Few filmmakers’ careers fall into two halves like Nicolas Winding Refn’s. Chaos and a palpable sense of inescapable grime characterize the primary half of the Danish director’s oeuvre, whereas a smooth, hyper-composed, and sometimes glacially paced fashion marks his later work as a number of the most recognizable of any filmmaker working immediately.
However either side of his filmography provide a number of the finest movies of the final thirty years, and his latest flip to streaming makes Refn one of the vital fascinating filmmakers working immediately. Right here, we’ll have a look at all ten of Nicolas Winding Refn’s function movies and his two streaming exhibits, rating his output so far.
1. Drive (2011)
Primarily based on the novel of the identical identify by James Sallis, Drive claimed iconic standing upon launch. The movie follows Ryan Gosling as an unnamed “Driver” who will get drawn right into a harmful state of affairs with Los Angeles’s organized crime underworld after a theft job gone incorrect. However issues aren’t solely about Driver getting out safely, and Drive isn’t solely a hyper-stylized crime film, it’s additionally a romance.
The primary a part of the movie tracks Driver and his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) as they develop a romance, whereas the second takes a flip into artfully directed motion. Nicolas Winding Refn’s beautiful course makes each elements of the movie unattainable to look away from.
2. Too Previous To Die Younger (2019)
Nicolas Winding Refn’s first streaming present, Too Previous to Die Younger’s ten-episode run, clocks in at greater than twelve and a half hours as a result of the filmmaker permits each scene, each line of dialogue even, to breathe. The present’s sluggish tempo challenges viewers, with a number of moments which may have audiences questioning in the event that they by chance paused. However his concentrate on nonetheless photographs marks the present as maybe probably the most Refn undertaking in his filmography. Too Previous to Die Younger can be Nicolas Winding Refn’s most political work, with themes starting from rising fascism in the US to the systemic abuse of ladies and kids.
The present follows corrupt LAPD officer Martin Jones (Miles Teller) and Mexican Cartel chief Jesus Rojas (Augusto Aguilera) as their lives are tied collectively when Martin kills Jesus’s mom. Because the present continues, different characters grow to be distinguished as properly, together with the witch Diana (Jena Malone), her triggerman Viggo (John Hawkes), and the enigmatic Yaritza (Cristina Rodlo), who allies herself with Jesus. There’s nothing like Too Previous to Die Younger, in Refn’s filmography or in any other case, which provides it distinctive enchantment.
3. Worry X (2003)
Constructing on an authentic script from Hubert Selby Jr., writer of Final Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, Refn developed Worry X into one of the vital unnerving and mysterious movies of the 2000s. The movie follows John Turturro as mall safety guard Harry, who grows obsessive about discovering who killed his spouse and a DEA agent throughout a capturing on the mall the place he works.
However removed from a simple homicide thriller, Worry X wallows in environment and ambiguity. A number of plot factors are inexplicable, and when Harry finds a clue that leads him to a small city in Montana, the movie turns into nearly fantastical. The movie attracts important inspiration from the work of David Lynch, making a world that appears like ours however isn’t fairly proper. Refn’s management of the environment and Turturro’s lead efficiency make Worry X a superb, genre-defying movie.
4. The Neon Demon (2016)
It makes good sense {that a} filmmaker as obsessive about magnificence as Nicolas Winding Refn would make a movie concerning the nature of magnificence and what it means. The Neon Demon tells the story of the mysterious and alluring sixteen-year-old Jesse (Elle Fanning), who strikes to Los Angeles to grow to be a mannequin. It doesn’t take lengthy for different fashions, photographers, and make-up artist Ruby (Jena Malone) to note her, and shortly she’s the speak of the city.
However that sort of consideration locations a goal on Jesse’s again. She begins to face threats from those that need to eradicate her as competitors, in addition to those that want to possess her (together with Keanu Reeves as a predatory motel supervisor). The Neon Demon stays Refn’s solely outright horror movie and his solely function to concentrate on girls, with important contributions from girls behind the digicam. However that focus raises questions of whether or not the movie is feminist, misogynist, or in some way each for a number of commentators. No matter The Neon Demon’s message, it’s undoubtedly one of the vital visually putting movies in Nicolas Winding Refn’s filmography.
