Drive My Car (2021)
Directed by Ryusuke Hamaguchi
Written by Ryusuke Hamaguchi and Takamasa Oe
Starring Hidetoshi Nishijima, Toko Miura, Masaki Okada, Reika Kirishima, and Peri Dizon
179 minutes, Unrated

Drive My Car is a film that was released in 2021. I didn’t see it until 2022. As I sat through the closing credits and pondered the immensely powerful cinematic treasure I had just seen, I wished that this film would have been available to me in 2002. I could have used this movie back then.

If you are unaware of this film, then you must not be the sort that pays attention to the Academy Awards, because Drive My Car has been recently nominated for four Oscars. A three-hour subtitled foreign film, it is the official submission of Japan in the Best International Feature Film category, but it has also achieved nods for Best Director (Ryusuke Hamaguchi) and Best Picture. The screenplay, adapted by the director and Takamasa Oe from a short story by Hiruki Murakami (one of my favorite living novelists), has been honored in the category of Best Adapted Screenplay.

If you are aware of this film, but have not seen it, I caution you from moving forward until you have. This entry will contain many, many SPOILERS. Ordinarily, I would not spoil a movie this new, but I simply cannot write about why this film has spoken to me so profoundly without divulging plot details. This is, to me, a very special film.