Drive All Night
“Drive All Night” is like Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2011 crime drama, “Drive,” meets the surreal bent of David Lynch. When it hues more towards the former, Peter Hsieh’s film is atmospheric, sensual and compelling. When it’s going more towards Lynch, it feels like a pretender to the throne, albeit a visually and musically stunning one. In other words, it sometimes feels like a film at war with itself in tone and attitude, but it’s still a compelling one.
The first person we see in the film is Cara (Lexy Hammonds), who is alone, in her hotel room, just sitting up in the bed. We then see a red-lit room with an old arcade game in the corner. After the credits roll, we see some cab drivers talking, and one of them is discussing the time he drove Bill Clinton’s impersonator around. One of the drivers listening is Dave (Yutaka Takeuchi), and he’s the one we follow for the rest of the film, as he picks up Cara, and they drive through the night. The occasionally make stops, but Cara is rather mysterious about where she wants to go. Will it have to do with the hitman, Lenny (Johnny Gilligan), who seems to have strange visions?
Peter Hsieh’s film gradually connects the pieces of its plot together, but doesn’t necessarily spell it out for you, even by the end. As the film focuses of Cara and Dave, it feels like a relatively straightforward narrative of two people and their night together. There’s a connection that forms between them, although two stops along the way- one to see a lounge singer named Midnight Judy (Natalia Berger) and one that involves a bartender (Morgan, played by Sarah Dumont) that Dave knows- bring extra levels of tension to this connection. This is the portion of the film that feels like “Drive”- or better, Michael Mann’s modern crime films- and the performances by Hammonds and Takeuchi build up to a relationship that doesn’t take us where we expect to go, but ultimately, where the character’s need to go. To a certain extent, I’m not sure how much you need to parts of the plot involving Lenny; it ultimately connects- or rather, we can connect the dots- with the main story, but it brings a lot of the more Lynchian territory to the film, which is not quite as successful, although the last scene with Lenny hits hard, considering all we’ve seen.
The cinematography by William Hellmuth and music by Robert Daniel Thomas are a wonderful treat to experience throughout this film. The Michael Mann and Lynch inspiration is easy to see, and a pleasure to just sit through for the film’s 94 minutes- I can’t imagine not sitting through the credits so one can listen to the music. The film captures the allure of modern noir in those elements so beautifully, and they help make “Drive All Night” a fascinating exercise in genre, even if some things work more than others.
