Only God Forgives (2013) Nicolas Winding Refn, Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas

watched both with a friend in the same day (OGF and Spring Breakers) and I think that was our conclusion

The movie is very much in the spirit of Jodorowsky's comic book work, super rapey, extreme brutality, psychosexual mythopoetics, etc

liked this more than Drive

this was really dumb. cool soundtrack though

so Albert Brooks' fork will be played by chopsticks in this one.
― Pope Rusty I (Dr Morbius), Monday, April 15, 2013 5:40 PM

lol

A total piece of shit, this thing, although I laughed every time Scott Thomas, in the voice of Unicron, "I’ll take care of the yellow n---- that killed my son. Now get up and kiss your mother."

I'm the world's least likely NWR stan (hated the early films, skipped everything until Drive and fell asleep twenty minutes into that) but I absolutely loved this.

this guy was the best thing in it

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb56/ahdvd/MMS-Only-God-Forgives-Vithaya-Pansringarm_zpsbbb78ced.jpg

I'm the world's least likely NWR stan (hated the early films, skipped everything until Drive and fell asleep twenty minutes into that) but I absolutely loved this.

― Ramnaresh Samhain (ShariVari), Tuesday, November 26, 2013 2:05 PM (3 hours ago) Bookmark

haha yeah im not a big fan of his non-pusher work. maybe this is the refn film for people who dont much like refn

Loved the villain, the minimalist storytelling, and the goddamn wallpaper.

i did not watch this in ideal circumstances, but i found myself a little (too) bored watching it. kubrickian deliberateness and bressonian blank-faced acting are a deadly mix, i think.

i didnt really understand why this was rejected so violently, its the autistic hyperviolent dayglo nightmare hes been building towards for a while now

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQq4QoQFWBw

^can't wait to see this guy's Only God Forgives fan film

I loved Drive. This was worthless.

did the people who hated this hate valhalla rising? i dont think they're worlds apart

Valhalla Rising didn't embarrass its lead actress with dialogue so horrendous that I actually felt sorry for her. Of course, I don't even remember it having any women in it.

valhalla rising was awesome, this was kind of a diff thing

So this movie must've broke Kristin Scott Thomas; quitting films.

"She is tired, too, of being cast in films that need her more than she needs them. 'I'm often asked to do something because I'm going to be a sort of weight to their otherwise flimsy production. They need me for production purposes, basically. So they give me a little role in something where they know I'm going to be able to turn up, know what to do, cry in the right place. I shouldn't bite the hand that feeds, but I keep doing these things for other people, and last year I just decided life's too short. I don't want to do it any more.'"

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/31/kristin-scott-thomas-interview

I would have quit before having the recite dialogue comparing the size of my sons' cocks.

I didn't realize the actress was Kristin Scott Thomas until I clicked on this thread. I sort of enjoyed this movie, it wasn't as good as drive, but I loved the cop and Kristin Scott Thomas. It seemed like she really stepped out of her usual skin for this role.

I mean, what other 2013 film even came close in terms of wallpaper?

This movie is amazing and you are all crazy

It's also so much better than drive that I can't even figure out where to start the comparison

hey, i dug it okay, and it's stayed with me more than most of what i watch. saying it isn't quite as good as bad guy or i saw the devil hardly qualifies as a slam. not going for "amazing", but i am looking forward to watching it again at some point.

ha well given our shared sensibilities i wasnt talking about your comments, but blanket statements are so much more fun

I like the Pusher trilogy (particularly the 2nd + 3rd) and Valhalla Rising movies by NWR. Drive and Only God Forgives are merely shitty Tony Scott/Gaspar Noe pastiches imo.

This movie had one hilarious scene.

What hilarious scene?

Watched this. Quite disappointed but I find it odd that people felt such passionate extremes for it (but I've been confused a lot lately by extreme reactions to films, I'm still coming to terms with the idea of some people really loving Iron Man, Pirates Of The Caribbean, Stakeland, American Graphiti 2:Dazed & Confused and Poltergeist).

