An excellent driver – in daylight he performs stunt stunts on the set of Hollywood, and at night he plays a risky game. But one dangerous contract – and a reward is assigned for his life. Now, in order to stay alive and save his charming neighbor, he must do what he knows best – masterly escape from the pursuit.

4k movies reviews
The city of Los Angeles has 127 thousand streets. And no one knows them better than Ted. He works in a car service during the day, and sometimes does stunts in Hollywood films as a hobby. At night, he is engaged in “private cab”. Only the usual transportation of passengers from point A to point B, this can hardly be called. Complete freedom of action for the employer and a time interval of 5 minutes made him an irreplaceable person behind the wheel. However, even perfect people are not immune to mistakes. An attempt to pay off the debt for her neighbor’s husband became such a “puncture” for the protagonist. By contacting the wrong people, he endangered not only himself, but also his loved ones. And in this situation, he has no choice but to retaliate and start the most important race in his life.

Talking about the movie “Drive”, first of all, I really want to avoid any obvious analogies in all possible ways. Of course, even the most inexperienced viewer will easily sweep through his head an alternative in the form of “Carrier” with Jason Statham, very popular in our country. But that would be an extremely significant misconception about Nicholas Winding Röfn’s tape. Of course, operating only with the synopsis and trailer data, one can even ask with surprise: “How long has it been in Cannes to give awards to films of this kind?”. Only here there is a more important question arising from the first – namely, what kind of film is “Drive”?

After all, there are no fools sitting on the Cote d’Azur. It is unlikely that they would begin to honor the tape so much, the place of which would be on a large plasma in a circle of friends with beer under their armpits. Despite the seeming simplicity, “Drive” is much more complicated. This is a movie about ordinary people who do not know the techniques of kung fu and are hardly capable of performing deadly actions after bathing in machine oil. But thus it is remarkable. The pop-corn show this year was more numerous and empty than ever, but there were quite a few truly life pictures. No wonder, by the way, the slogan of the film sounds like “Some Heroes Are Real”. Indeed, in order to be able to do something, one does not need to have any super abilities, it is enough just to be a good person.

– You have 5 minutes.
– I will be in 4.

It is also worth noting that from any possible comparisons in the direction of the untwisted tapes of Luc Beson and his comrades, the picture of Röfn disowns, almost from the very beginning. The director is not at all delighted with the lightning-fast action, although sometimes he allows the plot locomotive to be launched at full speed. Most of the time, he presents his production to the viewer with concentration and extremely carefully, like a surgeon during a complex operation, he moves step by step to the viewer’s heart, so that at one of the moments he will capture it and not let it go.

Sometimes he deliberately overexposes the frame, but he does this only so that the viewer has more time to feel the characters and understand what they think and what drives their actions. Driver – Ted for us is generally an empty book, filling the “pages” of which is left to us. This move, of course, will not be approved by everyone. On the other hand, there is no better opportunity for the birth of an associative and sympathetic beginning in people in the audience than a chance to “fantasize” the hero on the screen.

Of course, the film was a success not only due to the excellent direction, but also due to the presence in it of Ryan Gosling, who in “Drive” portrays a man of incredible charisma and charm. In one moment he is damn sweet and reserved, in another he is deadly. At the same time, it is clearly visible that the second half of his personality, he likes much less than the first.

Everything is in order with the soundtrack, from the electronic theme Kavinsky & Lovefoxxx to the shattering score created by Cliff Martinez. At the same time, a characteristic detail: in the most tense moments, such as chases or fights, the director prefers not to use typical energetic music, but to show everything that is called, in its essence, without unnecessary artistic elements.

Well, in a separate line it is worth mentioning the finale, in which an extremely remarkable and far from obvious at first glance detail is hidden. I remember a similar trick pulled by Nolan last year, which made the whole world, in the credits of his film, wonder whether the top fell or not? But if the Englishman preferred an understatement, then Refn gives answers to all the available questions, only taking a purely “Moscow Art pause”, for which the viewer not only solves the problem of the main character’s life, but also answers the question of what kind of film is “ Drive”.

Info Blu-ray
Video
Codec: HEVC / H.265 (71.7 Mb/s)
Resolution: Upscaled 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1

Audio
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: Dolby Digital 5.1
German: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1

Subtitles
English SDH, German