevant as it certainly seemed to have had an affect on me. After hearing interviews with Refn it is clear he knew what it was he was making and so I find it hard to simply dismiss this film as violent. 

If you like Tarantino then you’ll love this film and probably not worry about the violence. For those of you who are little more squeamish or have issues with cinematic violence, I’d still say give it a go as this isn’t violence for violence sake. 

Sherlock

Right so I went to see the new Guy Ritchie Sherlock last night and I couldn't help but compare it to the BBC's modern Sherlock. I have to say the BBC's Sherlock is far superior in terms of script and production, mainly because it is more engaging than the films. The films are great entertainment and there are some stunning visual effects. The penultimate scenes where Sherlock and co are running through the woods being shot at by Moriarty's men is the highlight of the film and brings to mind the action sequences from films like House of Flying Daggers.

However the BBC's version is just a lot slicker and there seems to be more thought behind it. Both productions use slo-mo but the Cumberbatch version justifies the use as a way of glimpsing into the working of Sherlock's mind. One episode sees Sherlock delving into his mind palace and the production helps the viewer to comprehend this. Ritchie's Sherlock uses the slo-mo to predict the fighting which doesn't really have the same effect as it gets a bit predictable by the end of the film.

The differences in the two portrayals of Sherlock are amusing, Downey's muscular but emotionally weak Sherlock is a mirror image of Cumberbatch's lanky but mentally strong detecive. The two Dr Watson's are pretty much identical with only Law's Watson being slightly more energetic and charismatic than Freeman's characterisation.

I would recommend seeing the film and then buying the serialised version for repetitive viewing.

Travellers

I stumbled in from work last night and found myself watching a programme about Travellers. My first reaction was ‘oh hell, another Gypsy wedding type malarky’. However BBC 1’s Travellers was an intriguing and poignant look at two different communities of Scottish Travellers. The programme is one of three being shown in the next few weeks. What was so captivating about this programme was the intimacy of the interviews and footage shown. Channel 4’s Gypsy Weddings seemed to be more about show and shock value, whereas this programme showed a more fragile and desperate community trying to cling on to their traditions. The scene showing two of the families camping on the Island of Isla, living harmoniously alongside locals, demonstarted the possibility of a future for Travelling families. However this was juxtaposed with the following scene showing them being handed eviction notices at another camp after a fight broke out with local youths. The ‘traveller community’ is something of a hot topic right now, particularly with the impending closure of Dale Farm, so it’s important to see a more human side of their lives being documented rather than the tabloid baiting public side shown in ‘Gypsy Weddings’.