Drive (2011)

This movie has a modern noir feel to it with an L.A. back lit neon quality. It harkens back to the sort of calmness that characterized private detectives of the 1940's movies. The Maltese Falcon, complete with the sparse dialog and the questionable morals. Very little facial expression. Lots of violence--not unjustified, not out of place for the film's context, but voluminous, none-the-less. And tension--the tension comes not from the feat of getting caught, or law enforcement's presence, but from the unpredictable nature of the two sides involved. This is basically a movie about bad guys and worse guys. Setting all this off is the spectacular cinematography, showing L.A. off at it's gritty best. The colors pop and we feel like we are in the passenger seat of the car during the long driving scenes. Now, to the plot. Ryan Gosling is the driver in 'Drive'. That is what he does--he is a stunt car driver in movies, but he is also a wheel man for robberies. He maintains his cool under pressure, he always has a plan B, and he is smart. The one chink in his armor is his weakness for his next door neighbor. He falls for Irene, and her son, Benecio while her husband, Standard, is in prison--when Standard gets out, he has some significant debts to pay off. Gosling feels compelled to help him out, and that is when things start to spiral downwards for him, despite all his talents. It is an understated movie with almost no dialogue and an ambiguous ending. If you like noir, you'll like this.