Drive
Existential antiheroes aren’t dangerous because they don’t believe, but rather because they might start. Scary intensity waiting to be awakened is at the crux of Nicolas Winding Refn’s spectacular drama, full of graphic-comics violence, in which a taciturn stuntman, racer and getaway-driver-for-hire (Ryan Gosling) finds purpose–and trouble. The Driver normally takes long pauses before answering questions, not so much to be sure of his reply but to determine if he can muster the strength to engage the world. But that changes when he meets and instantly falls for Irene (Carey Mulligan), a troubled married woman with a young son and a husband who’s about to be paroled. The husband owes some favors to the wrong kind of people, and unless he pulls off a robbery, his family will die. The Driver volunteers to be behind the wheel for the heist in order to save mother and son, but complications arise during the job, and he soon is the target of hellacious gangsters (Albert Brooks and Ron Perlman, in brilliant turns). Others continually point out to the Driver that it’s bad luck that led him to such a situation, that he would have been fine if only events had worked out differently. This seems to be the world view of the film, but it feels like the misfortune has less to do with external circumstance than with inner nature. An inflexible soul incapable of yielding will eventually crash. Watch trailer.

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The Elephant in the Living Room
Humans encountering wild animals in developed areas across America, an increasing trend in recent years, seemed to be an unintended consequence of the pre-recession construction boom, when sprawl encroached on habitats. But it was something else–we simply invited the dangerous wildlife into our homes. Encouraged by Animal Planet content and any number of zany wranglers making the rounds of talk shows, a booming black market has developed for exotic animals, as witnessed in Michael Webber’s eye-opening doc about people making pets of lions and leopards and such. Webber shows libertarianism run amok, in which local newspaper circulars and underground Amish country dealers supply the subculture with creatures. Once the poisonous snakes and hungry lion cubs are taken home, all hell often breaks loose, as animals escape or are turned out by owners who can no longer manage them. The movie’s heart is Ohio enforcement officer Tim Harrison who tries to counsel those with dubious judgement and damaged souls into giving up their small-scale zoos, to change minds that are already made up. “It’s not a python problem,” he says, “but a people problem.” Watch trailer.

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More recent films I liked now on home video:

• Bellflower, Contagion, Tuesday, After Christmas

• Higher Ground, The Black Power Mixtape 1967-1975, Senna

• Certified Copy, Another Earth, The Arbor.

Bellflower
Woodrow and Milly most definitely do not meet cute. They come together as participants in a $50 bar bet to see who can devour the most live crickets at a beer-soaked Los Angeles dive. The couple then embarks on an impromptu road trip to Texas, where they egg each other on to do increasingly dangerous and disgusting things, getting off on a mutual adrenaline rush. Milly seems too aggressive for her new beau, but perhaps soft-spoken Woodrow is the one to watch. He and his slacker pal Aiden, both obsessed with Mad Max films, spend their days building weapons of mass destruction–flamethrowers and indestructible cars–just in case the apocalypse arrives. But when Woodrow and Milly have a bad breakup, the gamesmanship really begins between the two and the WMDs ensure that broken hearts will be joined by broken bones. At first blush debuting writer-director Evan Glodell might seem like Cronenberg divorced from social commentary, smashing together human flesh and metal machines merely for sensationalism. But there’s more here. Glodell may not be concerned with a sick society, but he’s very attuned to heartsickness and its combustible nature. Watch trailer.

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Contagion
In our viral, interconnected age, when we fear the rapid spread of computer worms, toxic financial derivatives and lab-built bio-nightmares, Steven Soderbergh offers a timely blockbuster about a killer flu that is a shockingly straightforward medical procedural, one which makes only scant concessions to the usual standards of character-driven megaplex movies. The film follows a deadly bug that begins in Hong Kong and rapidly winds around the world after finding its patient zero: a traveling American businessperson (Gwyneth Paltrow). As the body count grows, we watch epidemiologists at the World Health Organization do their work, tracking the illness. Interesting that the main villain is a blogger (Jude Law) who is willing to spread disinformation for a profit. While it’s possible for hysteria to drive poor information online (see: immunizations, autism), the world of new media is mostly our ally. Think of the glacial initial response to AIDS, which was caused not only by politics but also by a lack of shared info, computer infrastructure and advanced statistical analysis. The tools Law’s character uses, which can rapidly disseminate information, are more likely to prevent an epidemic than abet one. Not everything that goes viral harms us. Watch trailer.

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Tuesday, After Christmas
Radu Muntean’s romantic drama about the dissolution of a marriage during a family’s seemingly happy holiday season is another example from the recent Romanian wave of stark, convincing dramas. Middle-aged banker Cristi (Dragos Bucur) is having an affair with a younger woman (Maria Popistasu), and we only learn subsequently that his mistress is also his daughter’s dentist. His lies mount, but Cristi still believes the duplicity is manageable. Right before Christmas, he suddenly realizes the situation is, in fact, untenable, and sheepishly tells his wife (Mirela Oprisor) that their marriage is over. It’s a shattering and impassioned climax, but the small, mundane moments before and after the fissure are just as impressive. As Muntean follows his principals through their workaday existences–running errands, eating meals–it becomes apparent that life is largely a number of seemingly unimportant details that collect and form and present us with a truth that we only, at most, suspected. Watch trailer.