My Review: Only God Forgives (3/10)

"Time to meet the devil."

I've never gone from a love-hate relationship as fast as I have with Nicolas Winding Refn after watching Only God Forgives. His prior film, Drive, was my favorite movie of 2011 and now only two years later I was utterly disappointed with his follow up movie also staring Ryan Gosling. Everything that I loved about Drive, I hated about this film. It was an exercise in style, but it lacked substance. It's an existentialist surrealistic film that never managed to connect with me. I have to admit the style and the visuals were great, but the story was way too vague and the movie didn't say anything to me. I know that there are many film buffs that loved this film and have explained the meaning of the story, but despite understanding what they are saying it didn't really say anything to me. I respect their point of view, but I can't justify a film that narratively didn't draw me in or had no meaning to me personally. I wouldn't want to waste another 89 minutes of my life re watching it and trying to find a deep new meaning just because I didn't see it the first time around. Only God Forgives is a very divisive film and in a way that proves Refn's success here. He did manage to reach to a specific audience just like a specific art piece speaks to one person but to another it is just a paper drawing. Despite how much respect I have for Refn I have to say this was simply an empty exercise in style that we've seen in much better films in the past.

Julian (Ryan Gosling) manages a Thai boxing club in Bangkok, but it is only a cover up for his underground drug operation which is the real reason as to where the money comes from. His partner and brother, Billy (Tom Burke) rapes and kills a 16 year old girl and all hell breaks lose. A former police officer, Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), allows the victim's father to kill Billy in order to restore order and balance, but when Billy and Julian's mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas), arrives in town to reclaim her son's dead body she asks Julian to kill those people responsible for killing his brother.

The plot may seem pretty straightforward like any other revenge movie, but this is far from it. It is a slow paced film with long shots of colorful wallpapered hallways full of silent moments, it is stylish and has little characterizations, the narrative is surreal and dreamy, it sometimes can seem pretentious and extremely showy which may leave the audience feeling tedious, and it is brutal and sadistic in its portrayal of violence. There are extreme close ups on Ryan Gosling whose character shows no emotion at all. I felt like he was just in a photo shoot at times simply modeling for the camera. He only has 22 lines in the entire movie. He was completely empty, but it was exactly the character he was asked to play. Kristin Scott Thomas is supposed to play this menacing character, but she reminded me of Lady Gaga in her weird days. I didn't enjoy her performance at all. Everyone was detached or at least that is how I felt towards the movie. Pansringarm also played a very silent character with some sort of supernatural ability or quality. He was sort of the God figure who was sent to restore order and justice. There is a lot of style in this film and several stunning camera shots but the movie is extremely dull and hollow.

My Most Anticipated films of 2013

I know we are already near the end of January, but I’m still trying to catch up with some of the 2012 releases before I make my 2012 Top 10 list. What I do want to do is tell you about some of the 2013 films that I am really looking forward to seeing.

First of all there are some big blockbuster releases that we are all expecting and that we’ve heard about so I will just briefly mention them because I’m pretty sure we are all familiar with them: Iron Man 3, Star Trek: Into the Darkness, The Lone Ranger, World War Z, Kick-Ass 2, After Earth (yes, I’m a huge Shyamalan fan despite his recent misses), The Great Gatsby, Oz the Great and Powerful, Man of Steel, Pacific Rim, A Good Day to Die Hard, Anchorman: The Legend Continues, The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, Fast and Furious 6, Oblivion, and The Wolverine.

Having that said and getting those big budget films (which I am really anticipating) out of the way, I must mention some smaller independent movies that you might not have heard of and that look really good. I present them in no particular order:

1.       Jobs  (Ashton Kutcher stars as Steve Jobs in this biopic about one of the most creative men of our time). 

2.       The East (This film stars Ellen Page and I could see any movie of hers so this is a must see for me. Include Alexander Skarsgard from True Blood in the mix and that gives me another good reason to go see this). 

3.       Before Midnight (It has been almost two decades since Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy delighted fans with Before Sunrise. Then came Before Sunset, and now the trilogy continues with Richard Linklater at the helm again. The film is getting rave reviews). 

4.       Very Good Girls  (I really don’t know much about this film other than the fact that Elizabeth Olsen who I really love stars in this film with Dakota Fanning and Demi Moore. After making Martha Marcy May Marlene I want to see every film that Olsen stars in).

5.       Ain’t them Bodies Saints (It stars Casey Affleck and Rooney Mara and has been getting a lot of positive reviews from people at the Sundance Festival).

6.       MUD (This is Jeff Nichol´s follow up to his successful 2011 film debut Take Shelter. It stars Matthew McConaughey, and if it is as half as good as Take Shelter was it will be worth a watch). 

7.       Touchy Feely (Your Sister´s Sister was one of my top 10 films last year, and this is director Lynn Shelton´s follow up which also stars the talented Rosemarie DeWitt. I also love her co-star, Ellen Page so this is one movie I won´t be missing).

8.       Breathe In (Director Drake Doremus and Felicity Jones reunite after Like Crazy in yet another romantic drama dealing with a foreign exchange student).

9.       Stoker (This is from the director of Oldboy; need I say more?) 

   

10.    The Way, Way Back (Directorial debut of Nat Faxon and Jim Rash who wrote the screenplay for The Descendants. The film stars Steve Carell and Sam Rockwell).

11.    Only God Forgives (This is the movie I´m anticipating the most because it comes from one of my new favorite directors: Nicolas Winding Refn who is teaming up with Ryan Gosling again after making my favorite 2011 film: Drive. He describes this film as being a Western in Asia).

12.    The Place Beyond the Pines (I could see any film starring Ryan Gosling and in this film he stars alongside Bradley Cooper who also seems to be on a role. Did I forget to mention Eva Mendes stars in this as well? I´m sold for this and the trailer looks terrific).

13.    Mama (This looks like it could actually be a good horror film, although I usually end up disappointed with these films. I still look forward to watching Jessica Chastain doing something completely different).

14.    Fruitvale (This film just one the Grand Jury Prize for Dramatic film in the Sundance Film Festival. Last year´s winner was Beasts of the Southern Wild and didn’t disappoint).

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