Only God Forgives
Those expecting Drive 2 will be disappointed, because Nicolas Winding Refn's languid latest is the spiritual successor of his divisive, Herzog channeling Valhalla Rising. An hallucinatory cocktail of violence and karaoke, with Gosling barely muttering 20 lines throughout, wrapped up in a good old fashioned revenge plot - it's so arthouse that Time Out labelled it "pretentious" (a moment of jaw-dropping pot-calling-kettle-black journalism if ever there was), but unlike them I loved it.
Refn works once again with British cinematographer Larry Smith (Bronson) and every frame of this movie is a visual delight - it's certainly Ryfn's best looking film yet. Like Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void - another film this shares common ground with - Refn's Thailand is a purgatory of neon lit grubby sidestreets and clubs. Cliff Martinez once again provides the score; an unsettling wave of delicate, eastern tinged pop, punctuated by heavy synth and vertiginous drone/doom.
Gosling can play the virtually silent anti-hero in his sleep, but it's an almost unrecognisable Kristin Scott Thomas who stands out here, sure to go down as one of the most reprehensible onscreen mothers of all time. And there's an utterly chilling performance from Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm.
This is some of the most suffocating and stifling cinema I've seen in a while, and for that I applaud it. Refn ends with a dedication to Jodorowsky, an apt dedication as the final scenes of atonement long resonate after the credits roll.
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