Sunday 17 September 2023

Only God Forgives (2013 Nicholas Winding Refn)

By an incredible coincidence, Q had just been learning about this film on one of her groups, and it was on the same disc as Against the Law, so we thought 'fuck it' to IMDB's 5.7 rating and plunged in.

Unfortunately, God didn't forgive.

Ryan Gosling does nothing in Bangkok as horrible mother Kristin Scott Thomas flies in to avenge death of her other son Tom Burke. They identify a machete-wielding copper - Vithaya Pansringarm - as the bad guy - whereas he's kind of the moral centre of the film, a film populated by seedy characters.

It's a Thai co-production, stylishly designed and photographed (Beth Mickie and Larry Smith) but absolutely repellent and pointless. There's no way we could have watched this film sober.


In interview, Refn sounds like a pretentious asshole. And Ryan says he wasn't so much attracted by the script as the opportunity to work with Refn again after Drive, describing him as a sweet family guy considering the violent films he makes.

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