Ryusuke Hamaguchi

(On Cable TV, July 2022) Considering my muted reaction to Oscar-winning Drive my Car, I was about to begin my review by saying that hype killed this film, but that’s not entirely true—it’s closer to the truth that pacing killed this film, because it unaccountably goes on for a staggering three hours (well, 179 minutes, but one more minute won’t make much of a difference). We’re not talking about a densely plotted action-filled three hours either, as the film moodily focuses around a theatre director brooding about the death of his adulterous wife, and then meets her lover while working on another production. There’s not a whole lot more to that except being driven around by a young woman, but writer/director Ryusuke Hamaguchi goes for subtle, incremental character moments every chance he gets, and the result (especially in subtitled Japanese) will test the patience of most viewers. The question being, “It’s a well-made movie, but is it that good?” is likely to be more pressing knowing that the film walked away with an Academy Award. (The obvious wisecrack is to wonder whether there’s a more stupefyingly boring category than the Foreign-Language Academy Award—and I say that as a proud French-Canadian able to claim multiple nominees and one winner in that category.)  Drive my Car is for fans of slow, meandering, not necessarily story-driven cinema. It’s about character moments and subtle moments—this warning being given, you figure out the rest.