DEATH OF TRADITIONAL CINEMA

A marital breakdown is interesting subject for cinematic discussion as it is, but Derek Cianfrance pushes the boundaries further, making the journey of discovery for us a bit more poignant and bittersweet by juxtaposing the back story of how his two main characters met, fell in love, and started a new life.  Cindy (Michelle Williams) and Dean (Ryan Gosling) seem an okay couple living an ordinary life with their young daughter, but we see that Cindy is discontent and frustrated, and Dean starting to implode. Cindy wants Dean to achieve more from his life, yet Dean says that he's already content with his job (as a house painter) that allows him to be with his family everyday. Meanwhile, Cindy works her ass off as an on call nurse, all the while resisting sexual hints from her boss and a former flame whom she has a chance encounter. This puts a heavier load on her already strained perspective at her marriage to Dean. Through flashbacks, there is a reference to marital relationships...

Refn is a filmmaker who has style, but he bored me to death with VALHALLA RISING. I was willing to give him a second chance. So I watched DRIVE. It's one film you can readily consider a midnight movie, (not particularly referencing to the 'midnight movie' phenomena) because it is perfect for a midnight watch, like if you have a lineup of films to see, DRIVE would be the main event. Ryan Gosling is breathtaking to watch in a very tense and controlled performance of a stunt driver moonlighting as a getaway vehicle driver. He gets in the crosshairs of the mob and a beautiful young mother (Carey Mulligan), where the angelic, humble simpleton transforms into a crusader of righteousness. DRIVE has as its central character the quintessential innocent man pitted against the grand scheme of things, and affairs that are not really his; his biggest mistake is that he cared for another human being/s. Any Coen Brothers film would have this element, yet filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn...