Refn Gonna Refn: The Neon Demon (2016)

Cut-and-paste reviews of (Only God Forgives) and you have the reviews of the new one.

Refn's gonna Refn.

― Any Given User (Eazy), Saturday, June 25, 2016 6:47 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The new bad movie deserves its own thread.

― The burrito of ennui (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Saturday, June 25, 2016 6:52 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

The reviews I've seen have been more positive than ones for OGF, but I'm not ready to trust him again.

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko), Saturday, June 25, 2016 9:16 PM (Yesterday) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

I feel like a thread combining reflections on both ID4 2 and this would be very important

i'd rather have my balls waxed than see any more Refn

My review, balls unwaxed.

"Bad But Must Be Seen!" - A. DeWitt

"An opinion."

Refn lost it after Pusher 3 imho. I'll wait for the torrent.

Pusher III is one of his worst, along with Fear X. Neon Demon is good an beautiful, but nothing new. A couple of great psychedelic scenes, but way too long. And I loved OGF, btw.

Ranking:

1 Only God Forgives
2 Pusher II
3 Drive
4 Pusher
5 Bronson
6 Neon Demon
7 Bleeder
8 Valhalla Rising
9 Pusher III
10 Fear X

He's curating a season of films for picturehouse next month. Some really intersting picks!!

Carrie [18]
Videodrome [18]
Under The Skin [15]
Body Double [18]
Mulholland Drive [15]
Suspiria [18]

That is a good list, if lacking in deep cuts

btw Neon Demon is good

Putting Christina Hendricks that high on the billing must have been a ploy to draw in viewers familiar with her other roles, though. Her character isn't exactly an ephemeral role, but it's definitely not a main one

Xxpost No way Pusher III is worse than the contrived "Only God Forgives". On what planet?

Few things are worse than Only God Forgives.

Took me a while watching Neon Demon until I realized that I recognized one of the actors as "that guy who fucked in the last Gaspar Noe film"

He does not do any fucking in this film

only god forgives was a masterpiece of lynch outtakes-channelling, trashy dialogue, stupid 80s action films in 'foreign' climes, ryan gosling at his most LOL-some, and fabulous lighting.

everything else was terrible, but it was still fantastic arthouse pretension meets 80s-action shlock.

this one looks like more of the same, just with some giallo in there (idk, ive only seen one trailer once).

i preferred refn when he was making things like bleeder TBH, but ive a soft spot for this stylishly hollow pastiche phase of his career.

i should have added martial arts in there too.

this is a better film than God Will Not Forgive This Shit, believe me

still junk

haha. thing is, i imagined refn snorting with laughter at many points in OGF.

its fitting that the guy from love is in here, cos that film and current refn seem to be operating on the same art trash axis.

I'm going to have to say that Refn is slightly better at third acts than Noe, but that says very little

neon demon looks like the canyons meets carrie

if characters talk about naming their kids 'nicolas', i know i will love it.

OGF was so bad that I'm kind of afraid to watch Drive again.

I'll watch Neon Demon because the trailers make it look like its channeling Suspiria in its own silly way but ... Yeah ... just want to watch the accident.

calling only god forgives "bad" is like calling barack obama "president". it's true but not telling. it's bad and i liked it. it's bad and colorful, silly, absurd, laughable, lots of other good things.

then again, i loved lost river, so...

Calling OGF "bad" is like calling Donald Trump a "bad nominee."

The wallpaper in OGF definitely was really good.

it also had KST's greatest performance since under the cherry moon.

OGF is really good, you guys. The editing, the world, the colours. A distillation of all things Refn is good at, with minimal effort into what he's bad at anyway, such as plot. Just images.

I remember really liking Pusher III as a comedy (which I guess it was intended to be sorta). Ranking OGF as his best film makes me wonder at Fred (even than more than his other posts).

it also had KST's greatest performance since under the cherry moon.

― StillAdvance

well, it's a performance all right

drive is better than OGF and has all the things that made OGF good too.

i def enjoyed OGF, and visually, its fantastic, but i it was also an (enjoyable) dud on many levels. i often think that people who prize The Image above all else in film are better suited to visiting the nearest gallery rather than the cinema. at this point i think refn is just consciously setting out to make 'cult' movies, which is def fun, but also a bit empty, nostalgic for an earlier era of cult movies that doesnt really exist anymore and therefore actually a bit backward looking in its coolness. his earlier films represented a certain reality of modern europe. these ones just lionise and redesign old american ones.

"well, it's a performance all right"

quite wild at heart/fire walk with me i thought

KST comparing the size of her sons' cocks has to be one of the low points of my life as a film watcher.

his earlier films represented a certain reality of modern europe. these ones just lionise and redesign old american ones.

― StillAdvance, Tuesday, June 28, 2016 7:05 AM (15 minutes ago)

the "just" in the second sentence seems misplaced. what you say is true, but it doesn't describe a fault.

Sheryl Lee was more controlled and directed than KST.

KST comparing the size of her sons' cocks has to be one of the low points of my life as a film watcher.

― rhymes with "blondie blast" (cryptosicko)

"I’ll take care of the yellow n---- that killed my son. Now get up and kiss your mother.”

i (luckily) have no memory of that line.

the "just" in the second sentence seems misplaced. what you say is true, but it doesn't describe a fault.

why not? i see it as an aesthetic/stylistic advance for him as a filmmaker, but a step back in terms of what hes actually putting up there. telling stories about modern europe vs retelling stories already done in 80s hollywood.

