Review of Pusher (1996) by Nick O — 15 Jul 2013
Like Andrew Dominik's "Chopper", "Pusher" has all the dressings of a noted filmmaker's work. It's just how it's packaged: done up with small-time hoods and hookers, pornography, violence, neon nightclubs, despicable characters; it's so scummy an underworld -- that seedy, druggy playground Nicolas Winding Refn oh so loves to explore -- that "Pusher" seems appropriately out of its element whenever it enters the law and societal artifice of the real world; for one thing, there's SUN.
It's not as polished as Refn's later works, but "Pusher" is a damn fine crime film, debut or otherwise. And the look of the thing is so home-made (nice for "cheap", which is nice for "shitty") you feel each passing time interval heroin pusher Frank (Kim Bodnia) asks of drug lord Milo (Zlatko Buric) in paying off his debt like a meter either depleted or temporarily nourished.
Povl Kristian and Peter Peter's score wafts through the condemnable tracksuit urbanity like a heartless wind of change.
This review of Pusher (1996) was written by Nick O on 15 Jul 2013.
Pusher has generally received positive reviews.
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