BEFORE: It's a new month, November, and I'm finally starting the chain that will take me to the end of the year. I think it will be 20 films in November and 18 in December, with multiple appearances by Ryan Gosling, Emma Stone, both Hemsworth brothers, Harrison Ford, Robin Wright, Ben Affleck, Jennifer Lawrence, Chris Pratt, Peter Sarsgaard, Eric Roberts, John Waters, Christina Applegate, André Benjamin, Weird Al Yankovic, Tim Robbins, Fisher Stevens, Carrie Fisher, and Tom Hanks. (There you go, an enterprising person could probably guess most of my remaining line-up from just those acting links...)
But I'm getting ahead of myself again. Tonight Bryan Cranston carries over from "Godzilla" and let's start chipping away at the Ryan Gosling films. I heard about this film a couple of years ago, it seems to have developed something of a cult following a few years after its 2011 release, so I kept an eye out for it. But no premium channel seemed interested in playing it, so I waited and I waited and it was on my secondary watchlist for probably three years before it popped up on PPV for $2.99 a month or two ago. If it hadn't, I probably would have paid that to watch it on iTunes today - as it now serves as important connective tissue.
THE PLOT: A mysterious Hollywood stuntman and mechanic moonlights as a getaway driver and finds himself in trouble when he helps out his neighbor.
AFTER: This seems like a very simple film at first - a man does what he does best, which is drive a car, and he does it in several different ways, as a stuntman and as a wanna-be race car driver. (And he's a mechanic, and he's a getaway driver. Where does he find the time to eat dinner and, you know, do his laundry and stuff?). But let's assume for the moment that one man can hold down these four jobs since he's good at the driving and stuff.
The problem seems to be one of crossover and contamination - for three of these jobs he's working for the same guy, who's a stunt coordinator/garage owner/wanna-be racing team coach. Again, let's assume for the moment he's also a similarly skilled multi-tasker. But through him all of these jobs are connected to the mob - the Jewish L.A. mob, but still, the mob. (Surprisingly, the always-great Albert Brooks did not get an Oscar nomination for his turn here as the mobster who seems very nice on the surface, but probably isn't if you happen to cross him.).
And we really, really want to think that our nameless hero, the driver, is so good at what he does, that maybe he can pull off all these dangerous things and go on unscathed, that maybe he can lie down with dogs and not wake up with fleas, just because he's so good. Or is he lucky? I've heard it's better to be lucky than good - or is it the other way around? He seems like a nice guy, very clean-cut, he's got a nice budding relationship with his cute neighbor and her son, and we want things to keep going his way. But can they? Or is his luck inevitably going to run out, one of these times.
The deal the driver's got going on the side - after he finishes his other three jobs and presumably grabs a meal and some shut-eye - is to show up at a particular time and place with a running car and an open door, and his client has five minutes to jump in the car. No questions asked, and he won't carry a gun, but the client is in his car (assuming he makes the 5-minute window) then the driver's going to get him out of there. Hey, he saw a niche in the marketplace - freelance getaway driver - and he made it his own.
And I want to keep on thinking that this film is very simple, and therefore very elegant in its simplicity, just because it's so stylized and very, very cool. Ryan Gosling as a driving superhero of sorts in a white satin jacket. Very cool, and this beat "Baby Driver" to the punch by a good four years! With his knowledge of the L.A. streets, and knowing which cars blend in the best and the police tend to ignore, plus street smarts, plus pluck and spirit, and how can you not root for him?
But my fear is that if I start to pick this story apart, it's going to unravel like a poorly knitted sweater. Coincidences abound, and maybe things could really happen this way, but it's all a little too pat, too compact, as if there's only 10 or 20 people in the criminal underworld of Los Angeles, and I know in my heart that can't be the case, it's a city of like 4 million people, right? And if he's so good at getting lost in the city, how come the people who want to hurt him keep finding him, again and again?
I'm going to stop looking for NITPICK POINTS, because part of me just doesn't want to find them tonight. I want to keep this one pure and honest, and simple and elegant. It came into my life, it held my attention for 1 hour 40 minutes, and it did what it set out to do. So let's leave it at that.
Also starring Ryan Gosling (last seen in "The Big Short"), Carey Mulligan (last seen in "Pride & Prejudice"), Albert Brooks (last heard in "Finding Dory"), Oscar Isaac (last seen in "Ex Machina"), Ron Perlman (last seen in "Comic Book: The Movie"), Christina Hendricks (last seen in "Zoolander 2"), Russ Tamblyn (last seen in "Django Unchained"), Joe Pingue (last seen in "Room"), Andy San Dimas, Kaden Leos, Jeff Wolfe, James Biberi.
RATING: 6 out of 10 driving gloves
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