9.5/10
Between this and The Tree of Life, this might be the year of stylistic overload. Drive isn't eye (and ear) candy - it's borderline pornography. And I mean that in a very complimentary way. Every frame in this movie is so slick and stylized, it's pushed almost to the point of absurdity. But there are some self-aware moments too, like when Ryan Gosling offers the kid a toothpick like the one he's chewing on. It's perfect because, when you saw those too-cool celebrities of old days (that Gosling's character is clearly meant to channel) chewing on toothpicks, didn't you always wonder if they kept a stash of them in their breast pocket, or what?
Everything else in this movie is pretty close to perfect too - the soundtrack is stunning, the action breathtaking, the violence gripping, and the acting top notch. The only part of the movie that gnawed on me was the relationship between Gosling and Carey Mulligan's characters - for the sake of the film Gosling needs to be as anonymous as possible, but it seems like a stretch for us to believe that meeting Mulligan and her son was "the best thing that ever happened to them". Especially when their relationship as we see it on screen doesn't appear to be anything extraordinary. But style wins out over substance in the end like it's clearly meant to, and there's enough here to cement it in my mind as one of the year's best to this point.
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