5. Solely God Forgives (2013)
Ryan Gosling re-teamed with Nicolas Winding Refn after the success of Drive for a way more summary and sometimes alienating movie. Solely God Forgives pushes the boundaries of maximum violence, narrative comprehensibility, and good style. The movie facilities on American drug seller Julian (Gosling) in Bangkok, whose mom forces him to hunt revenge for the dying of his brother Billy (Tom Burke). However Billy’s dying wasn’t a part of the standard drug-related violence; the daddy of a younger lady killed Billy after Billy killed his youngster.
To make issues extra difficult, a mysterious Thai police officer performed a key half in Billy’s homicide, providing the daddy the chance for revenge. When Julian’s mom arrives and calls for justice for her useless son, with important strategies of getting misplaced a associate in an incestual relationship, Julian should face off towards a person who could also be divine.
Solely God Forgives stands out as probably the most difficult-to-watch movie in Refn’s filmography. However it’s additionally one of the vital rewarding for these fascinated about pushing themselves.
6. Pusher (1996)
Refn’s first movie, Pusher stays his most energetic. Pusher locations its titular pusher, drug seller Frank (Kim Bodnia), in a race towards time after the police drive him to dump a major stash, and he hurries to get collectively the cash he owes his provider. The movie tracks Frank by way of the Copenhagen underworld as he seeks assist from his fellow seller and finest pal Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen in his first function movie), semi-girlfriend Vic (Laura Drasbæk), and others.
As Frank scrambles to boost funds, Pusher additionally exhibits what his provider Milo (Zlatko Burić) and his right-hand enforcer Radovan (Slavko Labović) do to get their a reimbursement. The scenes with Frank’s pursuers have a brutality to them, as Radovan could be very keen to harm folks. However these scenes additionally embody some pretty character moments the place the 2 focus on opening a restaurant. Pusher not often lets its viewers breathe, however when it does, it takes these moments to develop and humanize the characters of its violent world.
7. Valhalla Rising (2009)
A turning level in Refn’s profession, Valhalla Rising begins the director’s love affair with the sorts of lengthy, drawn-out scenes with minimal dialogue that characterize the latter half of his profession. The movie additionally falls into an odd area visually. It’s a lot crisper than his grainy early movies however takes place in an unknown, barren wilderness throughout the twelfth century. This praise creates a disconnect between the readability of the photographs and the filth that typically actually covers characters.
The movie’s story facilities on a non-speaking Norse warrior known as One-Eye (Mikkelsen once more) and a younger boy who journey with a bunch of Crusaders searching for the Holy Land. The vacationers get misplaced in an all-consuming fog and do not know the place they’ve arrived as soon as they discover land, however the Christian chief argues that they need to conquer the land within the identify of God. Valhalla Rising makes use of this narrative to discover themes of faith and its relationship to violence, delivering one of the vital thought-provoking and viscerally thrilling movies about religion.
8. Bronson (2008)
The one biopic in Refn’s filmography so far, Bronson tells the true story of Britain’s most violent prison, Michael Peterson, who took the identify Charles Bronson from the actor. Tom Hardy performs Peterson in certainly one of his most electrifying performances, relishing in surreal sequences that see Peterson talking on to the viewers in a theatrical setting.
That theatrical setting permits Peterson to introduce and touch upon the vignettes that make up the movie, usually lending humor to the violent actions we see. Bronson stands out as one of the vital distinctive biopics ever made, not just for the peculiarity of its central determine but in addition due to Nicolas Winding Refn’s directorial selections and Hardy’s extremely bodily efficiency.
9. Pusher 3 (2005)
Nicolas Winding Refn by no means supposed for Pusher to have sequels. After making a flop with Worry X, Refin wanted to make some cash, so he returned to the world he’d created along with his first movie and shaped a trilogy. Neither the second nor the third movie are as downright pulse-pounding as the primary, however they’ve their charms. Pusher 3 facilities on Milo (as soon as once more performed by Burić) as he concurrently makes an attempt to dump a cargo of ecstasy he acquired rather than his regular heroin and prepare dinner a party-sized meal for his daughter’s twenty fifth birthday. Suffice it to say that he struggles to attain each objectives.
