Only God Forgives (2013)

Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn. Starring Ryan Gosling, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vithaya Pansringarm, Rhatha Phongam, Tom Burke, Byron Gibson, Gordon Brown, Kovit Wattanakul, Danai Thiengdam. [R]

An American underworld figure (Gosling) in Bangkok is pushed to seeking retribution against those responsible for his degenerate brother’s death, while a corrupt police officer (Pansringarm) involved in the slaying drifts through the city like a wraith, doling out sadistic violence and torture in between his singing sessions at karaoke bars. Plenty of saturated colors and navel-gazing (er, hands-gazing?) ennui in place of substance, suspense, motivation or thrills; it’s quite violent, but there’s no excitement or meaning to it, a philosophy as hollow as the criminal lifestyle everyone onscreen is directly or tangentially a part of. If you can get off on pure image and composition, you may find this to your liking, but arty montages set to throbbing, chittering electronic music don’t cut it when the storytelling is this cryptic, the characterizations this pretentious. Gosling’s inscrutably moody silences are a cardboard mask dressed up in the glow of sleek neon, and the pockets of ferocious glee felt while witnessing Kristin Scott Thomas’ profane, vengeful mother hen go to waste. Worth taking the time to look up what William Friedkin thought of writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn telling him his film is a masterpiece.

50/100