It's not often that I am truly perplexed by a film's critical reception. The critical blasting this has gotten truly... perplexes me. I get it, it's not for everyone, but neither is The Tree of Life, or Under The Skin, or even Drive, or countless of other films that managed to get embraced well- enough by many critics, if not most. Sure, the screenplay here needed some work. Sure, it doesn't really seem tightly-woven and it doesn't have any real forward action that seems to be driving the plot. But so what? As a mood piece, this makes the perfect midnight movie. It's visually outstanding, able to capture certain colors and images that I haven't even seen Gosling's good friend Nicolas Winding Refn capture. And yes, this film seems to be heavily influenced by him. I hated Only God Forgives because I found it boring, nonsensical, and totally pretentious, with not an ounce of honest artistry. I found Bronson to be sort of entertaining, but also full of itself. I did like Drive though.
Gosling really shows a certain directorial skill here, even if it's really borrowing from Refn's same style. And unlike Refn's last film, despite how "airy" the screenplay is, the film manages to capture a true emotional core. I actually cared about the three lead characters and felt like I was on this ride with them. The film's deeply ambitious, but it also doesn't feel ponderous or pretentious. I felt like it truly touched on something special that, despite how flawed it is, really made it work. It's somewhat messy, somewhat clumsy, yet I thought it was able to rise above that and work as an actual film, and not just great individual scenes without anything holding them together. Hendricks, De Caestecker, and Ronan are really strong as well and all three manage to hit the perfect pitch for the type of film Gosling wanted to make.
So, what can I say? It's going to be really tough seeing the film get as much hate throughout the year, but I hope it's able to get at least a few more fans and I hope Gosling isn't discouraged from making another film because if he was able to touch the notes that he did here despite all of the flaws, he could very well make a masterpiece soon enough. I can't wait to rewatch this.
