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Nicolas Winding Refn's newest collaboration with star Ryan Gosling is an ultra-violent, fetishistic fever dream.

Movie Review: ‘Only God Forgives’

As the end credits roll on the latest collaboration between Nicolas Winding Refn and Ryan Gosling (2011’s Drive being the first), a title acknowledges a debt to Alejandro Jodorowsky, and with good reason. Reminiscent of the midnight master’s 1989 Santa Sangre with its twisted mother-son relationship and emphasis on mutilation, Only God Forgives is a fetishistic fever dream.

Gone are the neon blues and oranges of the earlier film’s nighttime Los Angeles, replaced by the saturated crimsons of Bangkok’s dangerously seamy underworld. And Refn, released from the burden of a complex plot, is free to create a hyperstylized mood piece that’s visually arresting but not for all tastes. It is certainly audacious and over-the-top, but it deserves more consideration than the mass exodus it received at Cannes this year.

Gosling plays Julian, an American expatriate living in Bangkok who, with his brother, Billy (Tom Burke), runs an underground fight club and traffics drugs for their monstrous mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas).  These siblings are damaged goods: Julian spends his time hanging out in gentlemen’s clubs, sexlessly watching the prostitutes perform, while Billy has sunk to deeper and deeper levels of depravity, finally raping and murdering a 16-year-old girl.

Enter Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm), a mysterious authority figure, who orders the girl’s father to do what must be done. And he does, literally bashing Billy’s brains out. Upon receiving the news, Crystal comes roaring into town with blood in her eyes. Knowing she can’t turn to ineffectual Julian for help, she hires a hitman to take out Chang. When that fails, she realizes her own life is at stake and begs her son to man up and save her life. Julian tries to obey his mother, but whatever resolve he might have had was long ago drained from him, leading to the inevitable confrontation.

Gosling’s Julian is even more of a cipher than Drive‘s unnamed antihero. Completely under the control of his domineering mother, he seems to be drifting through life meekly accepting his fate, whether being humiliated by Crystal or beaten to a pulp by Chang.

As Crystal, Thomas is quite a sight to behold. With her long, streaked hair and abundant eye makeup, she’s a maternal nightmare, hurling obscenities while puffing on skinny cigarettes. It is easy to see where her sons acquired their nihilism — when Julian tells her that Billy was killed because he murdered a young girl, she shrugs him off, merely saying “I’m sure he had his reasons.”

Pansringarm’s Chang is the strangest character in the piece. A retired cop, he seems to still be in control of the city, and has appointed himself judge, jury and executioner. He is an unstoppable force, a fact Julian quickly comes to realize.

Director of Photographer Larry Scott, shooting with an Arri Alexa, is perfectly in sync with Refn in bringing the director’s vision to life. People and objects are arranged in deliberate tableaux; the pronounced violence is almost lovingly staged; and the saturated nighttime reds alternate with naturally-lit scenes away from the clubs and bordellos that are startling in contrast.

The score by Cliff Martinez (who also provided the music for Drive) contributes mightily to the mood of the piece. It is always there, magnifying the tension — a musique concréte that would do David Lynch proud. Beth Mickle’s production design also plays a major part in this visually-driven story, whether arranging a multitude of red lanterns across the ceiling of the karaoke bar that Chang performs in or making a focal point of a variety of different-sized glasses on the restaurant table at which Crystal awaits the arrival of her son.

It is strong stuff, but has much to recommend for those prepared for the subject matter. Only God Forgives opens Friday, July 19th, at selected theaters.

About Kurt Gardner

Writer, critic and inbound marketing expert whose passion for odd culture knows no bounds.

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