When the first trailer of Only God Forgives came out, everyone talked about it — Ryan Gosling was reuniting with Nicolas Winding Refn to create another neo-eighties film about cool characters doing cool things. The success of Drive put a lot of pressure on its follow-up and when it did come out, critics split severely. Mainly, I think everyone was expecting another movie like Drive, especially since Gosling was cast as the lead and he once again barely said anything. The film however did not follow the same path as Drive, turning out to be a lot darker and crude. Nonetheless, certain critics loved the movie and consider it to be one of the most stylized films ever made. I happen to be one of those critics.
To better understand the film, I think you have to understand the director. Refn’s influences range from Tarkovsky’s Stalker to Mann’s Thief and continuously adapt and blend into what has become its own genre. We could call it Refn Noir and we could start coming up with genre names for all writer-directors, but its best to understand his movies by understanding his influences. There are tons of incredible techniques used in the directing and the cinematography. Every frame of the movie is set up so deliberately and with such precision, that the lack of dialogue doesn’t take away from the film. I would say that it only adds on to the pure cinema that Refn is trying to create by eliminating basically as much as he can while still leaving moving pictures to tell the story.
The movie centers on Julian (Ryan Gosling), a drug dealer who works out of Thailand with his older brother, Billy (Tom Burke). On a violent night out, Billy kills a young girl and is sought out by a retired police officer with mystical powers only known as Chang (Vithaya Pansringarm). Billy is killed in an act of revenge by the young girl’s father with the help of Chang. After hearing of his brother’s death, Julian goes on a revenge spree orchestrated by his overwhelmingly influential mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas). Obviously vengeance is an aspect of the film, but the movie doesn’t play out as a revenge thriller. The movie is more magic realism than it is anything else. I say this because when discussing the film with others, I find that it is difficult for some moviegoers to understand that Chang is in fact a god. I don’t mean this in a metaphorical sense, where most people try to interpret his character as such. Refn has specifically created the character as a mystical being. The viewers who did not understand this while watching the movie end up strongly disliking the film. This does make sense to me, as it does take away a lot from the plot if you think that Chang is simply a man in a retired police outfit.
Understanding that Chang is a god helps viewers understand the message of the film: frustration. Everyone has reached limits and breaking points that push them over the edge or bring them to a position that they cannot handle. The film is about a man with blood on his hands and immense pent up frustration. It was enough for him to try to fight God to feel better about himself and to feel right. It’s a primitive feeling that most people get. We think about changing what is already set in stone and we try to adjust the life around us instead of adjusting to it ourselves. Most people who dislike the movie do not see this message in the film, which makes me question whether Refn is doing a good enough job of explaining his characters and the plot throughout the movie.
Like I stated earlier, the film is very deliberate and specific with every single frame. Granted, I had to really pay close attention to understand all the shots, but once I did I saw the movie for what it was: absolutely incredible. Refn consistently uses the motif of a hand curling up into a fist and opening back up, showing the image of life and death subtly, while still alluding to the fact that Julian has blood on his hands — an actual metaphor for his violent backstory. The cinematography for the film follows this Enter the Void kind of style. Refn was influenced by the film so much that he had the director, Gaspar Noé, constantly on set giving him advice. Each shot has sharp contrasts in color and really makes you pay attention to silent characters interactions.
The music works extremely well with the movie too. I am surprised that I don’t hear that much about Cliff Martinez and his great score for the movie. But then again, he is one of the most hired music supervisors in film right now. The sound is a very minimalist synth score, kind of similar to his last one in Drive, but it is much darker and more of a score than a soundtrack. The music piggybacks onto an already very minimalist plotline and accompanied by small deadpan acting, the film comes together as a harsh thriller.
Whether you want to watch violent revenge, a silent dreamy eyed Gosling, or Kristin Scott Thomas play a character very heavily inspired by Donatella Versace, Only God Forgives will deliver. It is simple and complex simultaneously and it is also a very admirable attempt at pure cinema. While I am a critic who loves the film, there are still a lot of critics that have yet to change their mind on the movie. The movie will most likely become a cult classic in ten to fifteen years or so, and when it does, film critics will change their minds and see in the film what I see. When this happens, I will no longer call the movie an attempt at pure cinema, but an accomplishment in one.
