I love Refn's visual style, and his approach to violence, color schemes, and music, but his last few projects are too hollow, it's solely an exercise in style and excess, but I still enjoy it to a degree.
Too Old To Die Young - Amazon TV Series (Miles Teller & Nic Refn/Trailer/June 14th)
- Thread starter jay211
- Start date
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
That shyt was hilarious, especially dude who was already set to go, saw that he wanted no part of that shyt and just drove past to go hire the next guy.This really picks up from the 3rd episode on.
The subcontracting fukkery in the 6th episode got me
Scottie Drippin
Should Never Mention Me
The Refn defense force, jesus 
What's so utterly and blatantly obvious is that if his films weren't hyper-violent, the hype beasts drinking their slushies with their pinkies out imagining depth in the empty hulls of Refn's characters would ignore him the way they do other art house cinema.
Refn's work is still just Lynch and Tarantino in a blender, then pour out over a strainer leaving just the caved in skulls and uncomfortable long takes of anxiety building notes.
What's so utterly and blatantly obvious is that if his films weren't hyper-violent, the hype beasts drinking their slushies with their pinkies out imagining depth in the empty hulls of Refn's characters would ignore him the way they do other art house cinema.
Refn's work is still just Lynch and Tarantino in a blender, then pour out over a strainer leaving just the caved in skulls and uncomfortable long takes of anxiety building notes.
People just dont appreciate abstract storytelling smh. They want the same shyt and they want everything to be easily digestible, which is why we get so many remakes of movies nowadays, and its also why great creative TV shows usually flop. Refn got this surrealism shyt on lock. Every once in a while he'll crawl up his own ass and do some shyt thats just like 
but for the most part he's one of most interesting directors out right now.
but for the most part he's one of most interesting directors out right now.
TheGodling
Los Ingobernables de Sala de Cine
The further down the road, the better it gets. Also, a lot funnier.
'Please tell me that motherfukker isn't a real cop.'
Damian channeled so much disgust when he said that, and my man is a ruthless murderer.
Damian channeled so much disgust when he said that, and my man is a ruthless murderer.
High quality poster
Veteran
Episode 6 might be the goat intro to a show. Breaking bad levels of fukkery. These nikkas outside dancing and shyt, homie shooting the wrong nikka Refn goat
Refn goat
And what is wrong about being a mix of those 2 directors? Man you just hating.The Refn defense force, jesus
What's so utterly and blatantly obvious is that if his films weren't hyper-violent, the hype beasts drinking their slushies with their pinkies out imagining depth in the empty hulls of Refn's characters would ignore him the way they do other art house cinema.
Refn's work is still just Lynch and Tarantino in a blender, then pour out over a strainer leaving just the caved in skulls and uncomfortable long takes of anxiety building notes.
TrueEpic08
Dum Shiny
I got hooked around episode 4-5 (makes complete sense why Amazon and Refn decided to screen those two episodes at Cannes now) and decided to mostly finish this last night.
Man....I gotta think about this one, cause this got SO. fukkING. WEIRD. at the end. You will never have another experience like this in television, and nothing about the ending makes me feel ripped off. But I can't say for sure that it's actually *good*. The series itself is an amazing piece of work for many different reasons, but I seriously have to take some time to think about what's going on with the last two episodes, because it got extremely bizarre and abstract at points (hell, from episode 6 onward the series just gets increasingly bizarre and abstract in general). The television watchers are going to be absolutely livid at how this all falls out.
Now I completely understand why Amazon didn't promote this at all, (because how the fukk do you promote THIS), but this is legimitely one of the most singular and distinctive pieces of work I've seen in a very long time.
It'll never get it's due now, but people are going to rediscover this in 20 years or so and be in awe of what Refn's done here.
Man....I gotta think about this one, cause this got SO. fukkING. WEIRD. at the end. You will never have another experience like this in television, and nothing about the ending makes me feel ripped off. But I can't say for sure that it's actually *good*. The series itself is an amazing piece of work for many different reasons, but I seriously have to take some time to think about what's going on with the last two episodes, because it got extremely bizarre and abstract at points (hell, from episode 6 onward the series just gets increasingly bizarre and abstract in general). The television watchers are going to be absolutely livid at how this all falls out.
Now I completely understand why Amazon didn't promote this at all, (because how the fukk do you promote THIS), but this is legimitely one of the most singular and distinctive pieces of work I've seen in a very long time.
It'll never get it's due now, but people are going to rediscover this in 20 years or so and be in awe of what Refn's done here.
Idk what to think of those last two episodes. I haven't been able to get them outta my head tho. I'm not sure how to interpret the ending lol I think I got it figured out but I just dont know man lol. And the 8th episode is WILD. I'm glad I watched this and I'm glad theres a thread for this show cus I dont think I can recommend this shyt to anyone I know in real life without them being like "Ay bruh tf is this shyt? You watch this?"
Shoutout to Amazon for letting Refn be Refn tho.
When the first cat started counting out a thousand but with twentiesThat shyt was hilarious, especially dude who was already set to go, saw that he wanted no part of that shyt and just drove past to go hire the next guy.
