Few actors in recent memory can match the star power of Ryan Gosling. Outside of being one of the most overwhelmingly gorgeous men on the planet (is it any surprise that both the girls and guys want him?), his career has surprised us at every turn, thanks to his dramatic versatility and effortless charisma. In the last decade alone, he charmed virtually everyone with a delightful turn in La La Land and delivered a beautifully restrained performance in the criminally underrated First Man.
Simultaneously, as anyone who’s seen him in interviews or watched his SNL hosting stint can attest to, he’s maybe one of the funniest people alive. But it arguably wasn’t until 2023 that that persona began to stick with audiences when he was just Ken. Yet long before Gosling gave one of the best comedic turns of the 21st century, he starred in an avant-garde heist film, Drive, where his understated performance proved genuinely terrifying. The movie is unquestionably one of Gosling’s finest hours, and given that it’s now available on Tubi, it’s finally time to watch it if you haven’t yet.
What Is Ryan Gosling’s ‘Drive’ About?
Release Date
September 16, 2011
Runtime
100 minutes
Drive, directed by Nicolas Winding Refn (of the Pusher trilogy fame), saw its buzz skyrocket virtually overnight upon its premiere at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival. Refn won the festival’s Best Director award, and word quickly spread about Ryan Gosling’s lead performance, which saw him take on an action role for the first time in his career and thus prove his versatility to the few still on the fence about his talents.
The movie, based on James Sallis’s 2005 novel of the same name, revolves around an unnamed Hollywood stunt driver (Gosling) who also secretly works as a getaway driver for robbers during the night. Falling in love with his next-door neighbor (Carey Mulligan), he agrees to help her husband (a pre-breakout Oscar Isaac) pull off a heist to repay his debts. Things quickly go wrong, and everyone involved with the plan soon finds themselves in mortal danger.
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It sounds like a predictable setup for a typical heist thriller, but Drive is anything but predictable or typical. The entire first half is almost entirely devoid of action, instead immersing us in the driver’s day-to-day life and proving more of a meditative character study than an action flick. The driver spends large portions of the film without dialogue, evoking a Clint Eastwood-type outlaw figure trying to escape from a mysterious past and refraining from resorting to violence except when given no other option.
When the violence inevitably erupts, it hits like a brick. Refn has never been any stranger to graphic content, and indeed, Drive sees shockingly brutal setpieces regularly explode out of nowhere, jolting us out of a sense of security and reminding us of the danger involved. The onscreen gore and sickening sound work (which earned Drive its lone Oscar nomination) are destined to make even the hardened stomachs feel nauseous.
‘Drive’ Is Stylish and Features Ryan Gosling at His Best
Another key factor that helps Drive avoid feeling too close to its influences is its inimitable style. Almost every shot feels precisely tuned to achieve maximum coolness, whether that means displaying Los Angeles’ gorgeous neon lighting, telling an entire story without dialogue, or holding on the characters long enough to create a trance-like effect. Unlike too many modern blockbusters, which feature muted color schemes, the saturated colors in Drive pop off the screen and help it feel like few other films in the genre. It thus feels every bit as indebted to Jean-Pierre Melville and Dario Argento as it does to Michael Mann.
The soundtrack also plays a huge part in defining the movie’s aesthetic. The opening heist is set to “Tick of the Clock” by Chromatics, which immediately sets the tone and gives the city of Los Angeles an unmistakably modern, digital atmosphere. The other needle drops are equally effective; “Nightcall” by Kavinsky plays over the opening credits, and its new-wave instrumentation helps the film to achieve a feeling both retro and contemporary. “A Real Hero” by College, used at multiple points throughout the runtime, gives a somewhat ironic leitmotif to the driver.
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However, none of this would hold together without Ryan Gosling, who gives the film a terrifying beating heart. While he’s always been one of our more versatile actors, the range he displays in Drive alone is astonishing, as the scenes he shares with Carey Mulligan and her child showcase sincere affection and a puppy-dog-like eagerness to please. In contrast, the heist scenes show the driver as an individual seemingly only capable of thinking pragmatically, and in the moments in which he realizes he can’t deny his violent nature, Gosling has never been more animalistic onscreen.
All of this results in Drive proving one of the most daring and visionary action films of the last two decades and one that feels both classic and contemporary. It’s no wonder Refn’s masterwork became such a cult hit within just a few years, nor is it any surprise that it once and for all shut up any of Ryan Gosling’s naysayers. If you’re all about vibes in your heist thrillers, it’s hard to do much better than Drive. Drive is now streaming for free on Tubi.
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