Shock Corridor

Howdy. I went on a holiday. I went camping. I went camping round some of Scotland to places where films were filmed, or places that reminded me of certain films (just put that in there before it becomes obvious). The plan was to do a blog post for each day but that was when I thought I was just going to look at a disparate collection of films in different locations around the country. That changed. So what the hell was I thinking!? I don't know really, I did it because I love film and almost five years ago to the day I spent 10 days in Nairn watching films, and that was one of the greatest experiences of my life, so I think I thought I'd try and emulate that in some way. It was never going to be the same as the last time because that was in once place, with hundreds of others and there were beanbags lying about and readily available scones, but the idea was there to just enjoy films in a different way. That's where the first night came from and the choice of  The ...

Drive (2011) the new film by Nicolas Winding Refn is (perhaps expectedly) a dark, violent, brooding affair but (perhaps unexpectedly) one with a great deal of heart. At Cannes, the film garnered a Palme d'Or nomination and picked up the Best Director award for...well, the director and, in a ridiculously unfounded assertion having only seen one of the other films in competition, it was well deserved. The beginning (and most of the rest) of the film invites comparison with Walter Hill's 1978 film The Driver , with Gosling even resembling Ryan O'Neill at times - at the film's credit in low-key lighting and from a low angle I, just for a minute, thought it was Ryan O'Neil. Parttime stunt driver, parttime mechanic, parttime getaway driver and fulltime toothpick chewing 'brooder' Ryan Gosling plays the unnamed lead, with no past he just drifts into his closest friends life like a Sergio Leone hero, and dares to dream of a future as he becomes involved with a ...