Ryûsuke Hamaguchi’s Drive My Car is an adaptation of Haruki Murakami’s short story of the same name. A poetic slow-burner, Drive My Car is a ballad of trauma, tragedy, and moving on. Theatre actor Yūsuke Kafuku (Hidetoshi Nishijima) and his screenwriter wife Oto (Reika Kirishima) weave stories together when at their most intimate – then, unexpectedly, everything changes. Later, chauffered in his car by the enigmatic and quiet Misaki (Tōko Miura), Yūsuke finally manages to share secrets of loss and trauma. This is a subtle epic, and easily one of the year’s finest films.
—Nick Davie
Ripe 