Mads Mikkelsen becomes a rising commodity

Last year seemed to be the year of bombastic new talent, or at least the full realization of existing talent. I mean, Ryan Gosling and Michael Fassbender certainly existed long before 2011, but they really came into their own stardom this past year. So there's an obvious question of who is left to come into their own this year? I could make a strong bid for Rachel Weisz, who has already proved quite shiveringly powerful in "The Deep Blue Sea", and she still has "The Bourne Legacy" and Terrence Malick's "To the Wonder" coming up. Joseph Gordon-Levitt, too, is in a position of really defining himself, split between films like "The Dark Knight Rises", "Looper", "Premium Rush", and Steven Spielberg's "Lincoln".

On the horizon, however, I can sense that people are just on the edge of singing someone else's praises, and that man is Mads Mikkelsen. It's true that he's surely not new to the game, having appeared as a Bond villain in "Casino Royale", and worked with Nicolas Winding Refn numerous times on films like "Pusher", "Bleeder", and "Valhalla Rising". He's not quite a household name, though that could change rather soon given quite a few opportunistic projects opening up for the skilled actor. The man has recently taken the Best Actor award at this year's Cannes Film Festival for "The Hunt", and that seems to be the catapult for this recent surge of activity.

CANNES 2012 WRAP-UP: Best of the Fest

After a long, exhausting, and honestly rather underwhelming, week of the Cannes Film Festival, plenty thoughts and feelings are going about. There's plenty optimism towards the unseen properties of the year, as well there should be. There hasn't been a reaction from the fest that's absolutely demolished my anticipation for any single film. Are there a few out there? Absolutely, with the utmost being most definitively Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone in Love", but then again, what could you really expect? Even the atmosphere of the film seemed rather cooler than that of "Certified Copy". I am still quite completely intrigued by what Kiarostami has to offer with this piece, but it's definitely now more of an object than a film.

Another weakened film, quite massively in fact, is Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly" which has had a divided response from the festival, but not so encouragingly. The main word I've heard wringing from the films rags is "heavy-handed", which I never find to be an encouraging feature. Still interested? Again, absolutely, but there's that massive weight that's restraining it far in advance. Topping off a triplet of deflated expectations is David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis", which is also dividing the festival up, though not to such leveling effect as "Killing Them Softly". It remains as intriguing a property as it was before Cronenberg brought it to the festival. There will be insane positivity right along with the negativity, and we should be glad to hear that.

CANNES 2012 AWARDS: "Amour" take the Palme!

Festival came. Festival went. This may have no inevitable bearing on the Oscar race this year, nor should it truly, but Cannes was a rather interesting time in our lives this year. The awards, on the other hand, I can't quite say so. Not that a whole lot of bad films took the wins. On the contrary, I've heard some rather good things regarding "Beyond the Hills", which took both Actress wins and Screenplay win for Mungiu. There's not a bad thing to be said about "Beasts of the Southern Wild", from all I've heard. Nor can truly be said about the Palme d'Or winner, Michael Haneke's "Amour". Who could complain for a film that got near universal praise.

The problem, as per usual, was that this was predictable and business as usual for the Cannes affair. Early rumors that Nanni Moretti hated "Holy Motors" seem to have come to fruition, which is a shame. I've heard quite a many crazy good things about that competition pic. Most ambiguous wins of the festival belong to the Jury winners, belonging to "Reality" by Matteo Garrone and "The Angel's Share" by Ken Loach. My knowledge of either? Slim, so slim in fact that I consider their wins alone to reason enough to be skeptical of them. It's a wait-and-see awards ceremony, to be certain. Far too unlike last year. The Palme to Malick? Director to Refn? Actress to Dunst? Actor to Dujardin? What a perfect fest! This year? What an imperfect one.

Palme d'Or: "Amour"

Grand Prix: "Reality"

Prix du Jury: "The Angel's Share"

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis"

We're so very close to the end of Cannes you could spit on it, and naturally that finally brings us this film we've all been waiting to get word on. David Cronenberg hit a rather rough patch with "A Dangerous Method", which managed to not be dangerous or truly methodical. His streak of intense place and period studies had run its course, and didn't really have much more to offer. "Cosmopolis" is exactly the film that he needed to put him not necessarily in the direction he was in before, but in the direction he needed to go from here. Naturally, word from Cannes has been positive, which seems to be too much of a slighting statement, and I doubt it will be when I get my crack at the film. It's notthing unanimous, and there's enough thorns in the works, but it's enough to inspire a metered response.

