Is there not yet a thread for DRIVE, the forthcoming Ryan Gosling vehicle (geddit)?

Just be reasonable in your statements is all I ask.

otm. this is ilx, after all.

this movie reminded me of David Lynch's worst qualities - airless, lifeless, jarring stunt cameos, immaculately shot and executed etc.... just this sense that the director has seldom been around human beings

i liked it well enough, but much of the praise for it has made me wonder if i was missing something.

Relevant to the interests of some of you:

http://ryangoslingvspuppy.tumblr.com/

http://i.imgur.com/suDIp.gif

Is that pac man barfing or is it some kind of frog?

The Missing Piece.

Angelenos or other, tell me about that concrete channel beloved of driving scenes in this and other movies. Is it just the course of the Los Angeles River? How come it's so empty of water? Can one normally drive along it? Would one need a lever action shotgun to blast through gates closing it off?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b08DChU5qsg

But can you just get in there that easily? And not get in trouble with THE LAW? I wanna know!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i_qxQztHRI

Numerous films and television programs have featured various sites along the Los Angeles River, many of which involve the river as a sinister plot location. Films involving the river include The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension, Chinatown, Them!, Blue Thunder, Escape from L.A., Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Last Action Hero, Stand and Deliver, Grease, Volcano, Point Blank, Freaky Friday, Roadblock, Hot Rod Girl, Southland, Blood in Blood Out, Boomtown, This Christmas, Rize, The Core, Repo Man, The Italian Job, One Eight Seven, Point Break, Gone in 60 Seconds, Transformers, 24, Emergency!, The Gumball Rally, To Live and Die in L.A., The First Power, Purple Rain, L.A. Zombie, Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, Drive, and High School High.

A number of music videos have also been filmed at the Los Angeles River, including:
"Stay The Night" - Chicago
"Better Life" - Keith Urban
"Burnin' for You" - Blue Öyster Cult
"Youth Against Fascism" - Sonic Youth
"So Hard" - Voice of the Beehive
"It's Funky Enough" - The D.O.C. (1989)
"Life is.. Too Short" - Too Short
"The River" - Good Charlotte
"Down" - Blink 182
"Got the Life" - Korn
"Wake Up Call" - Maroon 5
"Under the Bridge" - Red Hot Chili Peppers
"Don't Cha" - Pussycat Dolls
"Say I" - Christina Milian feat. Young Jeezy
"Wherever You Will Go" - The Calling
"Get It Shawty" - Lloyd
"Live Your Life" - T.I. feat. Rihanna (2008)
"Straight Through My Heart" - Backstreet Boys
"Cricketz" - New Boyz
"Telephone" - Lady GaGa feat. Beyoncé (2010)
"Deuces" - Chris Brown feat. Tyga and Kevin McCall (2010)
"Gold Cobra" - Limp Bizkit (2011)
"Our Deal" - Best Coast (2011)

i cant believe no one has made a sweet ass youtube compilation of all the scenes ever shot in the l.a. river

Angelenos or other, tell me about that concrete channel beloved of driving scenes in this and other movies. Is it just the course of the Los Angeles River? How come it's so empty of water? Can one normally drive along it? Would one need a lever action shotgun to blast through gates closing it off?

― ledge, Monday, March 12, 2012 10:28 AM (2 hours ago) Bookmark

ha i asked these exact question when i was watching this movie

i cant believe no one has made a sweet ass youtube compilation of all the scenes ever shot in the l.a. river

― ⚓ (gr8080), Monday, March 12, 2012 11:52 AM (2 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

i had this thought the other day when i finally saw this movie!

i thought it was pretty good, mostly because of the villains. and the robbery/driving scenes which were top-notch. i had a little fun pretending gosling was the same character from 'lars and the real girl'

thinking about it now, when the elevator doors close on carey mulligan, that's the last time she's seen, right?

Sadly no answers in this thread (xpost)

Ledge, I posted your question on the L.A. thread...

thinking about it now, when the elevator doors close on carey mulligan, that's the last time she's seen, right?

