Opening in select theaters on March 23rd is the new film from controversial director Tony Kaye (American History X) entitled Detachment. The film examines the American high school educational system and stars Academy Award-winners Adrian Brody (The Pianist), and Marcia Gay Harden (Pollack), as well as a stellar cast that includes Christina Hendricks (Drive), Lucy Lui (Kill Bill Volume. 1), Bryan Cranston (Drive), William Peterson (Manhunter), Tim Blake Nelson (The Incredible Hulk), Blythe Danner (Meet the Fockers), Sami Gayle (TV's Blue Bloods), newcomer Betty Kaye, and acting icon James Caan (Thief, The Godfather). 

IAR's Managing Editor Jami Philbrick recently had the opportunity to speak with eccentric director Tony Kaye about his work on Detachment. The director discussed his new film, the educational system that it examines, the film's extraordinary cast, Adrian Brody's excellent performance, casting his own daughter in the movie, the post production process, and his unique style of filmmaking. 

There's a strong chance you may not have seen Drive in theaters back in September, and if that's the case, then it's too bad.  Drive is one hell of a movie, one that's very different from what the TV spots made it out to be.  As of today, it's available on Blu-ray and DVD, so you can rectify the mistake of not having seen it, but if you're still on the fence about this movie that looked like it could just be Ryan Gosling in a rehash of The Fast and the Furious, the first seven minutes are now available to view online, free of charge. 

So Drive arrives in theaters in a matter of mere hours, and if you're on the fence as to whether or not you should throw down your hard-earned cash for a ticket, we can only advise that you do.  The movie is, in many ways, the antithesis of bloated, meaningless spectacle; it's a lean, thrilling picture that unspools scenes of almost unbearable tension and shocking violence, but is also genuinely touching.  Ryan Gosling plays the mysterious and monosyllabic lead, but Drive is also packed with straight-up excellent actors filling out every substantial role.  Albert Brooks and Bryan Cranston are two such actors, and each has a new behind-the-scenes featurette highlighting their character and contribution to the film.

In the last official clip we saw from Drive, Bryan Cranston was introducing Ryan Gosling's unnamed hero to a less-than-trustworthy chap played by Albert Brooks.  The simple clip provided a good feel for many of the things that Nicolas Winding Refn's superb film does oh-so well, and Gosling, Cranston, and Brooks are all damned fine actors, but the clip lacked a crucial ingredient that is part of the film's success.  That would be the endlessly lovely and staggeringly talent Carey Mulligan, who plays a major role in the story. 

Two new clips from FilmDistrict both include plenty of Mulligan and Gosling doing what they do in Drive, and while neither is crazy-spoilery, it still might be best to save yourself for the movie itself, especially since there's only about a week until it hits theaters.  So if you're already convinced, then don't peek at your Christmas presents, but if you still need a little push to get your but in a seat for Drive, then take a look.

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.

"Hey girl, it's me, Ryan Gosling.*  Oh, thank you.  Yeah, it was pretty cool when I dropped my groceries in order to stop a fight in New York.  Anything for my fellow man.  You know what's way cooler than breaking up fights though?  My new movie Drive, in which I play a strong, silent type of mechanic and movie stunt driver who also gets behind the wheel of a getaway car every now and then.  I wear leather driving gloves and have a toothpick in my mouth a lot of the time, but both actually tell you something about my character.  It's directed by my new BFF Nicolas Winding Refn, and as this new international trailer proves, it's awesome.**  The trailer gives a little to much away, but if that's what you need to be convinced to put your butt in a seat at your local multiplex, then girl, give this trailer a watch."

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.

To keep things brief: Drive is really, really good.  Nicolas Winding Refn's first American film is riveting an brutal, with strong characters and a gooey center.  While the supporting cast is formidable and faultless, the whole endeavor is held together by Ryan Gosling's lead performance.  Playing an unnamed character who isn't much of a talker, Gosling stars as mechanic who can drive like the wind, and does so as a getaway driver on occasion.  A new poster for Drive has made its way online, and it features Gosling chewing on a toothpick.

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.