Not nearly as violent as I expected. Not much incest either. Some nice images and sounds. I liked the scene of the boy watching the man being killed. Just too slow and not enough good stuff.

Drive was a nice snack, Bronson was fine but Valhalla Rising is better than any of the former by a long distance, really lovely film. I'm curious about the earlier films like Pusher trio, Bleeder and Fear X (opinions about those?) and I really want Refn to be great in the future.

I was very fond of Kim King Duk for a while but after seeing 8 of his films I felt like I wasn't going to get anything more out of further films. But I am really impressed by how quiet and slow he makes his films without ever getting boring. He always gets the right balance.

I Saw The Devil is pretty decent but I don't think the ordeal is really worth it for any element.

I still think Only God Forgives is better than Spring Breakers which is quite pretty at times but too boring. But it felt unpleasantly mean spirited to me, as if the whole film was just mocking these shallow boring people. One big feature length sneer.

I haven't seen a single positive review of Fear X but I'm still quite curious about it- John Turturro, surveillance thriller (yes more of these please), accusations from multiple critics of being a Lynch ripoff (yes also more of these too).

I liked Only God Forgives despite the sheer dumbness of the psychology and moralizing just for the visuals: this is a really fucking pretty movie, you guys. And Kristin Scott Thomas, and the scene set to "Wanna Fight" (the track in 4/6 with the ludicrous gothic pipe organ and synth lines running up and down the scale) that just builds and builds for ages until Vithaya Pansringarm just casually beats the shit out of a character whose only defined trait is "boxing". I mean, it's not great, but I don't regret it (and I definitely don't regret picking up the soundtrack either).

fear x is really good

been periodically ~thinking abt~ fear x since seeing it, stumbled upon this -http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/essays/fear_x/

― johnny crunch, Monday, November 18, 2013 5:16 PM (8 months ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Pusher 2 + 3 are elevated above average genre pics by brilliant central performances from Mikkelsen and Burik, but I suppose tbh they are just above average genre pics but there is nothing wrong with that. Mikkelsen brings a lot of pathos to the heroically stupid Tonny character. Will have to give Fear X a dabble, I let the bad reviews dissuade me.

the refn doc 'my life' is p good, interesting that just days before shooting started for OGF he sez 'I don't even know what this movie's about' & he reads one of those super negative reviews upthread on camera

also further confirms gosling as an all-time bro

oh man I couldn't stand that piece of shit

xp should say "& LATER he reads.." the neg review, yknow after hes made the fim

film!

I love the fact that there has been made three docs on Refn. I think at least one of them was made due to money problem. The guy can be so good, but when he fails, he fails hard.

I might have said this before, but the best 'doc' on Refn was this long interview he did over several nights on a weird Danish late night show some time ago. It was before Drive, before Bronson, I think, at a time where his carreer was going nowhere, and the whole interview was the host asking him to explain, in detail, how he ended up as such a failure. I remember Nicolas ended up breaking down in tears, which made the host smile gloatingly as if that was the entire point. Now, it was probably staged, but it's absolutely incredible. And I can't find it. And it needs to end up as a dvd-extra on something.

refn seems to be kind of positioning himself as a von trier-like "personality" as much as a film director, or at least that's how it appears from over here

I wish the last doc had shown how his wife despises his films; it looked like it was going to!

She's been in a couple of them, so I guess she likes those?

maybe she just likes hanging out w/ her husband.

Reminds me of Gilliam laughing as he tells us how his wife thinks his films have went to shit.

terry gilliam's wife OTM

Knew that was coming but apart from Brothers Grimm and bits of Parnassus, I disagree.

Cut-and-paste reviews of this one and you have the reviews of the new one.

Refn's gonna Refn.

The new bad movie deserves its own thread.

The reviews I've seen have been more positive than ones for OGF, but I'm not ready to trust him again.

If there is god, he would not forgive Only God Forgives. Utter trash

If there is god, he would not forgive Only God Forgives. Utter trash

Fuck sorry for double post. Should've said he/she (recovering christian)