Reading a cut-and-dry description of Drive, it might seem like some other movies you've seen.  Yes, Ryan Gosling plays a loner stuntman who spends many a night driving a getaway car for all manner of crooks, and yes, he does inevitably get in over his head.  As directed by Danish auteur Nicolas Winding Refn, though, what seems like a fairly generic action movie becomes so, so much more.  It's a wildly confident movie, one that knows how to use silence to build near-unbearable tension and also to develop relationships between well-drawn characters without resorting to on-the-nose dialogue.  A new clip demonstrates this quite well as Bryan Cranston (whose role is probably the most talkative one in the whole film) introduces Gosling to Albert Brooks, and you can tell right away that these guys are coming from very different angles.

After making incredible films like Bronson, the Pusher trilogy, and Valhalla Rising, Danish director Nicolas Winding Refn makes his American debut with Drive, an excellent noir story due in September.  A verbose and engaging speaker always worth listening to and seemingly always willing to talk, Refn has been saying for over a year that he'd like to take a crack at a Wonder Woman feature, and also that he thinks Christina Hendricks, who plays the formidable Joan on AMC's Mad Men and appears in Drive, would be ideal casting for the Amazonian superheroine. 

There's no offer from Warner Bros and no current plans for Wonder Woman, but Refn has now said, in fairly offhanded fashion, that if he makes a profitable Logan's Run remake for the studio, then he could very well have his way with the Diana of Themyscira, in a purely creative sense.

To simply summarize the story of Drive is to entirely miss so much of what makes the film special.  We've all seen films involving getaway drivers before, so when you hear that Ryan Gosling plays a stuntdriver/mechanic/aspiring racer who occasionally moonlights as a wheelman and inevitably gets into a dangerous situation, you're not liable to be terrible impressed.  The film is executed with incredible style, featuring moments that are pretty much iconic and surprisingly soulful characters.  Like the international poster before it, a new domestic poster for the film puts Gosling's unnamed hero front and center, right where he's supposed to be.  And this time he's even behind the wheel, toying with his signature toothpick.

Netflix's streaming Watch Instantly service is fast becoming America's favorite way to watch movies. The library of available titles is so vast and mutable that you, the avid instant watcher, could no doubt use a guide as you navigate the streaming frontier.

Luckily for you, we'll be here every Tuesday to update you on the latest titles available for instant-watching, as well as bringing attention some gems and even some enjoyable calamities out there in the instantly watchable wilds.

You might think that, nine days in, the Cannes Film Festival would be winding down.  You'd be incorrect.  Things were as busy as ever on the French Riviera today.  Melancholia director Lars von Trier was banned from the Festival, then placed in the Phantom Zone and set adrift for jokingly calling himself a Nazi yesterday.  The premiere of two movies today has helped keep at least some of the focus on films: Pedro Almodovar's The Skin I Live In starring Antonio Banderas and Nicolas Winding Refn's Drive, with Ryan Gosling.  In addition to those two stylistic departures from acclaimed directors, Take Shelter, starring Michael Shannon and Jessica Chastain, won the 50th Annual Critics Week Grand Prize.

Both Tom Hardy and Joel Edgarton are actors who aren't household names just yet, but seemingly every time there's a high profile action role, their names come up.  Hardy, a Brit, made a big impression in Bronson, and he'll next re-team with his Inception director Christopher Nolan to play Bane in The Dark Knight Rises.  Australian Edgarton had a small role in the last two Star Wars prequels, and he's starring in the upcoming The Thing prequel.  In the sports drama Warrior, the two actors will play estranged brothers who end up going toe-to-toe in a championship MMA match.  Check out the newly released trailer, which is also available in HD at Apple.

After the one, two punch of Tom Hardy in Bronson and then Inception, it is clear that we have a major talent on our hands. Hardy is far from the flavor of the month, he is achingly talented and he can play the tough guy like nobody’s business.

So his next feature – the Tomas Alfredson directed Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – is gathering a ton of buzz. This adaptation of the John le Carré spy novel has gathered other major talent with Gary Oldman, Colin Firth, Benedict Cumberbatch, Ciaran Hinds, Mark Strong, Svetlana Khodchenkova, Toby Jones, John Hurt, Stephen Graham and Kathy Burke.

Nicolas Winding Refn certainly can make a cinematic statement. His widely acclaimed Pusher Trilogy put him on the map, but it is his recent work with Bronson and his latest, Valhalla Rising that have sent Hollywood knocking.

Gritty, dark and poetic, his films are more than just action, they are loaded with character and sometimes feel like a grim yet loving tribute to cinema. Rich with color and stylized with care, he is able to give character to wherever his actors seem to be.

When will This Means War throw in the towel? The poor thing has been burned again and again by actors, and even though it has found itself a new one, I don't think any of us can remain confidant that this film is meant to exist. It's cursed. CURSED I TELL YOU!

Sorry. In any event, the action-comedy - about two spies who fall for the same woman and engage in a high-tech battle for her affections - has had a rough go of it. While its female lead has remained intact throughout (Reese Witherspoon, who is also a producer on the flick), it's pinning down the male leads that's been tricky. Chris Pine has been attached from the get-go as one of the spies, but the other role hasn't been nearly as easy to fill. Actors like James Franco, Bradley Cooper, Seth Rogen and Sam Worthington have all either flirted with or committed to the project, only to jilt it and walk away before things could get serious. Now, according to Ny Magazine's Vulture blog, Tom Hardy has stepped in and said "I do". (Enough marriage innuendo for you?)