It taking a meth head stupid enough to actually carry out the hit... on the wrong cat
Episode opening with Alfonso looking like a boss, come to find out he's a clown
The phone call in episode 7 had me
as well.Damian 
Hit gone wrong put in him in that jam. Another hit gone wrong got him out of it
RIP homie
Hit gone wrong put in him in that jam. Another hit gone wrong got him out of it
RIP homie
TrueEpic08
Dum Shiny
In some ways I think it's the best thing Refn's ever done, and in others it's incredibly baffling. Personally, I don't try to go in to films or shows with the intention of "figuring the plot out" (because I think that's a terrible way to go about watching anything, and I greatly dislike how TV encourages that state of mind) and it's a damn near necessary way of approaching this. Let it wash over you, figure out what it's doing on its own terms, then try to put things together.
The more I think about episodes 8-10, the more they make sense in the context of Refn's work. People forget that Drive is actually a massive outlier in his filmography, and Only God Forgives is much more typical of the type of thing he's does (at least since Valhalla Rising). Given that,
Martin was never going to survive the series because he's, at heart, a self-serving moral hypocrite. An assassin that kills abusers who himself aided and abetted abuse on the police force and is a statutory rapist. The entire reason he kills Theo (his girlfriend's dad) is because Theo threw his hypocrisy in his face (with the film and with the talk about watching them having sex) and made him confront what he really was. In this sense, being tortured and killed by Jesus is a twisted form of justice, even if Jesus is becoming a much worse human being than Martin ever was.
Refn's works always have a distinct morality to them. Even though Ryan Gosling's character in OGF is the focus character, he killed his father in an act of passion and humiliates his "girlfriend" to deal with his own humiliation, thus he's beaten mercilessly by the lieutenant (and maybe has his hands cut off at the end). Worse people in that film meet worse punishments. Purely self-serving violence or motives, and often times hypocrisy, never gets anyone anywhere in a Refn film, and the more self-serving or hypocritical you are, often times the worse your fate is (see also, why Jesse, and two of the three other main characters, ended up dead in The Neon Demon).
So Martin could never live in this show. And who ends up having the best light cast upon them by the narrative? Yaritza, a woman who infiltrated a cartel for the purpose of freeing its women (and possibly destroying it from within), Viggo, a former FBI agent who became fed up with the world it protects and helps craft in favor of killing the worst abusers imaginable, and Diana, the mystic who leads Viggo to those abusers. The worst of those three is might be Diana, who takes precious heirlooms from clients as payment for eliminating their abusers, but that's very minor compared to the constant abuses of the justice system or the practices of the cartel members (though someone like Jesus is very thorny issue I need to think about more. I think we might need to take some parts of his speech in episode 9 about the difference between acting like an American and acting like a Mexican more literally than we might realize at first. Still an awful human being, but also an instrument of vengeance against the world that people like Viggo hate so much). They get to survive and act freely in this world, and may do work toward solving some of the issues we see in the world of the show. This is also why it makes sense that the last episode focuses exclusively on Diana and Yaritza: they're the driving forces behind the actions those three favored characters I mention take.
Refn's works always have a distinct morality to them. Even though Ryan Gosling's character in OGF is the focus character, he killed his father in an act of passion and humiliates his "girlfriend" to deal with his own humiliation, thus he's beaten mercilessly by the lieutenant (and maybe has his hands cut off at the end). Worse people in that film meet worse punishments. Purely self-serving violence or motives, and often times hypocrisy, never gets anyone anywhere in a Refn film, and the more self-serving or hypocritical you are, often times the worse your fate is (see also, why Jesse, and two of the three other main characters, ended up dead in The Neon Demon).
So Martin could never live in this show. And who ends up having the best light cast upon them by the narrative? Yaritza, a woman who infiltrated a cartel for the purpose of freeing its women (and possibly destroying it from within), Viggo, a former FBI agent who became fed up with the world it protects and helps craft in favor of killing the worst abusers imaginable, and Diana, the mystic who leads Viggo to those abusers. The worst of those three is might be Diana, who takes precious heirlooms from clients as payment for eliminating their abusers, but that's very minor compared to the constant abuses of the justice system or the practices of the cartel members (though someone like Jesus is very thorny issue I need to think about more. I think we might need to take some parts of his speech in episode 9 about the difference between acting like an American and acting like a Mexican more literally than we might realize at first. Still an awful human being, but also an instrument of vengeance against the world that people like Viggo hate so much). They get to survive and act freely in this world, and may do work toward solving some of the issues we see in the world of the show. This is also why it makes sense that the last episode focuses exclusively on Diana and Yaritza: they're the driving forces behind the actions those three favored characters I mention take.
With all that in mind, I'm definitely going to need to watch series at least one more time before I have a solid opinion on it. Everything from episode 8 on changes your perspective on what the show is too much for me to make a decision on what it's doing before rewatching it in its entirety.
., makes Mad Men seem like the Gilmore Girls in terms of pacing.Episode 2. 
This man has no respect for the audience. nikkas pausing after every sentence for no reason. Refn is troll status and a cautionary tale. He'd be a good director if he had any understanding of the need for rhythm and flow.
This man has no respect for the audience. nikkas pausing after every sentence for no reason. Refn is troll status and a cautionary tale. He'd be a good director if he had any understanding of the need for rhythm and flow.