DRIVE

 Nicolas Winding Refn's tremendously stylish crime flic is the epitome of neo-noir as Ryan Gosling's monosyllabic getaway driver falls for neighbor Carey Mulligan and then finds himself embroiled in a heist involving her husband, Oscar Issac and some very unsavory gangsters in an Edward Hopperesque Los Angeles. Like all of Refn's films "Drive" looks terrific but it also pulses with a sense of danger thanks in large part to the presence of bad guys Ron Perlman and an unlikely Albert Brooks, (brilliant as usual), as well as some incredible outbursts of violence from an otherwise seemingly docile Gosling.

Indeed, this is a movie that is perfectly cast throughout. Gosling, Mulligan, Issac, Bryan Cranston and Christina Hendricks are all excellent even if it is the stunt drivers who are the real stars. Also the triangular relationship between Gosling, Issac and Mulligan is unusual and beautifully handled in a way that noirs of the past would almost certainly have ignored. A small classic and one that has already achieved cult status.