Guy Lodge (In Contention): "This is the richest, wittiest, most stimulating material Cronenberg has had to work with in a decade – not for nothing is it his first self-scripted feature since “eXistenZ” – but it will take further viewing and consideration for this writer to decide if the finished film, briskly paced and unapologetically talky as it is, quite makes good on the opportunity. As it stands, the permanently on-message postulating of “Cosmopolis” proves a little wearing, though perhaps more so to jaded patrons on their tenth day of festival viewing. Cronenberg’s keenness to cram as many of DeLillo’s words into a script that amounts to little more than a sequence of ornate two-person conversates threatens inertia, but the film largely avoids dullness."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Leos Carax's "Holy Motors"

So let's talk about Cannes films that came totally out of nowhere to surprise us with how brilliant they are. Last year that slot could so easily be filled by either "We Need to Talk About Kevin" or "Drive", films that journeyed beyond the beaten path to find something exciting and new. I hesitate to say the year prior was for "Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives", since that film has faded from memory a great deal since, and only really got attention due to Tim Burton's fancy for it.

In any case, the Cannes surprise is a well honored tradition to come in one shape or another, and this year seems to have finally delivered one such artifact to us in the form of Leos Carax's "Holy Motors". I have little to no knowledge of what the film is about, who is involved, or where it is coming from, but the sudden eruption of enthusiasm surrounding it is not something you turn your nose up at. Of course there's still "On the Road", "The Paperboy", "Mud", "Cosmopolis", and others to stir up the pot, but we may have our Palme D'or champion already.

Guy Lodge (Time Out London): "Weird, yes. But even at its most wilfully absurd (let’s just say chimpanzees are involved), there’s something fragile, tender and even truthful about Carax’s hall-of-mirrors irrationality, the sense of an artist so weary of decayed human realities that he has no choice but to twist them into the more beautiful shapes afforded by cinema. By the time the film ends with Scob subtly referencing the character she played 52 years ago in ‘Eyes Without a Face’, you might feel an involuntary shiver down the spine – it’s hard to say what forces are propelling this ecstatic, idiotic, fizzy, frightening provocation, but we’re moved by them too."

CANNES 2012 REACTION: Michael Haneke's "Amour"

I think we may actually have the film of the festival upon us with "Amour", the latest from challenging director Michael Haneke. Yes, I still have only seen his "Cache", but it only takes a single film of his to come to grips with an absolutely dynamic vision at the head of things. Never too intent on giving precious information away, Haneke has been known to leave us dangling in near endless despair, and a film titled "Amour" seems like no difference. The general response out of Cannes has been not just positive, but universally accepted as no Haneke film has been before.

David Jenkins (Little White Lies): "Haneke is interested in presenting the stages of decay, and bar one strange moment of sudden catatonia, we’re never forced to endure the pain of seeing Anna actually experiencing her strokes. George looks on, saddling the increasing demands of his wife’s malady while making sure that no-one – including the audience – see any physical manifestation of what must be overwhelming internal sadness."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Andrew Dominik's "Killing Them Softly"

Amongst the less easy-to-pin films of Cannes thus far is Andrew Dominik's follow-up to "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford". To be honest, if they told me "Killing Them Softly" was just a contemporary update of that previous work, I'd believe them. This has been a difficult film to follow, due to an uncertainty over how it will turn out. But as the festival keeps moving ever forward, we keep hearing positive, if not overly ecstatic, receptions. Somehow that feels worst than having several major disappointments, but we'll learn to forgive. That's where this film stands, not quite at being "hit of the festival", and instead being rather simply agreeable.

Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter): "The film noir crime dramas of the late 1940s and early 1950s were about a palpable unease in the country, but this remained a subtext rather than the overt subject of the films. Here, Dominik explicitly articulates his intended meanings, which have to do with money, institutional rot and what happens when you don’t keep your economic house in order. Either approach is valid but, perhaps in this day and age, audiences need their messages to be quick and direct. Killing Them Softly delivers them that way."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone in Love"

Can we give Abbas Kiarostami a little credit for even being able to come up with anything more after "Certified Copy"? It's a feat to make a movie like that, and doubtless a greater one to follow it up. If the Cannes reaction isn't quite so deliciously heated as it was for her previous work, I wouldn't read too much into it. As a matter of fact, don't read too much into any of these opinions. I'm likely to see all these films by close of year anyway. That may have set "Like Someone in Love" to sound like something of a letdown, and in quite a few eyes, it is. But there's enough positivity on the production side of things not to discount it entirely.

