The Ides of March (2011)

Stephen Meyers (Ryan Gosling) is a crucial and very pro-active member of staff on the election campaign for democrat candidate Mike Morris (George Clooney) currently trying to win the Ohio Primary. Along with campaign manager Paul Zara (Philip Seymour Hoffman), Stephen is a direct confident of Mike and has a very idealistic view of politics. However, when Stephen is approached by the Republican campaign manager Tom Duffy (Paul Giamatti), and at the same time starts a relationship with an intern in his own staff, his ideology is ultimately brought into question, and his career is drastically altered.

For a mainstream political intrigue, the film works well; a detailed knowledge of the United States political system is not required, and I don’t think that repeated viewings would explain anything I didn’t get in one viewing. This is a strength of the film, but perhaps also its weakness. I enjoyed the film, I thought that it was well paced, beautifully shot, had a great script and a fantastic cast. It’s just that it could have been a lot better, I felt that there was something missing that would have made it a great film. I’m not even sure what I think was missing, some of the skeletons that come out of the closet along the way are fairly shocking, I just felt a trick was being missed.

But anyway, The Ides of March is very enjoyable; Clooney demonstrates that as a director he is as smooth as he is an actor; he doesn’t spoon feed everything to us, yet we know exactly what's going on (I’m thinking of a scene where Philip Seymour Hoffman’s character receives devastating news in the back of a car. We don’t see it though: he gets in the back of the car and the camera just films outside the front of the car in an alleyway for 60 seconds before PSH gets out). There are also a couple of key scenes between two characters which are shot in such a way that half of their face is in darkness; is George trying to highlight the two-faced nature of politicians?

I’ve already mentioned it, but the cast is excellent. Clooney is as smooth as ever, but the film really belongs to Ryan Gosling and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Ryan is smooth (not as much as Clooney though), very sure of what he wants and how to go about getting it, but then is also very good when everything he stands for is called into question. PSH is completely excellent, always in charge of every scene he’s in, and Paul Giamatti is very good as the minor antagonist of the film. Jeffrey Wright is cool and calm in his minor role as Senator Thompson, though strangely reminded me of Lando Calrissian!

A very enjoyable political drama, well written, superbly acted, quite close to being a great film, just not quite for some reason I can’t put my finger on. I would still highly recommend it though.

   
       (not in the film, but I can't get the tune out of my head!)

Drive (2011)

Drive follows the story of a nameless Driver (Ryan Gosling), a Hollywood stuntman who, in his spare time, hires himself out as a getaway car driver. He has very strict rules: for 5 minutes he is at the disposal of the criminals, no matter what occurs; 1 minute either way and the crooks are on their own. He doesn’t carry a gun, he just drives. This serves him well, despite looking bit bored with life. However, his life is altered in a way he couldn't predict when he meets his next door neighbour Irene (Carey Mulligan) and her husband Standard (Oscar Issac) who has just been released from prison.

Despite the film being called Drive, there wasn’t too much driving (fine by me, I’m not a petrol head by any means) and it certainly doesn’t glamourise cars. When Ryan is driving, the film is kept fresh and dynamic by sharp editing and clever uses of the camera by director Nicolas Winding Refn. The film is very stylish (not the cars particularly, except for the Mustang), but just in the slick way it is filmed. Ironically I didn’t think that Ryan’s character was that stylish; he constantly wears a jacket with gold embroidered scorpion on the back and has a toothpick permanently poking out of the side of his mouth.

The focus of the first half of the film is the growing relationship between Ryan and Carey, and they are both brilliant. Ryan is always very cool and calm, and having come across as being fairly disinterested and bored with life, he starts to come to life as he gets to know Irene. Carey Mulligan is very good once again, she is very cute and bashful, not knowing how to play the relationship with the Driver, knowing that her husband is getting out of jail.

Having slowly built up the relationship in the first half of the film, there are some tremendously shocking moments in the second half; again the Driver showing how cool and calm (and lethal) he is under pressure. The film really accentuates the shocking moments by turning down all the sound prior to the scene that will make you jump out of your seat. The mob element was nicely done, Ron Perlman was fairly scary and Albert Brooks was very scary. Oscar Isaac played Standard in a very clever way, I really didn't know how he was going to react to the Driver's relationship with his wife. He showed that it wasn't a fluke that he was the best actor in Sucker Punch.

A great movie that was very well made, with the right balance of character development and hard hitting action. This film really goes to show how a simple concept, well written characters, and good film making can make a stand out film. Ryan Gosling and Carey Mulligan are both fantastic, though I think I would have appreciated a little more time spent with Mulligan’s character because she’s a great actress. I didn’t expect to be quite so shocked, but there were moments when I had my hand to my mouth in surprise. Definitely one of the most original and well-crafted films this year.