In which I dribble incoherently about Drive.

I'm trying to think of a good place to start. That preceding paragraph isn't really one, but it'll have to do.

The best thing about Drive is relentless, constantly ratcheting tension. The action scenes are masterfully composed of pauses and flurries of action. Things are carefully left off-screen or deliberately placed on-screen to heighten shock and excitement. Even peaceful, romantic scenes are built from a series of lingering, loaded shots of long silences.

But wait, that makes it sound boring. And it's the furthest thing from a boring movie. Even with all those long, tense blocks of silence, the whole thing moves along at a good, steady clip. It feels as if it's been trimmed of all narrative fat. Only the essentials are shown, just enough for us to understand the relationships, scenarios, and motivations. It's not an acting showcase, although its cast is stellar (I mean, come on--Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, Christina Hendricks--you can't get a much better ensemble than that). I doubt that a whole lot of Oscar nods for acting are going to come its way, if only because nobody has all that many lines. But the cast are all fantastic nonetheless.

The soundtrack is wonderful. Even listing to it on its own evokes the film's moodiness and tension brilliantly. It's very synth-y and '80s-y, but doesn't grate on me the same way, say, the Blade Runner soundtrack often does. The violence is shocking, surprising, and often graphic, but I found it making me smile more than grimace. I think I was just dazzled by how artfully and matter-of-factly it was integrated into the narrative--no ominous music or melodramatic buildup. At the same time as much of the movie (most notably Gosling's character's relationship with Mulligan's) seemed to exist in a kind of heightened reality, the violence was gritty and visceral.

Anyway, I could keep talking about it for a long time. In short, I thought Drive was wonderful, and I encourage you all to see it too and let me know what you think.