Review of Only God Forgives (2013) by Sonofosamadams — 18 Jul 2013

Eye popping, original, haunting and just scary, Only God Forgives is the best movie of 2013. After hearing so much about this movie from the negative reviews left and right and how violent it was, I sat down, relaxed and prepared myself.

First off, I will say two things about this film-its not as violent as the critics have hyped it up to being, (even though its still brutal) and is definitely, definitely not for everyone. This is arthouse filmmaking at its best.

Nicholas Refn is a brilliant film director. The way he conveys a story on a silver screen canvas is so haunting and irresistible that you find yourself guessing the movie after its done. I was extremely excited for this movie, then the reviews lowered my expectations a bit.

Then I saw the movie. The cinematography is so beautiful; state of the art. I think the critics were expecting something like Drive; neo noir with a lot of sleezy gangsters doing dirty deeds in dirty alley ways.

They weren't expecting a slow haunting thriller about a gangster trying to cope with his lifestyle. I can understand this film getting C's, and even D's, but F's? From professional movie critics? Give me a break.

This year has been plagued with unfair reviews from those cheeseballs. This is one of them. They say that this film is confusing, and to that I say This film is simple enough if you turn your brain on (something critics and audiences tend to avoid when going into most movies nowadays) Some said the Asian actor who portrays Chang (a ruthless, psycho cop who unlawfully tortures criminals to satisfy his own needs) but really its about Julian (Ryan Gosling) throughout the film we see several dream and other types of hallucinations from Julian as he is haunted by this stranger, who we later know as Chang.

But thats part of the story. The movie treads ground on how terrible parenting can lead to a life of darkness and emptiness. Above all, Kristen Scott Thomas steals the show. Her performance of the wicked, self indulged mother of Julian sent chills down my spine.

She dominated every scene that she was in. When I watched the Schmoesknow review on this movie, they said you know nothing about these characters. Its funny since they call themselves film lovers and they don't even pay attention to whats in front of their eyes.

If you pay carefull attention to this film, you realize all the scenes that involve the characters introductions beautifully tell us their story without leaving one line of dialogue on the screen. Filmgoers nowadays are so used to flashbacks and word-of-mouth stories that they expect that with every movie they go and see.

But Only God Forgives has the balls do something a little different. It takes a different, more haunting approach to telling the character's story through their slow actions rather than conversations.

This is a slow, quiet and chilling movie. I would almost call it surrealist in a way. The last half hour is extremely thrilling, but not in a pulse-pounding action sense; its more chilling as if you don't know where the film will leave you, and that right there is a true mark of a great movie.

I say go see it, but I don't recommend it; its not for everybody. You'll either leave the movie as I did, or join the majority of the critics in neon hell.