“Drive” is one of the best films of the year. It’s unlike anything else in theaters right now — and that’s both a blessing and a curse. “Drive” is an exceedingly exciting film, and not just because it centers on a man who’s a Hollywood stunt driver by day, criminal wheelman by night. It’s an intriguing and strangely moving mix of movie history. Critics and even the director himself have declared that 1968’s “Bullitt” is the key forebearer. But the movie’s electric-pink title credits suggest a steamy ’80s flick, and its synthesizer-laden soundtrack suggests ’80s genre films like “Blade Runner.” Its deliberate pace points to the typical European art film, while its over-the-top gangsters seem taken straight out of American classics.

Though it wears its influences on its sleeve, “Drive” isn’t derivative. The film is a breath of fresh air, a carefully made, ultraviolent love story that heralds in a new talent.