Nicolas Winding Refn has known ups and downs in his career as a filmmaker, but one thing is for certain: when one is watching his films, they just know. He has this visionary style that oozes neon, violence, darkness, and surrealism that just captures you and it is the saving grace of even his few bad films.
From the extremely acclaimed Drive to the not so well received Only God Forgives, Refn’s films have become famous (or infamous) for the blood and violence they are sure to contain in his native Denmark and across the globe. Without further ado, let us explore his five best and worst movies according to Rotten Tomatoes.
Best: Bronson (2008) – 76%
In this acclaimed biopic, based loosely on the life of Charles Bronson, the notorious English felon who has been mentioned in the British media as the "most violent prisoner in Britain," Tom Hardy portrays Charles.
A man with a rich criminal resume, including armed robbery, assault, and battery, Bronson was born as Michael Peterson. He spent his life in and out of prisons, psychiatric institutions, and finally made a career as a bare-knuckle boxer in London’s East End. Hardy was praised for his performance and the film overall for its humor and action.
Worst: Too Old To Die Young (2019) – 69%
Winding Refn was basically this show's... everything. He was the creator, director, one of the writers, and the executive producers; it was his passion project. The only reason it is on the “Worst” side of the list -in spite of its “Fresh” status- is that it's score was lower than the lowest entry of "Best" films.
The show follows Martin Jones, a grief-stricken police officer who finds himself in the bitter company of the man who murdered his partner in the midst of a gangland jam-packed with working-class assassins, Yakuza militias, Mexican cartel killers, Russian crime bosses, and mobs of adolescent killers. The show did divide critics with some praising the macabre stylish feel and others condemning its graphic violence.
Best: Pusher (1996) – 83%
This movie is brilliant and significant for the cinematic corpus, considering it was both Winding Refn’s and Mads Mikkelsen’s feature film debut. It is also one of Refn’s films that was not shot in English, but in Danish and Swedish.
The movie follows low-ranking drug supplier Frank (Kim Bodnia), a man who practically has enemies and owes money all over Copenhagen and whose desperate attempts to pay his debts only make matters worse. Mikkelsen plays his sidekick, Tonny, that Frank falsely thinks has betrayed him. The film turned out as Winding Refn’s break-through success and was highly influential for Danish cinema.
Worst: The Neon Demon (2016) – 59%
Much alike Refn's prior picture, Only God Forgives, the movie obtained both hate and thumbs up throughout its premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Elle Fanning plays Jesse, a young girl who moves from a small town to LA to become a model.
She is quickly swept up in a world of sexual depravity, corruption, and superficiality as her natural beauty enchants everyone around her and makes her an object of envy. The film was extremely gory, but it definitely had a lot to say about our obsessions with appearances and youth.
Best: Drive (2011) – 92%
This film is definitely worth its fame (or notoriety, depending on whose side one is on). It was a critical darling (albeit snubbed at the Oscars) that won its creator the Best Director Award at Cannes. Ryan Gosling stars as The Driver (part of a sometimes great, sometimes overrated tradition of protagonists whose names are not revealed).
A man of few words, but plenty of charm, he works as a stunt driver and moonlights as a getaway driver. Eager to protect his friend Irene and her son from the crime world relations of her husband, Standard, the Driver offers to help him rob a pawn shop to pay off his debts. The film was a slick and dark neo-noir heist movie that was praised for its aesthetic and acting.
Worst: Fear X (2003) – 58%
The common denominator in reviews seemed to be that John Turturro was the saving grace of what was otherwise a convoluted and ultimately insubstantial film. He was repeatedly praised for his performance, but it was not enough to elevate the plot into something better.
John Turturro leads in this interweaving thriller as Harry, a mall security guard whose wife is killed in a superficially unplanned double murder at the mall. Harry is justifiably consumed with the crime, going to great lengths to untangle the conspiracy that lead to the death of his wife.
Best: Pusher III: I'm The Angel Of Death (2005) – 93%
This film was the third and final of the trilogy, this time with Zlatko Burić as Milo: an aging Serbian low-level drug lord in the same imaginary Copenhagen underworld. He is a former heroin user and addict who attends meetings of Narcotics Anonymous and tries to have a somewhat good relationship with his daughter, Milena.
The problem is that he is still heavily involved in drug dealings, and when he receives the wrong shipment and trusts the wrong people, he is quickly inserted into a crime game he cannot win. Characters from the previous films come and go in this dark, gritty crime thriller.
Worst: Bleeder (1999) – 50%
This film has no official consensus; however, since it is a 21-year-old film (so more critics’ ratings are not on sight) and there is a total of four ratings, two Fresh and two Rotten, we are going to call it 50%. Perhaps the lack of more reviews has to do with the fact that while it was a relative success in Denmark, this film did not follow suit of its predecessor, Pusher, when it comes to international acclaim.
The movie has the same actors as Pusher for protagonists; they now play best friends Leo and Lenny. Trapped in dead-end jobs and lives, they both deal with their problems in dysfunctional ways: Leo by being aggressive and angry, Lenny by being reclusive and shy.
Best: Pusher II: With Blood On My Hands (2004) – 100%
This time Mads Mikkelsen stars in the sequel to Pusher. He reprises his role as Tonny, the associate of Frank from the previous film (who does not make an appearance here). Freshly released from his prison sentence, Tonny owes money to his former cellmate, so he goes to his father's car shop (basically a cover for his mafia dealings) looking for employment.
He finds out that he has a half-brother and gets re-entangled in a life of backstabbing and crime while trying to care for his child. The film featured a great punk rock soundtrack from the band The Bleeder Group.
Worst: Only God Forgives (2013) – 41%
This film proves that just because you have found a recipe that worked once does not mean the next time it will make itself without your help. The film definitely had virtues, and it probably did not deserve the overwhelmingly bad reviews, but Winding Refn hoped that it would be equal to or better than Drive, simply by virtue of being similar to it.
He did state that it followed Drive’s stylistic language and it happened in a similar heightened reality. Ryan Gosling plays Julian, an American immigrant in Bangkok who owns a boxing academy as a front for drug dealing. He is dragged into his mother’s rampage for vengeance for his brother Billy’s murder.