Nah, we see her again in the coda hen she goes to The Driver's apartment door after he's left to meet w/Brooks.

Xp cool. Hoping for the inside skinny.

How come it's so empty of water?

lol

I bike in it often

Nah, we see her again in the coda hen she goes to The Driver's apartment door after he's left to meet w/Brooks.

― Mike Love Costume Jewelry on Etsy (C. Grisso/McCain), Monday, March 12, 2012 4:37 PM (10 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Totally cried at that part.

Here's a cheat sheet for the video project:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Los_Angeles_River#Filming_location

I am typing this about 30 feet from the LA river, are you amazed

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QDEbj3ve8Ds

ohhh right that part

xps

we should have an LA River youtube/photo thread

http://vimeo.com/14701473

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0OS8HFuyWKg

ust this sense that the director has seldom been around human beings

one of the most interesting things abt the movie, imo

He makes movies about male humans who don't interact with society in any sort of normal way, really

I mean, of the English language ones I've seen and Valhalla Rising

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8MqJ3iGBdOo

He makes movies about male humans who don't interact with society in any sort of normal way, really

innocent, alienated, "natural" men who exist in but apart from civilized corruption, their brutality and simplicity a badge of their superiority. again, i see something troubling in this (i think i called it "quasi-fascist" upthread - that's overreaching and far too condemnatory), but the troubling-ness is of an interesting sort. valhalla rising is especially challenging in this regard, given its odinist/anti-christian sympathies and the way they intersect with the isolationist black metal that seems to have inspired it.

innocent, alienated, "natural" men who exist in but apart from civilized corruption, their brutality and simplicity a badge of their superiority

Bronson as role model?

I don't think it holds it up as an ideal as much as Bronson films generally did, nor as much as recent Mamet. There's an element of Taxi Driver wish-fulfillment here, as has been mentioned upthread. I just think of the look on Gosling's face after the elevator beat-down...confused, embarrassed, like a little boy.

No, I mean Refn's film Bronson

oh right. lol.

it works either way though

Bronson as role model?

"role model" isn't the phrase i'd use. i'd instead call it "hero worship". refn's recent films are animated by an intense and abject kind of hero worship. the worship has elements of both son-in-relation-to-father (made explicit in both drive and valhalla rising) and sub-in-relation-to-dom, with all the intense eroticism former implies (made most explicit in bronson). the hero doesn't have to be morally "good" because his transgressions and power are what make him compelling. again evokes the allure of fascism...

I mostly disagree with this take although I find it somewhat entertaining

mission accomplished

http://www.esoterically.net/weblog/wp-content/uploads/2008/04/bush-mission-accomplished.jpg

^ or rather

the hero doesn't have to be morally "good" because his transgressions and power are what make him compelling.

this applies most obviously to bronson. both valhalla rising and drive go out of their way to emphasize the hero's basic decency. though scary, simple and brutal, these men are painted as morally superior to their peers. it's important to note though that, like bronson, their guiding principles are personal, "natural" and often strongly at odds with the expectations of civilized society. with this in mind, it's interesting that one eye and driver are both explicitly associated with animals, and that both movies strongly idealize nature as an environment for man.

Finally saw this at a late screening last night and found it to be a very enjoyable, incredibly well made, beautifully stylised very bad film. If that quote from Refn about archetypes is anything to go by, I think that was the point.

Also the bit at the end where Real Hero kicks in felt like an ironic nod to the audience because there is obviously nothing at ALL real about Ryan Gosling's character.

^ definitely an ironic nod

going to see 'bronson' later today at prob the same refn retrospective where you saw 'drive' last night, i'm guessing (nw film center in pdx?)

no idea what to expect, the previews make it seem like a guy ritchie flick or smthg but i'm expecting more. or else i wouldn't waste my $

its like if guy ritchie and john cameron mitchell made a movie together but it was awesome