It's almost funny how I consider Drive one of the greatest films of modern cinema and one of the ultimate neo-noir achievements of the last decade, but when it comes to the rest of director Nicolas Wending Refn's ouevre, there is not a single film outside this masterpiece that I took something meaningful away from.

Even though Drive works as a logical extension to the stylistic approach Refn takes for his movies, everything here functions with such determined control over the craft that it comes together with vigorous power in an energetic neo-noir genre entry. Refn cleverly uses his inspirations and homages to the classics of crime cinema to create something that is totally unique, applying powerful audiovisual instruments for an unforgettably cinematic experience. On the other hand, any of the other Refn movies I have seen so far (The Neon Demon, Valhalla Rising, Only God Forgives, Bronson) seemed like the embodiment of a film-maker taking years of work to establish a profoundly unique directorial signature only to forget how to wring any kind of substance out of the subject matters he tackles. Drive is the perfect film for a director with such stylistic sharpness; coupled with the fact that for once, Nicolas Winding Refn did not write this film himself (what a relief), and with the fact that Drive has some of my favorite cinematography, a pitch-perfect soundtrack and the impeccable Cliff Martinez score that I could listen to all day long, this stands out as one of my favorite movies of the 2010s and a film that I can watch over and over again without getting bored.

Included in:
2011 | Favorite Film by Year
Nicolas Winding Refn | Ryan Gosling | Heist | Suspense

Previous non-reviews: here, here and here

(Little disclaimer, I haven't seen the Pusher trilogy and/or his recent television shows yet, so who knows, my opinion of his filmography might still change. We'll see...)