The movie introduces absurd humor into the dirty Copenhagen underworld, with an prolonged sequence of physique disposal that options some downright foolish moments. However it doesn’t shrink back from the horrors of the underworld both, paralleling Milo’s spoiled daughter with a younger trafficked woman in a single scene. It’s an odd movie, however Burić’s efficiency and the offbeat humorousness make it the second-best of the sequence.
10. Pusher II (2004)
Pusher II shifts focus from the primary movie to Tonny (Mikkelsen) and features extra as a personality research than a criminal offense thriller. The film tracks Tonny as he will get out of jail (once more) and makes an attempt to grow to be a extra accountable, however not non-criminal, individual. He will get a job working for his father, a gangster referred to as The Duke (Leif Sylvester), at a storage. He learns that he has a toddler and begins to take care of the infant, however he makes a idiot of himself when he has a public struggle with the kid’s mom in the midst of a celebration.
Pusher II portrays a person who desires to do and be higher for these round him however is at all times his worst enemy. It’s an affecting drama that simply so occurs to happen in the identical Copenhagen underworld as the primary Pusher movie. Mikkelsen offers a devastating efficiency.
11. Bleeder (1999)
Refn’s second movie reunites Bodnia, Mikkelsen, and Burić in a movie that takes time to develop. Bleeder begins as a small-scale drama about video rental retailer clerk Lenny (Mikkelsen), his coworker and fellow cinephile Kitjo (Burić), and their pal Leo (Bodnia). However because the movie goes on, Lenny and Leo’s tales start to fracture in each narrative and tone.
Leo has a child on the way in which and turns into extra risky, along with his pregnant girlfriend and her brother main him down a path towards violence. However, Lenny works on getting up the braveness to talk with, ask out, after which really go on a date with close by diner employee Lea (Liv Corfixen). That cut up makes Bleeder an interesting movie. Sadly, neither storyline delivers the identical stage of pleasure, putting photographs, or affecting character portraits as his finest work.
12. Copenhagen Cowboy (2023)
After years away from Copenhagen and its dirty underworld, Refn returned along with his most up-to-date undertaking and second streaming present, Copenhagen Cowboy. The six-episode present will curiosity followers of Refn because it combines his more moderen sluggish pacing and intensely crisp cinematography with the topic and setting of his early work. The present fails to succeed, partly, as a result of the primary two episodes play out in a brothel, and its many threads by no means cohere into one thing partaking.
The present isn’t a complete failure, although. Some concepts in Copenhagen Cowboy promise one thing extra attention-grabbing. The present, which follows a doubtlessly supernaturally gifted younger Miu (Angela Bundalovic) as she makes her manner by way of Copenhagen’s prison underworld, hints at blood feuds, vampires, aliens, and extra. However it leaves these parts indirect as an alternative of specializing in a extra cliche story of Miu serving to a girl retrieve her youngster from a gangster. Like all of Refn’s output since Drive, it options beautiful visuals in each body.
Movie and TV Critic, Pop Tradition Author
- Experience: Horror, Animation, Queer Movie
- Training: Grasp’s Diploma in Philosophy from Boston Faculty, Twin Bachelor’s Diploma in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston Faculty
- Organizer of Queer Movie Problem on Letterboxd
- Over 200 evaluations, essays, articles, and lists throughout varied websites
Expertise: Kyle Logan has been writing about movie since learning movie and philosophy as an undergraduate at Boston Faculty. Kyle started writing about movie professionally in 2020 and has written for a lot of websites together with Display screen Anarchy, Movie Tales, and Fangoria. Kyle has additionally organized the Queer Movie Problem on Letterboxd since 2020, highlighting the queer historical past of movie and bringing consideration to rising queer filmmakers. Kyle now works full time with Wealth of Geeks, contributing lists, evaluations, and podcast appearances on matters as diversified as movie, journey, and Halloween sweet.