Kevin Jagernauth (The Playlist): "Originally working under the title "The End," Kiarostami certainly concludes the picture with a literal bang. What it all means will be left to the viewer to sort out, but it's clear Kiarostami is making some kind of a statement about how personalities can evolve as a result of perception of identity and image. Or something. We're not quite sure and the journey to get there and the work required to unravel the thematic mystery of the film doesn't seem to be worth the effort. There is a fine line between meeting an audience halfway and witholding enough without falling into self-indulgence, but Kiarostami can't make that balance here. Enigmatic and dull to a maddening degree, "Like Someone In Love" finds Kiarostami spinning his wheels."

Jordan Mintzer (Hollywood Reporter): "After deconstructing a would-be romance in the Tuscany-set Certified Copy, Iranian auteur Abbas Kiarostami takes another trip abroad to explore the depths of unrequited desire in the Japanese drama, Like Someone in Love. However, this being a Kiarostami movie, the “Like” part of the title (taken from the widely covered jazz standard) is to be taken quite literally here, and this enchanting affair (of sorts) between a retired professor and a gorgeous young call girl is never exactly what it seems. Upscale art houses and admirers of the Palme d’Or laureate will be the major clients of this tenderhearted and melancholic work, provided its intentions are not lost in translation."

Guy Lodge (Variety): "Kiarostami's second film set and shot outside his native Iran continues his exploration of other global territories as a direct means of expressing certain cinephilic affections. Just as the Tuscany-set "Certified Copy" casually traced around multiple aspects of Roberto Rossellini's "Voyage to Italy," the spartan Tokyo story of "Like Someone in Love" is laced with references to the filmography of Yasujiro Ozu, from obvious narrative cues like a young woman's affectless neglect of her visiting grandmother to subtler variations on the Japanese master's framing. Quite what the homage is supporting is harder to gauge, as Kiarostami's breezy, sometimes cruel tale of mistaken identity reads as a near-parody of Ozu's still-waters humanism."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: John Hillcoat's "Lawless"

It's rather easy to push powerful negativity towards a film for not being the greatest thing in the world, but there are some films that quite honestly aren't looking for that. It's hard to think that of them when they're in a competition to prove themselves better than the rest, but we'll forget about that requisite of the Cannes festival in the case of John Hillcoat's "Lawless". Word around the festival has been rather mixed, but I've heard enough good assessments to not discount this picture altogether. I very much look forward to the chance of checking it out once it turns the corner come August, so I'll just have to depend on these reviews as reassurance until then.

Guy Lodge (In Contention): "It might sound the most backhanded of compliments to begin a film review with praise for its hairdressing, but here goes: John Hillcoat's brisk, bloody and sharply appointed Prohibition thriller "Lawless" is the most immaculately barbered film in recent memory. From the pragmatically shaved planes of Tom Hardy's short-back-and-sides to Shia LaBeouf's dandily pomaded undercut to Guy Pearce's unforgivingly skunky centre-right parting, no tonsorial decision in this robust period piece has been idly or accidentally made, every style revealing something of the wearer's designs, demographic and disposition."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Pablo Larrain's "No"

If your blinders to anything beyond the competition slate have been up, it's rather understandable for you to have missed this hit of the fest. Indeed it would have flew over my head if it hadn't been previously raised to my attention via Guy Lodge, who's been enthusiastic toward Pablo Larrain's work before. As for his latest film, "No", it hit the festival on the side, but with no less enthusiastic murmurings surrounding it. As somebody who still hasn't seen "Post-Mortem" and is looking desperately for that first viewing, consider this a film waiting for my enthusiasm to truly hit in. In any case, the reviews are quite favorable towards the film, and spell good things for its future.

