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A domain of film news and reviews, covering new releases, film festivals and classics alike, edited by Andy Buckle, a Sydney film enthusiast and reviewer.
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
SFF Review: Only God Forgives (Nicolas Winding Refn, 2013)
The new collaboration between Danish writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn (Valhalla Rising, Drive) and star Ryan Gosling (Drive, The Place Beyond the Pines) caused
quite a stir at this year’s Cannes Film Festival. The hyper-violent
crime thriller received a divisive vocal reception from the crowd at the
Croisette; and while the film’s pacing, heavy stylisation and
stomach-churning violence will likely result in its share of detractors,
on an aesthetic level it is a highly professional work of formal vision
and precision. Following Drive (for which Refn was
awarded Best Director at Cannes), he has taken a potentially alienating
diversion here. This challenging film, driven by his own existential
crises and his fascination with images in favour of dialogue and violent
characters that live on the fringe of reality, is a daring and
unconventional exercise of a very different beast. Though not all of
Refn’s decisions hit the mark this time, it is a tough film to shake.
Julian (Gosling) runs a Thai boxing club with his brothers, using it
as a front to smuggle and deal drugs. When his brother Billy (Tom Burke)
rapes and kills an underage prostitute he is turned over to the young
woman’s father by a ruthless retired cop named Chang (Vithaya
Pansringarm), who has resolved to bringing divine justice to the corrupt
Bangkok underworld. Billy’s subsequent death-by-vengeance brings their
mother Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas), the head of the crime syndicate,
to Bangkok to reclaim his body. She instructs Julian to find and kill
those responsible for her favourite son’s death, which draws him in to
Chang’s own reign of vengeful bloodshed.
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