Drive

I'm too late for a review as the movie came out about 2 weeks ago already. But here's the deal:

• Drive is directed with so much gusto and finesse, you will think any other movie that came out this year was crap. Director Nicolas Winding Refn and director of photography Newton Thomas Sigel have made a visually-gripping film.  L.A. never looked more haunting at night, and even a stop-light is a thing of beauty here.  Not to mention the detailed close-ups of the characters' faces (Carey Mulligan's dimples and Ryan Gosling's sneer speak louder than words)  and stop-motion shots that make you believe you're stuck in someone else's dream (or nightmare).
• The acting is top-notch.  There were, and are, many good movies this year, but this is by far the best movie I saw in 2011.  Ryan Gosling as Driver (the driver), a stuntman by day, heist-enabler by night, is a ticking bomb.  Even with a straight face, the character's emotions come clear in his nervous gaze, the impatient rubbing of  his leather gloves, and that damn hot toothpick on the edge of his lips.  Carey Mulligan is a gem, and Albert Brooks is outstanding as Bernie Rose, a once-upon-a-time movie producer, turned local mobster.  Christina Hendricks makes a short, but incendiary appearance that will literally blow your head off.  The actors don't need to talk much, the dialogue is minimal, but biting. It feels like a Clint Eastwood movie, where faces speak louder than lips, and when lips do speak, the dialogue is chilling (Driver: "You shut your mouth or I'll kick your teeth down your throat and shut it for you").   Hossein Amini wrote the screenplay, based on the book by James Sallis. 
• The entire movie has an incredible 80's touch to it.  The music is electrifying, just like the movie itself.  Sound is a substantial part of Drive, and it's important to the story, just as much as the acting and directing.  Sharp sounds of cars swooping by buildings and  pulsating electrical beats are engineered in a way that makes a movie about speed all the more slow and tense.  
• See it.