SlipMoth's Movie Journal (Special Edition) 03/06/23

Last night I decided to watch a personal favorite of mine, being that it is pride month, I'm gay for Ryan Gosling and I'm getting my learner's license soon. So the only reason why this is special edition is because it's a rewatch.

I usually don't pay attention to cinematography or lighting or other subtle ways that directors communicate the message of the movie but instead I usually just go off of how I feel when I'm watching it. This movie on the other hand is different story, I was analyzing every single shot in this movie and I think that if I didn't pay such close attention I wouldn't have liked it as much because the main character barely has dialogue but he's such a complex character which you'd only know by paying attention to the subtleties. Ryan Gosling's performance is amazing but it doesn't really reveal the complexities of the driver but rather everything around him does, the most obvious example is the scorpion jacket which symbolises danger but the white symbolises innocence or purity because it shows his duality. The music also helps to characterise the driver, the main song that plays throughout the movie is A Real Hero which I see as the driver trying to justify his actions, it plays at the beginning and at the end and when it plays at the end.

This movie took me back, I was just as mystified as the first time I saw it, I forgot how beautiful this movie looked, like every single shot in this movie was stunning. I do understand why people wouldn't like it though, the message is kind of cheapened by all the literally me memes and some would find it boring and some would find the violence to be too much but this is just so up my alley. It's starring my actual gay awakening, Ryan Gosling, and it has cool 80s music and it's so similar to hotline miami. All the action that takes place outside of a car is like a hotline miami level and the main symbol of this movie is a jacket, and what's the main character of hotline miami called, Jacket. Both also have a deep story if you look into it or you could also enjoy both titles without paying attention to the story but I highly recommend that you pay attention when watching this and I highly recommend that you read the dialogue in hotline miami and lastly I highly recommend that you read the trigger warnings before watching, there were a few scenes that made me squeamish the first time I saw this. 

Thank you all for reading