Driven (2019) Official Trailer (2019) This DeLorean flick won’t floor you
Sunday, August 18, 2019
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Driven (2019) Official Trailer (2019) This DeLorean flick wonât floor you
Movie Synopsis: A turbo-charged story about the FBI sting operation to entrap maverick car designer John DeLorean.
âDrivenâ is a lot like a DeLorean: Looks great, but moves slow â" if it even moves at all.
The sleazy history drama is about the auto manufacturer John DeLorean (Lee Pace, tall), and the 1982 scandal in which he was accused of making a $24 million cocaine deal to save his company.
The narc was a drug smuggler named Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis), who worked with the FBI to catch DeLorean in exchange for a clean record. Itâs a sexy piece of history, and a much more scintillating one than this slight film would imply.
For Hoffman, DeLorean was Gatsby: the mysterious, rich party animal he aspired to be. Before the drug deal ever came into play, Hoffman and his wife (Judy Greer) were DeLoreanâs neighbors. He slid into the automakerâs life, attending lavish bashes and even doing odd jobs at his house.
Those scenes are the best bit: Trashy revelers doing âthe Electric Slide,â Johnny Carson phoning in to call DeLorean âa fâ"king fraud,â a kingpinâs wife getting high and plunging into the pool. Delightful. But the intrigue lacks suspense and, um, intrigue. The story starts to drag; the grand conclusion is a flop.
Sudeikis has a tougher time than Greer does breaking free of the chains of comedy. He always seems to be setting up a joke, even when his lifeâs at risk. Brooding Pace is an ideal DeLorean, though. Sophisticated, a born leader.
Itâs his lines (words, not coke) that are lacking.
Lee Paceâs fine acting work as the controversial car magnate is overpowered by the hair and makeup departments
Nearly 15 years after his death, John DeLoreanâs life story still feels tailor-made for the movies. He rose and fell, and then did it again. He married and remarried, and then did it again. He made huge mistakes, miraculously escaped punishment, and then â" well, you get the idea.
So perhaps the problem is that thereâs too much material here? âDrivenâ is the second film this summer to address DeLoreanâs life, and the second one to feel overwhelmed by its subject. In the more ambitious âFraming John DeLorean,â documentarians Sheena Joyce and Don Argott addressed their subject head-on, mixing various styles and genres in an attempt to understand him.
Here, director Nick Hamm (âThe Journeyâ) and writer Colin Bateman skirt the edges of his experience, as if theyâre too intimidated to approach it directly. So we get a relatively amusing dramedy, but one in which DeLorean remains a sidelined player in his own story.
Our protagonist is not the vehicular visionary, but rather his shifty neighbor Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis). Hoffman is the kind of guy who pays for his familyâs trip to Disney World by making a quick stop in Bolivia to smuggle several kilos of cocaine. His aw-shucks demeanor suggests he means well, but how many times is his wife (Judy Greer) supposed to look the other way? Sure, she wants fancy marble bathrooms, but she really doesnât want to know how Jim earns the money to pay for them.
Unfortunately for them both, the FBI is extremely interested in where Jim gets his money. And when he makes one mistake too many, heâs given an offer he canât legally refuse: a job as a government informant. Agent Tisa (Corey Stoll) keeps him busy tracking a sleazy drug dealer (Michael Cudlitz) and his flaky girlfriend (Erin Moriarty, providing a master class in making the most of very little).
But Jimâs bored and canât help looking for new trouble. He finds plenty of it when his family moves next door to the DeLoreans. For a while, heâs happy hanging out at their fancy parties,and housesitting when theyâre away. But John (Lee Pace) has noticed that Jim is connected to big money in some shady way, and when he needs millions of dollars â" fast â" he suggests they make a deal. Itâs no spoiler to remind viewers where things wound up: Hamm and Bateman begin and end the film in a courtroom, using flashbacks to fill in the rest.
Jim is our way in and out of this stranger-than-fiction tale, so itâs lucky that Sudeikis is so likable. Heâs entertaining all the way through, which means it may be a while before you notice the generic nature of the movie around him. The period costumes and details, for example, are well chosen as fun flash. But anyone whoâs recently been steeped in the loving authenticity of âOnce Upon a Timeâ¦in Hollywoodâ may have less patience for contemporary films that rely on ostentatious props to signal a bygone era.
More egregious is the way DeLorean becomes one of those props. Pace has clearly studied the man intently, and he does a subtler impression than Alec Baldwinâs in âFraming John DeLorean.â He focuses, impressively, on how DeLorean balanced gentlemanly understatement with an iconâs overconfidence. But heâs also forced to compete with the noticeable work of the hair-and-makeup department. Paceâs careful performance loses some of its power when weâre distracted by Johnâs white wig and dramatic eyebrows, an ever-present reminder that these arenât real people so much as Historic Characters.
Which brings us to one of the filmmakersâ strangest choices: they had a terrific character in DeLoreanâs wife, Cristina Ferrare (played here by Isabel Arraiza, âPearsonâ). One of the most high-profile women in America at the time, Ferrare was equally famous for being a supermodel, TV host, author, socialite, wife, and mother. And yet the script erases all but one of those roles, rewriting her as a superficial accessory for her rich husband.
The fact that Hamm prefers to favor a fictionalized imagining of Hoffmanâs wife, about whom virtually nothing is known, is explicable only if we assume he wanted to give Greer more to do. (She handles her role with typical skill and humor, but it mostly involves one exasperated ultimatum after another.)
In a way, though, complaining about the lack of substance feels beside the point. Odd as it is to watch both DeLoreans treated as afterthoughts, âDrivenâ is a joyride more interested in the journey than in any significant destination.
