Best of 2011: Movies
Film: Drive
Director: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks

2011 was the year of Ryan Gosling. He had the comedy hit, Crazy, Stupid, Love. which almost made this list, political drama The Ides of March, which I want to see, and this criminally Oscar-snubbed masterpiece. Drive tells the story of The Driver, who agrees to help his neighbour’s ex-con husband with one last job, so the family will be left in peace. However, when it all goes inevitably wrong, the Driver finds himself on a blood-fueled journey to take revenge on those that wronged him. First thing that got me, it was a far gorier movie than I expected. I normally don’t like gore, but that’s usually because it’s gore for gore’s sake. Drive’s gore had purpose. It was showing just how violent the Driver was becoming to his enemies and how protective he was becoming towards his neighbour. Performance-wise, I haven’t seen a better one than Gosling in this. Definitely the performance of the year, for me, with Albert Brooks’ as a close second. If you’re a crime fan, or a Gosling fan, you owe it to yourself to see this movie. Movie of the year.