I watched Drive last night, and, damn, you guys weren't kidding about the violence. I agree that it's very stylish, and I dug it, but I felt the characters (especially the female characters) were underdeveloped. The soundtrack was great, though, and the movie is exquisitely shot.

It was so weird to see Christina Hendricks act scared, though. Also: geez, what a waste of Christina Hendricks.

Also, I just watched the trailer again, and I'm glad I didn't remember it strongly because it gives practically everything away, damn.

right? the trailer is a trip on that score.

what is your interpretation of the ending? Beau and I have different interpretations:

one of us thinks that we are to believe that Driver dies in the end. One of us thinks it is possible, but not clear that Driver dies.

I am with whichever one of you thinks it's possible but not certain. If they really wanted him to die, he would've died in that sweet shadow scene, which is what I was expecting. There's no good reason to have him live through that if he just dies in five minutes. Although I also expected him to maybe drive off a cliff. He should die in a car, after all.

so you agree with me. naturally. and I am with you logic-wise, but I see a narrative reason to have the movie end with him driving and not dying.

Nah, I agree that it's certainly more appropriate that the movie ends with him driving, but it's one of those things where I was so surprised he actually survived that scene. The movie does a lot of unexpected things. I liked it for being different, even though it was formed from classic tropes. I just really wished I knew anything about Carey Mulligan's character. In a weird way, the fact that everything was so understated makes it okay that the characters are underdeveloped, but sometimes I am greedy.

And the violence (in one scene) made me gasp out loud.

Was this the head-stomping scene? Because damn.

technically I think I gasped in one scene and said "wow" out loud in the theater for another.

the former was the elevator scene. Is that the one you mean?

The latter was Christina Hendricks. Homegirl can play a red hot mess if she wants to and she was believable. What an end though!

I just saw another TV spot for Chronicle and none of the shots were ones that stood out as cheaty for me.

The ones I'm thinking of are the ones where a character is flying and one where it's way up in the air. And, well, there are several shots that seem like they're out of a regular movie, just the way they're framed and the way they look. I'll be interested to see how those are "shot." Think I'm going to go see it on Tuesday.

Is that the one you mean?

Yep.

said "wow" out loud in the theater for another.

I was like, "Did that just happen??"

The ones I'm thinking of are the ones where a character is flying and one where it's way up in the air.

They explain those.

Tivo picked up Alice in Wonderland for me. . . and I've suddenly realized that I haven't actually read the books. So that whole ridiculous proposal scene at the beginning was that in the books? Because I can't imagine anyone ever thinking that was a good idea.