Guy Lodge (In Contention): "So when the the tersely titled "No" (A-), the final instalment of his purported trilogy of pincered Pinochet-era satires, showed up in the Fortnight, instead of nabbing a more coveted Competition or Un Certain Regard slot, we had reason to think that Larrain's penchant for audience-repelling grimness had reached some kind of almighty apex, despite the friendly star presence of pocket radical Gael Garcia Bernal. As much of a kick as that might have been for us existing fans, however, it's even more gratifying to see Larrain wrongfoot us all by closing out the set with his most narratively robust and emotionally rousing film to date, a hearty celebration of hard-earned democracy spiked with just enough of the director's acidly crooked humor to remind us whose house we're in."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: "Madagascar 3: Europe's Most Wanted"

Wait, what? Oh yeah, there are plenty of out-of-competition films looking to gain popularity amongst the festival crowd, or at least a little bit of buzz ahead of their releases. Usually they fit the position of opening night, but seeing as that slot has been host to more indie oriented flicks lately, they've found other avenues within the festival. Suffice it to say that "Madagascar 3" is getting a great deal more favor than "Pirates of the Caribbean" did when it showed up begrudgingly last year. Of course there are going to be people too set into their serious festival goer caps to give this film the time of day, but it's not one to simply dismiss, especially given the positive words that have eked their way out. This one's looking to be a sweet little dalliance.

Justin Chang (Variety): "This is the rare animated property that has consistently improved on its ho-hum origins, as 2008's "Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa" delivered unexpectedly fine character shadings and a less grating sense of humor than the 2005 franchise-starter. Given an extra-loopy comic spin by scribes Noah Baumbach (who previously ventured into animation writing with "Fantastic Mr. Fox") and Eric Darnell, "Madagascar 3" places a higher value on speed and spectacle than either of its predecessors, piling on the narrative lunacy to outlandish, even surreal ends."

Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter): "Madagascar 3 is colorful, moves like the TGV rather than the slow zoo train on view and is over in a flash. But it’s dominated by the characters shouting over one another, repetitively reacting with alarm to anything that happens and overcompensating for largely unfunny material by overacting by about 300 percent. Yes, it’s a cartoon, but it’s conspicuously unmodulated, with the volume set on high and the pacing all but pushed to fast-forward."

Mark Adams (Screen International): "Charmingly the 3D works to impressive effect as the stodgy old-fashioned circus is gradually transformed into a bright, balletic and stylish Cirque du Soleil affair, with much emphasis put on how the animals’ hard-work and creativity pays off, with a spectacular performance set against singer Katy Perry’s foot-tappingly perfect song 'Firework' as the animals spin and leap through the air with joyful abandon."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Cristian Mungiu's "Beyond the Hills"

Sorry for the weekend break. I needed some time to catch my breath and put my thoughts back together after a short stunting of inspiration. How can you blame me? It's been a tough Cannes Film Festival so far, with very little that really exceeds beyond the degree of "yeah, that's good." And there's quite obviously a large void between different opinions, this year being the most salient example we've seen in a while. Just look at Cristian Mungiu's follow-up to "4 months, 3 Weeks, and 2 Days", which has divided people definitively in their opinions. In regards to "Beyond the Hills", some love it quite unapologetically, others remark their disappointments, and some just nod their heads in solid, though not ecstatic, approval. No bad film by any judgment, but it doesn't seem to be sweeping the floor with the competition.

Stephen Dalton (Hollywood Reporter): "Admittedly two and a half hours of thwarted love and spiritual torment is something of an endurance test, especially considering the action rarely ventures outside its single bleak location. The film’s mid section, especially, feels slow and repetitive. Only during the final act, mostly shot in snow, does Mungiu remind us of the tightly wound tension and crisp visual composition that made 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days such a powerful thriller. Beyond the Hills is less fun than any film about lesbian nuns and their psychotic ex-lovers ought to be. But it is an engrossingly serious work, and confirms Mungiu as a maturing talent with more universal stories to tell than those defined by Romania’s recent political past."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: Matteo Garrone's "Reality"

Perhaps the most questionable prospect heading into this Cannes Film Festival is Matteo Garrone's follow-up to the acclaimed "Gomorrah". "Reality", fitfully set in the world of Italian reality television, seems to be receiving mixed receptions from around the Croisette, some coming into it with open arms, while others receive it as something of a disappointment. Then again, this is very likely to be the case on most Cannes films, but I'm not trying to advocate for any films that I haven't seen yet. The news of a satirically minded film hitting Cannes is enough to pique my interest, and some reviews prove rather encouraging to the prospect.

