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Oftentimes, films require emotional heft and topicality to be considered valid cinema. However, there are occasions that such self-indulgent celebration of artifice lacks a substratum of relevance to real issues, social or political, and, in the magnification of viscera and superficiality, functions as an experience laden with mood and atmosphere to the extent that it exceeds all expectations and registers as pure cinematic pleasure.
All the ingenuity in terms of its neon-drenched aesthetic, highly apt and synonymous synth-saturated soundtrack and inexplicably mesmeric ambience provides an opportunity for serious reflection on hypnotic retro cinema. "Drive" updates 1970s action and B-movie film-making styles, utilizing 1980s effulgent lighting and imagery, echoing preceding genres and reimagining them for a new generation to rediscover vicariously through the radiant, dream-like prism of Nicolas Winding Refn's dexterous, utterly enthralling neo noir. Not a single frame, word or moment feels inappreciably superfluous, and therein lies its sagacity: the director's fastidious execution daringly walks the precarious tightrope of cognate and formulaic, implementing a distinctive visual and aural world inhabited by a character as immediately captivating and enigmatic as The Man With No Name.
Despite its overarching mainstream appeal in the form of its laconic, pulchritudinous protagonist, lush LA setting and gratuitous violence, this is a meticulously constructed, orchestrated and designed homage to the past with revivifying art-house sensibilities. Brutal and bittersweet in equal measure, the story centres on a varsity jacket-wearing getaway driver and stuntman who becomes the target of the criminal underworld. Such outright escapism could have appeared gratifying and decadent from a less subjective, centralised directorial perspective, yet the essence of its source material and litany of influences are formatted into the vacuum of the film. Refn's thematic preoccupation and recognizable visual style are indicative of his newfound position as an independent auteur operating within the Hollywood model. Unfortunately, due to the elusive nature of most breakout indie hits and the law of diminishing returns, "Drive" may end up being considered the premature peak of Refn's career... then again, lightning can strike twice.
