Thursday, May 9, 2013

Only God Forgives: 4 Reasons To Be Excited

Nicolas Winding Refn, director of 2011's Drive, returns in 2013 with Only God Forgives. The film will premiere at the 66th Cannes Film Festival in the upcoming weeks, and everyone is looking out for this one.

According to the official synopsis, the film stars Ryan Gosling as Julian, a Thai boxing club owner, whose business works as a front for his family's criminal activities. When his brother is killed, his mother (Kristin Scott Thomas) forces him to seek out those responsible and avenge his fallen sibling. According to Refn, "[f]rom the beginning, I had the idea of a thriller produced as a western, all in the Far East, and with a modern cowboy hero."Only God Forgives will be the film to see in 2013, and here are a few reasons why.

Cliff Martinez's Score

While tracks like "Nightcall" and "Real Hero" are what many people think of when they remember Refn's Drive, composer Cliff Martinez supplied the rest of the electro-synth soundtrack to the neo-noir masterpiece. Martinez will also provide the score for Only God Forgives, which has already displayed some fantastic tunes in the trailers.

Visual Style

If there's one thing that put Drive and Refn on the map, it's the incredibly unique visual style of the film. Only God Forgives, which is set in Thailand, will surely have an equally unforgettable style, as seen in the trailers. The city of Bangkok is shown through seedy night clubs, back alleys and neon lights in the trailers for Only God Forgives, the perfect setting for Refn's follow-up to Drive.

Stylized Violence

Going along with the unique visual style of Refn's films is his unique way of incorporating extreme violence when necessary, and without seeming gratuitous. While Drive had its fair share of head stomping and shotgun blasts, Only God Forgives is sure to make the violence in Drive look damn-near PG by comparison. The trailers already depict Julian carrying out acts of ultra-violence on his quest for vengeance in Refn's signature style, so this will surely be a huge part of what make this film great.

The Gosling-Refn Connection

There's no denying it: Ryan Gosling is Hollywood's hottest item right now. He was always your girlfriend's favorite actor after The Notebook, but Drive made him the man every guy wanted to be. Clearly, Refn and Gosling are one of the best teams in Hollywood right now, so just the fact that they're at it once again proves this will be a great film. It seems that Ryan Gosling is becoming the kind of actor who does his commercial films (Crazy, Stupid, Love) in order to make the films he really wants to be remembered for like Drive.

As of now, the US release date is listed as July 19th.



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