Drive

It hasn't been the greatest year for movies outside of superhero films. Before September, the best film of the year was easily X-Men: First Class, rivaled by a bit of movie hangover by Rise of the Planet of the Apes. September brings 2 movies that make us believe in the movies again, 50/50 and Drive.

Drive tells the tale of the Driver, an anonymous young man who works as a movie stunt driver by day and a getaway driver by night. As a getaway driver, he has certain conditions: He must always remain anonymous, he will only work for someone once, and he will only wait for 5 minutes before he starts the getaway. Drive doesn't ever attempt to make car chases with explosions or 50 car pile ups, instead aiming for realism and brevity, allowing the sound of roaring engines to be the soundtrack.

Before seeing Drive, one should not watch the 2 minute long trailer for the movie, because it spoils the entire plot of the movie in just 2 short minutes. The plot of the film isn't particularly unique, having been seen before in several movies, television shows, and other works of art beforehand, but what makes Drive unique is how memorable each shot of the movie is and how incredibly well the soundtrack narrates the film, culminating with one of the most bizarre moments of romance I've ever witnessed in a film, with the song "A Real Hero" by College playing in the background, almost reassuring his love interest (played excellently by Carey Mulligan) that the Driver is in fact a good person even though he is about to do something very terrible; "A Real Hero" not being nominated for Best Original Song in a Motion Picture would be an incredible disservice.

There are 2 fair warnings to Drive before viewing or considering viewing: every moment of violence is done in incredible amounts and does not sugar coat realism in favor of a PG-13 rating for broader appeal, and there are very long stretches of the film that have no dialogue or less than 10 words spoken between characters. The last time I saw a film with this little dialogue was Bambi, for a point of reference. This film is done so well though, that it does not need dialogue to pad the length or big, long winded speeches explaining a character's motives; Drive does not treat its viewers like idiots and assumes they are intelligent.

Simply put, Drive is the best film of the year thus far.

Final Score: 5 scorpion jackets out of 5