Movie Synopsis: A turbo-charged story about the FBI sting operation to entrap maverick car designer John DeLorean.
âDrivenâ is a lot like a DeLorean: Looks great, but moves slow â" if it even moves at all.
The sleazy history drama is about the auto manufacturer John DeLorean (Lee Pace, tall), and the 1982 scandal in which he was accused of making a $24 million cocaine deal to save his company.
The narc was a drug smuggler named Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis), who worked with the FBI to catch DeLorean in exchange for a clean record. Itâs a sexy piece of history, and a much more scintillating one than this slight film would imply.
For Hoffman, DeLorean was Gatsby: the mysterious, rich party animal he aspired to be. Before the drug deal ever came into play, Hoffman and his wife (Judy Greer) were DeLoreanâs neighbors. He slid into the automakerâs life, attending lavish bashes and even doing odd jobs at his house.
Those scenes are the best bit: Trashy revelers doing âthe Electric Slide,â Johnny Carson phoning in to call DeLorean âa fâ"king fraud,â a kingpinâs wife getting high and plunging into the pool. Delightful. But the intrigue lacks suspense and, um, intrigue. The story starts to drag; the grand conclusion is a flop.
Sudeikis has a tougher time than Greer does breaking free of the chains of comedy. He always seems to be setting up a joke, even when his lifeâs at risk. Brooding Pace is an ideal DeLorean, though. Sophisticated, a born leader.
Itâs his lines (words, not coke) that are lacking.
âDrivenâ Film Review: DeLorean Tale Offers a Fun Ride But No Memorable Destination
Lee Paceâs fine acting work as the controversial car magnate is overpowered by the hair and makeup departments
Nearly 15 years after his death, John DeLoreanâs life story still feels tailor-made for the movies. He rose and fell, and then did it again. He married and remarried, and then did it again. He made huge mistakes, miraculously escaped punishment, and then â" well, you get the idea.
So perhaps the problem is that thereâs too much material here? âDrivenâ is the second film this summer to address DeLoreanâs life, and the second one to feel overwhelmed by its subject. In the more ambitious âFraming John DeLorean,â documentarians Sheena Joyce and Don Argott addressed their subject head-on, mixing various styles and genres in an attempt to understand him.
Here, director Nick Hamm (âThe Journeyâ) and writer Colin Bateman skirt the edges of his experience, as if theyâre too intimidated to approach it directly. So we get a relatively amusing dramedy, but one in which DeLorean remains a sidelined player in his own story.
Our protagonist is not the vehicular visionary, but rather his shifty neighbor Jim Hoffman (Jason Sudeikis). Hoffman is the kind of guy who pays for his familyâs trip to Disney World by making a quick stop in Bolivia to smuggle several kilos of cocaine. His aw-shucks demeanor suggests he means well, but how many times is his wife (Judy Greer) supposed to look the other way? Sure, she wants fancy marble bathrooms, but she really doesnât want to know how Jim earns the money to pay for them.
Unfortunately for them both, the FBI is extremely interested in where Jim gets his money. And when he makes one mistake too many, heâs given an offer he canât legally refuse: a job as a government informant. Agent Tisa (Corey Stoll) keeps him busy tracking a sleazy drug dealer (Michael Cudlitz) and his flaky girlfriend (Erin Moriarty, providing a master class in making the most of very little).
But Jimâs bored and canât help looking for new trouble. He finds plenty of it when his family moves next door to the DeLoreans. For a while, heâs happy hanging out at their fancy parties,and housesitting when theyâre away. But John (Lee Pace) has noticed that Jim is connected to big money in some shady way, and when he needs millions of dollars â" fast â" he suggests they make a deal. Itâs no spoiler to remind viewers where things wound up: Hamm and Bateman begin and end the film in a courtroom, using flashbacks to fill in the rest.
Jim is our way in and out of this stranger-than-fiction tale, so itâs lucky that Sudeikis is so likable. Heâs entertaining all the way through, which means it may be a while before you notice the generic nature of the movie around him. The period costumes and details, for example, are well chosen as fun flash. But anyone whoâs recently been steeped in the loving authenticity of âOnce Upon a Timeâ¦in Hollywoodâ may have less patience for contemporary films that rely on ostentatious props to signal a bygone era.
More egregious is the way DeLorean becomes one of those props. Pace has clearly studied the man intently, and he does a subtler impression than Alec Baldwinâs in âFraming John DeLorean.â He focuses, impressively, on how DeLorean balanced gentlemanly understatement with an iconâs overconfidence. But heâs also forced to compete with the noticeable work of the hair-and-makeup department. Paceâs careful performance loses some of its power when weâre distracted by Johnâs white wig and dramatic eyebrows, an ever-present reminder that these arenât real people so much as Historic Characters.
Which brings us to one of the filmmakersâ strangest choices: they had a terrific character in DeLoreanâs wife, Cristina Ferrare (played here by Isabel Arraiza, âPearsonâ). One of the most high-profile women in America at the time, Ferrare was equally famous for being a supermodel, TV host, author, socialite, wife, and mother. And yet the script erases all but one of those roles, rewriting her as a superficial accessory for her rich husband.
The fact that Hamm prefers to favor a fictionalized imagining of Hoffmanâs wife, about whom virtually nothing is known, is explicable only if we assume he wanted to give Greer more to do. (She handles her role with typical skill and humor, but it mostly involves one exasperated ultimatum after another.)
In a way, though, complaining about the lack of substance feels beside the point. Odd as it is to watch both DeLoreans treated as afterthoughts, âDrivenâ is a joyride more interested in the journey than in any significant destination.
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