Review of Bronson (2009) by Spangle — 06 Mar 2015
Extremely claustrophobic, Bronson is possibly Nicolas Winding Refn's best film in my eyes. As you can tell, I am not a fan of his. The cinematography is gorgeous, sure, but the film is entirely off-putting and never really hooks you in.
Tom Hardy is phenomenal here, but ultimately, the film itself is too shallow and self-indulgent to really do anything important. Charles Bronson is a riveting person and though he may not be worthy of having a film made about him, he certainly makes for an interesting character study.
Sadly, the film is so short and so focused on how violent we can make it, it never really conducts this study and you are just left saying, "wow he's pretty violent, eh?" If this is the intent, then good job on the success, but it does not make this one an interesting biographical film in the least.
Yet again, Nicolas Winding Refn sacrifices substance for style and yet again, it blows up in his face. The style is gorgeous, again, but without Hardy's fantastic embodiment of Bronson, this one would be far worse.
This review of Bronson (2009) was written by Spangle on 06 Mar 2015.
Bronson has generally received positive reviews.
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