You can compare "Drive" to a lot of other movies. In my interview with its director, Nicolas Winding Refn, he referenced Grimms' fairy tales. I've read star Ryan Gosling refer to it as a violent John Hughes movie. Others have liken it to the poetic yet masculine works of Walter Hill and Michael Mann. All of these comparisons are apt, but what's great about "Drive" is the way it bears so many obvious inspirations without really feeling like any of them. It is its own unique blend of classical tropes and modern filmmaking.

Gosling stars as a man known only as Driver. He's not much of a talker but he's a hell of a wheelman. "You put this kid behind the wheel," his boss Shannon (Bryan Cranston) says "and there's nothing he can't do." By day, Driver works for Shannon as a mechanic and occasional stuntman for Hollywood movies. By night,...