Only God Forgives

Only God Forgives (2013)

Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Kirstin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Gordon Brown, Yayaying Rhatha Phongam and Tom Burke

I am back one again with my monthly review. Trying something a little different, I rented Only God Forgives from Google Play. After I raved about Refn's last effort, Drive, I wanted to see his next feature. After this movie got a mixed reception at Cannes, I wanted to know if the movie is as bad as the critics say it is. The answer is yes.

In this neo-noir thriller, Ryan Gosling plays Julian, an underground drug dealer that runs his business from a Muay Thai area. Julian's older brother, Billy (Burke) who has a penchant of liking underage girls kills a child prostitute.

Lieutenant Chang (Pansringarm) allows the girl's father to kill Billy, but cuts off his arm, because he let his daughter go into the sex trade. Julian's mother, Crystal (Scott Thomas) flies in from America to bury her eldest son. She knows about the dirty business the brothers were in. She wants Julian to kill the man that killed his brother. When Julian is about to exact his revenge he hears the story about about why Billy was killed and ha a change of heart. This leads to a dark descent into chaos.

The reviews of this movies have been scathing. People said it was style over substance. That is true. The visuals of the film were something to behold. The story was stale. I have seen this story is multiple configurations through my movie watching experience. There are no likable to grasp here. Who wants to hear about kiddie fuckers, comparing the size of your sons' dicks, calling a girl a "cum dumpster or the endless karaoke numbers, for fuck's sake.

The movie was boring to watch. I didn't give two shits about what happens to the characters. I want my money and time back.

My Rating

Drive

Drive (2011)

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn

Written by Hossein Amini

Based on the book by James Sallis

Stars: Ryan Gosling, Carey Mulligan, Bryan Cranston, Albert Brooks, Ron Perlman, James Biberi, Kaden Leos, Oscar Isaac and Christina Hendricks

To rinse the taste of Spider-Man out of my mouth, I wanted to see an actual good movie. Here is a prime example of a good movie that had some bad marketing and came out between the summer blockbuster season and the award show season. It was lost in the mix. It's a shame. I heard great things about this movie. It was on a lot of top ten lists. I have to say that it is a good movie that didn't get a chance.

This is not just a revenge movie. This is a movie about Driver (Gosling), a part time movie stunt driver who also moonlights as a getaway driver for the highest bidder. He only gives five minutes of his time. A second over that the client is on their own. Awesome. Things get complicated when Driver integrated with the lives of his next door neighbor, Irene (Mulligan) and her son, Benicio (Leos). A wrench gets thrown in when Irene's husband, Standard (Oscar Isaac) comes back early from jail. Standard has dealings with bad people that Driver has to get in the mix.

Gosling's Driver character reminded me of classic Eastwood character, The Man with No Name with Driver chews on a toothpick having that fucking kick ass satin scorpion jacket. Driver barely utters a page worth of dialogue in the movie and he could convey lots with his eyes, his mannerisms. I think the biggest stars of the movie is the sound and the score by Cliff Martinez. The ticking of the wrist watch getting louder, the haunting music sucks you in. This movie demonstrated the right amount of tension, suspense with beautiful visuals that hearkens back movies of the late 70s, early 80s.The movie can go from being romantic and sweet with the scenes with Irene and Benicio to horribly violent with a hitman's face caving in or an interesting use of a curtain rod. I'm glad a movie like this exists.

Albert Brooks was getting a lot of Oscar buzz for his role as mobster Bernie Rose in this film. I thought he was very good in the film. The way that he delivered the lines oozed seediness and hate. Brooks won an Omie Award for not being included in the nominees. The rest of the cast was solid with Ron Perlman as Bernie's partner, Nino and Bryan Cranston as the Driver's boss.

My Rating