Drew McWeeny (Hitfix): "My only hesitation is that while I would compare this to Martin Scorsese's "King Of Comedy," it feels like it's missing a final beat that would punctuate the story perfectly.  Even so, there is a haunting quality to the wrap-up, and the dark laughs the film inspires got caught in my throat at times because of just how raw Arena is as Luciano.  His palpable longing and his visible deflation will stick with me, as will Matteo's sincere disdain for modern values.  "Reality" continues my Cannes streak, and I have no doubt it will be embraced as another major statement from an artist worth our time and attention."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: "Rust and Bone"

This seems almost certainly the film that people were keeping an eye on heading into this Cannes Film Festival, but can you blame Jacques Audiard for not being as brilliant as he was with "A Prophet"? Hardly, though there is much of a diverging debate growing on the merits of his latest film, "Rust and Bone". Yes, it is a love story, and it seems that it throws in some sentimentality to the works. The core problem may indeed be that the plot is rather conventional, as many people are accusing the film of. Those hesitations notwithstanding, the grand portion of reviews have been quite positive, if not as ecstatic as Audiard's previous premiere.

Todd McCarthy (Hollywood Reporter): "Audiard’s visual and dramatic approach is glancing, deliberately fragmented, marked by harsh contrasts between bright, bleached-out light and forbidding darkness. Charged emotions are felt and expressed but remain contained and not wallowed in. When Stephanie awakens in the hospital after her accident and realizes what’s happened to her, the dreadfulness of her discovery is palpable. But soon enough it’s absorbed, to the point where she calls Ali to take her on an outing (to the Croisette in Cannes), where he takes her back into the water."

CANNES 2012 REACTIONS: "Moonrise Kingdom"

It looks like this year's Cannes opener, Wes Anderson's "Moonrise Kingdom", has managed to maintain the same general response as last year's "Midnight in Paris" did. The Cannes Film Festival can have a tendency to abound with some rather serious fare, so it's rather customary to kick off with something peppy, which is something that Wes Anderson is trademarked for. His return to live-action has been showered with positive reviews, mostly from people believing his quirky, twee aesthetic most well adapted towards children's issues and a 60s era setting. I remain skeptical, if only because I've heard that talk of Wes Anderson before, and am well prepared for something that feels somewhat halfhearted, but this will probably ring rather delightfully for most.

Drew McWeeny (HitFix): ""Moonrise Kingdom" is one of those films that seems slight on the surface, but there's so much emotion in it, so much genuine heartfelt observation, that I have a feeling it will grow the more I think about it, and that a second viewing will simply underline the feelings I have about it already.  Wes Anderson may have a distinct and easily recognized style, but his talent is genuine and his love of his characters rings loud and true in this film.  He may make it look easy because of how firmly his mannerisms are established at this point, but it takes a real artist to evoke the rocky emotional storms of adolescence and adulthood with such clear eyes and precise voice."

THE LISTS: Most Anticipated Films at Cannes 2012

We are precious few days from the kickoff of Cannes Film Festival, which pretty much begins the season of strong films coming to the fore. Of last year's festival, six films premiered that ended up making my end of year list, an additional one if you count "Certified Copy" of the previous year. "The Artist" went on to win Best Picture just less than a year after it premiered, so the festival clearly holds a strong place at the center of the cinematic year. This year obviously has a much different dynamic to it, skewing somewhat more mellow beforehand, but that could very well change depending on how the films perform.

So it figured like an appealing idea to spotlight ahead of time some of the more intriguing offerings of this year's festival circuit. Obviously I don't have quite a complete attachment to many of the foreign films showing, though I'm not discounting them altogether. I'm waiting for them to surprise, which they hopefully might. To that effect, I want to believe that "The Paperboy" is more than it seems to be. Lee Daniels isn't the most spectacular of directors, nor is Zac Efron the most skillful of leading men, but I am one for surprises. I can only hope there will be many, but I hope none of those are that the films I am anticipating aren't worthy of such.