That is a good list, if lacking in deep cuts

I like all of those films I think (would have to check again with the depalms) and they certainly work as coördinates for refn and if that's what he chooses to showcase that's fine, I might even go to a couple of the screenings, but these are pretty much all films that would have a repertory screening here soon enough anyway and thence my lol arose

Honestly I'm not sure he was ever that good at dealing with reality. Bleeder is already so stylised as to be unrlike any Copenhagen I know.

la haine was also stylised. does not mean it was a pretty familiar reality (albeit one dramatised). same for bleeder.

like, refn still goes on about masculinity in his interviews (or at least he was for OGF), but in bleeder, he was at least exploring it in a more recognisable way than masculinity='LETS GET VIOLENT' (though ok, some of it was quite scorcese influenced too).

telling stories about modern europe vs retelling stories already done in 80s hollywood.

― StillAdvance, Tuesday, June 28, 2016 7:49 AM (Yesterday)

i'd say he's questioning and reinterpreting - not simply telling - those familiar stories. he treats genre-bound tales of violent masculinity as dreamlike freudian landscapes, allowing them to express a personal set of ideas and energies. afaic, such interior exploration is no less artistically valid than the observation of present-day social realities.

so many recent euro shock cinema art flicks feel like dream porn for snooty people to me. but maybe that's always been true of that kind of movie.

i never felt that way about david lynch though. and he's gotta be some sort of spiritual godfather to people like this guy. i never feel like finishing any of these movies. i get tired. maybe i saw too many nihilist italian horror movies when i was a kid. this guy is no jess franco.

i liked valhalla rising though. and i liked the music in drive.

has anyone done a double feature of Love and Nymphomaniac yet? ooooof.....

i did manage to watch half of Enter da Void. trippy, dude.....

(none of these movies mentioned as good as Dredd...)

enter the void is a bit of a masterpiece i think

love was just farcical but that one had something. dont know what its like at home, but in the cinema, it was immense.

i should really smoke more pot.

nymphomaniac however just had me wanting to throttle LVT. which is presumably the reaction he wanted.

I can't say I was entirely surprised to be accused of Bosley Crowtherism for my pan of Nicolas Winding Refn's The Neon Demon in today's New York Times. The young people today, they want a David Lynch of their own soooo bad that they're willing to take this shallow spoiled brat retread who, as I note in my review, really WANTS the squares to find his work objectionable. My only defense—because really, what are you gonna do, say "I do SO love edgy stuff?"—is that The Neon Demon is really dogshit, a word I cannot use in the Times.

http://somecamerunning.typepad.com/some_came_running/2016/06/the-current-cinema-and-plenty-of-it.html

this shallow spoiled brat retread who, as I note in my review, really WANTS the squares to find his work objectionabl

^^^ this. I noted it in my review. "Go on, be offended, go on, I DARE YOU."

I forgot to be offended :/

Jena Malone the real star of The Neon Demon imo

i was watching an episode of Southland and someone was smashing big store windows around town and they finally found the guy and he was a sad middle-aged white guy with a slingshot and he said he felt dead inside and smashing the windows was a way to feel surprise and he liked that feeling because he never felt surprised anymore. later, the weary gay cop who caught him went home and got drunk and noticed that he still had the slingshot and went in his backyard and set some empty bottles up and then shot one of them with the slingshot and then he laughed. end of episode.

made me think of this thread.

I thought you were quoting Marilyn Hagerty.

Jena Malone the real star of The Neon Demon imo

― μpright mammal (mh)

She stole the show from the camera, the read lead.

imo if critics want to make sure movies don't get picked up by people wanting to canonize trash, the Hagerty technique of damning with polite faint praise might be a good approach

it took me a while to realize I recognized the photographer as one of the detectives from television's Dexter

does Refn cast a lot of his parts by watching american cable television?

how is Refn pronounced anyway

"hack"

Just saw this. I dunno what I thought of it. I guess the best way to enjoy it would be to treat it as a glorified music video for an amazing soundtrack.

Score was so good. Cliff Martinez rulez

That it was so laughably over-the-top + Jena Malone's performance was enough for me to quite enjoy the movie. Obviously it isn't smart, nothing Refn does is smart, but it was fun to see all the aesthetical elements I've been railing against eat themselves and suffer.

Ending was particularly rubbish buy I did stay for the credits.

this would make a good double bill with that last cronenberg movie with julianne moore or the canyons maybe.

looks fantastic as expected, starts off well, looks like its going to be an interesting look at power and rivalry in LA modelling, but then just becomes a stupid horror movie. i say that as someone who likes horror, but who doesnt really like how its often just bolted on in these sorts of art-horror films. some of it was genuinely gross. but the films bitchiness wasnt really OTT enough like some have said (its no heathers). ending was pathetic. felt underscripted and lacking where it needed more. basically just another excuse for refn to come up with great shots, but not a great movie. someone let the man do some film art installations instead.

"Ending was particularly rubbish buy I did stay for the credits."

the font was nice at the very end.

one thing i thought was that if this was made in the 80s it would prob have been more exploitative whereas in this, you never see EF naked, the scene with keanu and the knife is awful rather than titillating, etc etc. its weirdly sexless, the whole thing. very clinical.

I liked this a lot. Refn is still hamfisted in many ways but I think he's really found his "Refn Mach 2" style with this one. It's beautiful and vapid and egregious and still when you have a solid lead performance you can work wonders. Cinematography, editing and music very on point as well. Color me surprised.

A performance like Fanning's in this possibly one of the key missing elements in his last two films.

On Netflix UK now fwiw.