Drive

Drive feels more like a study than a movie. An exercise in film noir, running down a check-list of film noir ingredients but without any kind of emotional point. The filmmakers don’t seem to understand L.A. in a real way. All the particulars about L.A., Hollywood, and its residents seems to be hastily lifted from old detective novels. Yes, it's violent. No more than anything else. But the violence is frustrating because it's uncharacteristically brutal, lacking any kind of dramatic or ironic point. Nebulous plot, unmotivated characters, and not much driving for a movie called "drive." The only thing that makes it "artsy" is the weird, French carnival music that plays during some of the action scenes, which made me roll my eyes. And it’s replete with Dutch angles. I could practically hear the director screaming for more Dutch angels. It’s not all bad. It had potential. It was fun to see Albert Brooks as a stab-happy villain. And there’s a bitchin’ scene in an elevator. But… meh.