CANNES 2012: Lineup announcement scales down

Is anybody else severely interested in how US-centric this year's Cannes lineup is? I say "severe" as an deplorable statement, since I'm usually quite captivated with the Cannes lineup when it goes for films that haven't been even close to my radar. As your knowledge of the world grows, surprises do seem to dwindle. That's not to say I'm completely down on the Cannes lineup this year, and in fact, I'm quite pumped for many of the films brought forth. Any year we get the latest from Jacques Audiard, Michael Haneke, David Cronenberg, Andrew Dominik, and Abbas Kiarostami is an exceptional year on those bases alone.

"Rust and Bone", "Cosmopolis", and "Like Someone in Love" have already gotten the ball rolling with trailers up for the Audiard, Cronenberg, and Kiarostami films, respectively. If you were to ask me which film I'm most interested to see, it's got to be Haneke's "Amour". Such a title to pair up with that guy is going to arouse suspicion, but mostly just arouse. Beyond that, there's Walter Salles' "On the Road", which I must honestly say I have little interest in. Kristen Stewart is an unbearable actress, and I try to avoid seeing anything with her wandering across the screen with an absolutely clueless expression on her face.

Wong Kar-Wai's 'The Grandmasters' not ready for Cannes

The announcement of the competitors at this year's Cannes Film Festival doesn't seem so far off now, unless you consider two weeks to be a seismic gap. It's my experience that time more often moves too quickly than we want, so it'll be here soon enough, I'm certain. No matter the length, guesswork has already abounded as to which films will make the cut, with it being pretty much a certainty of Abbas Kiarostami's "Like Someone in Love", David Cronenberg's "Cosmopolis", and Jacques Audiard's "Rust and Bone" making prolific debuts, optimistically to favorable impressions. Mind you, I try not to get to wrapped up in others' opinions, but they're usually a good map to flock to.

Of all the guesses, you can factor Wong Kar-Wai's "The Grandmasters" out, since the film will still be in production when the festival is underway. The film may very likely not even be prepped for the fall season. I'd personally count this one out as a possibility for this year, and I'd instead slot it as a likelihood for the 2013 slate. After all this time, we can hope that it will have been worth the wait. I can't imagine a man would spend that long a time working on something for it to prove to be not even well thought-through.

Cannes Coverage 2011: Palme Goes to "Tree of Life"

Sorry that I'm so behind the beat lately. As much as I enjoy indulging in films I haven't seen, I've had some very real problems to deal with lately, and it's going to be a struggle to get back into the swing of things. In any case, I did not miss the announcement of the Cannes Film Festival winners, which were somewhat expected, but ultimately surprising. Most unexpected of all was the announcement of The Tree of Life winning the Palme. I am still genuinely excited to see the film, but I also realize that there were plenty more deserving films that premiered at the festival. Winning the Palme is never a necessary boost in Oscar eligibility. The last time a Palme winner was nominated for Best Picture was The Pianist in 2002.

In news of other awards, Best Actor went to Jean Dujardin for The Artist, which may play well into the rest of the year. I suspect that The Weinstein Company will aggressively campaign for the film, as they always do. Kirsten Dunst won Best Actress for Melancholia, which isn't entirely surprising since the female leads of Lars von Trier's films have done well for themselves numerously in the past. Best Director went happily to Nicholas Winding Refn for the action film Drive, though don't expect too much Oscar love for the film. It seems a bit out of bounds for the Academy. The rest of the winners can be seen after the jump, along with the five films that premiered at Cannes which I'm most looking forward to seeing.

Cannes Coverage 2011: "Drive"

Cannes Film Festival is winding down, and the talk of the festival seems to have circulated mostly around Terrence Malick and Lars von Trier. Important names as they are, the standouts of the festival, from a non-attendant point of view, have been such unknown powers as We Need to Talk About Kevin and this latest debut, Drive. An action flick like this is usually seen as an afterthought, but it looks to be far more than just that. I knew there was something interesting behind it with a cast like Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, and Bryan Cranston, but reviews have been so outstanding, and it makes me want to see this film all the more.

Eric Kohn (indieWIRE), B+: "The tense pedal-to-the-medal routine begins in the opening minutes and continues, sporadically, all the way through the bloody finale. Gosling’s driver character—in vintage Clint Eastwood fashion, he remains unnamed—arrives on cue to pick up a couple of late night Los Angeles robbers and jet them away from police. A few swift turns and engine revs later, he nimbly avoids each cop on his tail and vanishes into a nearby crowd, while the beats of a cheesy synth score bring up the opening credits."