36% on Rotten Tomatoes (out of 112 reviews)
Runtime: 89 minutes
Directed by: Nicolas Winding Refn
Starring: Ryan Gosling, Vithaya Pansringram, Kristin Scott Thomas, Yayaying Rhatha Phongham
From: Many different production companies, including Gaumont and Wild Bunch
You know, I did not think that I'd see another movie this year that would made me as angry as Hatchet 3 did, but something else I spent money on via Xbox Video (too much money, as it turns out in hindsight) has ruined my day, and it was this movie, one that is extremely polarizing, whether you look it up on Letterboxd (more on that later), IMDb, or various messageboards. This movie got walk-outs and was heavily booed at Cannes once it finished.
I now know why. What a thoroughly pointless, repugnant, unappealing movie this is!
To copy the plot description from the IMDb (which does a better job of explaining the plot than the actual movie does in presenting it):
“Bangkok. Ten years ago Julian killed a man and went on the run. Now he manages a Thai boxing club as a front for a drugs operation. Respected in the criminal underworld, deep inside, he feels empty. When Julian's brother murders an underage prostitute, the police call on retired cop Chang - the Angel of Vengeance. Chang allows the father to kill his daughter's murderer, then 'restores order' by chopping off the man's right hand. Julian's mother Crystal - the head of a powerful criminal organization - arrives in Bangkok to collect her son's body. She dispatches Julian to find his killers and 'raise hell'”
After I finish giving my brief thoughts I am going to copy and paste a LONG review of this movie from someone on Letterboxd known as Gustav Roman. I am not pals with him on there or even read any of his other reviews. It just so happens that he explains in masterful detail (I don't agree with all of it; just most of it) why this was so awful a movie-watching experience. That will be in italics. Before that, my thoughs...
You can have a movie look pretty, be lit up colorfully to set up a mood, and all that-and even have a nice musical score-but when you have an utterly pointless movie filled with absolutely repellant characters, a pointless story that is not realistic at all, a complete blank slate for a lead character (except for the fact that he's p*ssy-whipped by his own mom), AND my new least-favorite antagonist of all-time* (I mean that in a bad way; Danielle Harris as Marybeth in the aforementioned Hatchet 3 is still my least-favorite character as she was supposed to be the hero), then you're going to have a movie I thought was God-awful and a complete waste of time, even with some amusing moments.
* Replacing Justin Hammer, as portrayed by Sam Rockwell in Iron Man 2.
Honestly, Thomas as the criminal boss was SO unappealing in a way that will turn you off and make you want to shut off the movie. If I hadn't spent 560 Xbox Points to rent it for today, that's what I would have done! She's racist, yells at everyone and is a complete bitch... just the absolute worst and not the sort of character I ever need to see again. Plus, having somehow made it through Hatchet 3 meant that I had to make it through this too. Nothing happened at the end that made it worth the Battan Death March of a journey.
Excuse my language but what artsy-fartsy bullshit this was! I guess I should expect as much when (according to IMDb) the director said he made this because "he got the idea for the film while his wife was pregnant with their second daughter. He felt very existentialistic and felt he had much anger and violence in him, but did not know how to let it out. Suddenly he had the idea that the definite person to hold all the answers to existential questions and life's problems where God and imagined himself having a physical fight with God."
Christ!
Now, onto Gustav's comments. I'll be back Wednesday afternoon, hopefully with something that did not enrage me.
There are films that are artsy, thought-provoking, deep and complex; then there are films that are immature, exploitative, dumb and mindless. 'Only God Forgives' however, is a film of the worst kind. It is a film that is immature, exploitative and mindless but it thinks that it is a thought-provoking and complex masterpiece. It is a film that thinks that because its characters are morally ambiguous that they are somehow brilliantly written. It's a film that thinks that it can it can somehow get away with a non-existing story because it is "visually immersive and surreal enough". It is a film that shows horribly grotesque violence, not to prove a point or manipulate the audience, but just because it looks cool. "Wow, that blood really looks amazing dripping down that wall! And wow, look at how still and unflinching Ryan Gosling is while that prostitute masturbates!" This film is one of the most vile, meaningless and nauseating excuses for "art" that I have even seen.
I
came into this movie with hardly any expectations. I was excited but
I was not expecting (as the trailer suggested) a sequel to "Drive".
I was just wanting this film to be a solid director/actor follow-up
and a different experience. I was thinking that this film if anything
would be a more thoughtful and meaningful film than the insanely cool
"Drive". While I knew that this film was booed at Cannes I
really didn't think much of that. "The Tree of Life" was
booed at Cannes so how bad could this film really be?
Obviously that
bad. What this film accomplishes is zero aesthetic, style without a
trace of substance and an almost self parody. It is lacking in any
form of story, subtext, substance, and any possible thing that could
possibly make up for those shortcomings. Winding Refn is clearly a
director with stylistic sensibility but seeing cool looking
Kubrick-like shots doesn't do anything to possibly make this film
masterful. This film is about as far away from the word masterful as
you can possibly get.
The
story here, as just about everyone knows is nil. All we see through
this 89 minute (and far too long at that) film is revenge and then
re-revenge and then re-re-revenge all in slow-motion. All without any
merit or any sort of weight outside of its cool-lookingness.
Gratuitous and pointless revenge carried out by not morally vague
characters but one-dimensionally bad characters. This didn't urk me
because I didn't have someone to root for, it irked me because I
didn't even have anyone interesting to watch. Every character here is
horrible and annoying. Even Gosling, who does with his character an
almost self-parody.
If
it is possible to overstate understating, Gosling does it here. He is
so still and so silent that he becomes loud. The mystery that he
brought with his Driver character is simply gone. In "Drive"
he was calm and cool but in "Only God Forgives" he is over
the top in his silence. He comes off as just plain annoying. Not
because his character here is not heroic like Driver but because here
he shoves his cool and calm self in your face. Kristen Scott Thomas'
evil manipulative mother certainly steals every scene she's in
because of her huge and insanely intense character. She is the
character that you instantly love to hate. Unfortunately though, she
is stuck in a movie that doesn't deserve her.
The
only thing that made me able to sit through these excruciatingly slow
and boring 89 minutes was the hope that somehow it would all come
together. That the poorly contrived story and random, senseless acts
of brutal violence would somehow mean something greater in the end.
The thing is though, it doesn't. Nothing about this film means
anything. The violence has absolutely no weight to it what so ever.
It isn't there to challenge or hold anything to the audience because
it's only there long enough to be cool looking. Something that this
movie has too much of for its own good.
I
was trying to think that maybe I let my own repulsion get in the way
of me somehow missing something great about this film but I'm coming
up with absolutely nothing. This film is simply repulsive with
absolutely nothing remotely meaningful or artistic to redeem it. I
realize that the whole concept of surrealism is based on just
immersing the audience in the world and not necessarily having a deep
message behind it. I'm totally okay with surrealism but this film
doesn't even do that very well. It tries to play the slow-burn game
but only comes off as slow and bland.
I know that majority of Winding
Refn puritans are going to love this film for its "beautiful
artistry" and some of them will probably unfollow me for not
"getting" this film. I honestly wish that I didn't "get"
this film and that I missed something brilliant. Federico Fellini
said that the best movies are the ones that you don't understand. I
would really like to say that I hated this movie but I didn't
understand it. But the thing is I did understand it and I do still
hate it.
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