Stripped down to 100 minutes, the standout 'sexiness' and 'madness' of the reticent Ryan Gosling [Drive] | #Meigaza Spooks

Happy New Year, everyone.
I am Ito, an employee of Meigaza Spooks.

I hope to spend another wonderful movie-filled year with all of you.
Thank you for your continued support.

The first work I would like to recommend in 2023 is 'Drive', starring Ryan Gosling.

The protagonist, played by Ryan Gosling, has two faces: by day, he is a mechanic at a garage and a movie stunt driver, and by night, he is a getaway driver who uses his superb driving skills to help robbers escape.
(...A few months ago, I wrote a review for 'Baby Driver,' which has a similar premise. Since I watched this 'Drive' without any prior information and it turned out to be this kind of story, I am currently spending my nights worried that I might secretly want to become a 'getaway driver' in my subconscious.)

The driver, played by Ryan, gets to know a married woman living in the same apartment and eventually falls in love with her, but soon after her husband is released from prison, the story moves in an unwanted direction... and ultimately steers toward a violent suspense... that is the general plot.

Now, speaking of the lead actor Ryan Gosling, I think he is most strongly associated with 'La La Land' in recent years—excuse me, 'La La Land'—but he is a versatile actor who can also do slightly cheeky action comedies like 'The Nice Guys!'.
For me, last year's 2022 action movie 'The Gray Man' was by far the most interesting action movie I've seen in the last few years.
Like 'Drive', 'The Gray Man' also depicts him as a man of few words, and he was cool every step of the way!

By the way, if I may talk a little more about the action masterpiece 'The Gray Man', there is a scene where Sierra Six, the ace agent played by Ryan Gosling, has someone important to him captured by the enemy.
He finally manages to rescue them and opens the door to the room where they are being held.
At that moment, he opens the door and handles it in such a stylish and cool way; I was glued to this scene many times.If it were you, what kind of lines or actions would you use to express this 'stylish and cool' moment?

If it were me,

first I would open the door and say, 'Is the party here?' ...This is a very easy-to-understand technique of tension and relaxation, using the word 'party' in a tense scene to act stylishly.

And then, I would approach the target and say, 'This is my vacation swimsuit, is it okay to try it on here?' ...and like this, with a witty, sexy, and slightly mischievous...
line that I, Ito, pride myself on, I think I would rescue them smartly (lol).

But, however,
Ryan Gosling is different!!!!

The door to the hostage's room clicks open.
What will he say? What will he say~~~!?
Ryan enters quietly and slowly casts his gaze around the room.

What will he say?? Hey, what is it~~~!?

...

...A single wink with his right eye. And silence.

Zap, zap, zap.
Electricity ran through me. How cool is that!!!! After calmly and silently completing the mission, and having survived death many times over, one fight, one wink!
If I were in the same position, no matter how smart a line I used to rescue them, I would then go on and on about how hard it was, acting self-righteously (lol).
But Ryan pulls off that whole sequence with such flowing coolness.


I've talked for a long time, but you can feel that sexiness in this 'Drive' as well.

He performs his 'getaway driver' driving techniques silently and calmly. In the beginning, after briefly introducing Ryan's cool and sexy daily life,
it moves to a sequence where he meets Carey Mulligan, who is a married woman, and they are drawn to each other.
In this series of events in the beginning, just like in the aforementioned scene in 'The Gray Man', Ryan hardly speaks any lines, expressing himself only through his expressions and gaze.

I think one of the elements of a cool and sexy man is 'mysteriousness', and not saying much and captivating with one's actions is truly mysterious!!!!

And this work is compact and without waste, with a runtime of 100 minutes. It establishes itself by stripping away as much unnecessary information as possible, such as situational explanations and changes in emotions.

…That said, isn't the way they get close a bit too stripped down?How much did they fall in love?? I kept complaining to my smartphone while watching (lol), but I can still accept it.
Why? Because the sunset and music drive scene is so enchanting that even someone like me, who is picky about what's on screen, gets captivated.
This part is incredibly beautiful, and it makes you stop caring about how quickly they became a couple. You can fully enjoy the cinematography, the choice of music, and the director's sense of style.

However, from this point on, once Carey's husband, the macho outlaw played by Oscar Isaac, is released from prison, the story begins to move significantly.
Since the protagonist is a "getaway driver" with a criminal background, I think anyone could predict that it would head toward a catastrophic story.

But the brilliance of this film lies in how it tells that story.
The moment it shifts into a crime thriller sequence, it suddenly turns into a tense, gory experience.
There are pros and cons to the grotesque expression. Many people might wonder why such a depiction was necessary. I spent 40 minutes thinking about whether it was necessary while taking my daily half-bath, but I couldn't figure it out.

However, it is certain that because the tone of the film changed there, it became an impressive movie for me. And it is also certain that the beautiful drive scenes became even more vivid.

Even that sexy and cool Ryan, who is taciturn but gets the job done when it counts, lets his inner madness bloom within that grotesque tone.
Because he showed duality within a short performance, you might be confused while watching at first. However, by doing so, I think it manages to express "complex human emotions" that go beyond just good and evil.

Now, after watching, I thought it was a film with a strong auteur style, so I looked up the director.
The Danish director, "Nicolas Winding Refn."
Looking into it a bit more, I found that this film was created after Ryan himself approached the director, with the sentiment that he didn't want it to be just an action movie, but wanted to carefully depict the inner lives of the characters.
And the director also won the Best Director award at the Cannes Film Festival for this film. It's a convincing anecdote and award.
I even felt a bit of the atmosphere of a Kitano film.

"Kindness" and "Madness"—.

This was a high-quality film that neatly wrapped that up in a short runtime, both visually and emotionally!

This film was not nominated for an Academy Award, and it seems that Russell Crowe, who co-starred with him in "The Nice Guys!", was quite furious about it, asking why! I can kind of understand that, too.

I hope you all watch it and get to feel the same way as Russell Crowe! (lol)

"Drive" is now streaming on SPOOX!

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