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I'm wondering how this is going to turn out. Enjoyable thriller like Drive or absolute nonsensical clusterfuck like everything he's made since?

Those are certainly the consensuses about his last couple of films, but on this forum and elsewhere, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon have their supporters. I like them both, frankly.

Hey! I liked The Neon Demon more than Drive, which just felt too derivative for me (and Ryan Gosling isn't as cool as he thinks he is). At least The Neon Demon used Keanu Reeves well and took some enjoyable left-turns while looking stunning.

It’s odd that many think Refn’s films took a left turn after Drive when that one is an outlier, with the two films after it more resembling his pre-Drive film Valhalla Rising in their slow elliptical style, metaphysical overtones, and preference for advancing story through symbol over narrative.

I like all four quite a bit.

Most were introduced to him through Drive rather then the Pusher films or Fear X seems the simplest explanation.

teaser trailer. like all Refn projects--very Refn.

https://youtu.be/BwG0bd7O0Fs

kind of can't wait though because if they can manage a couple interesting/involving characters than I really do want to see a whole TV series shot like this

Plot summary is:

"Too Old To Die Young follows "a grieving police officer who, along with the man who shot his partner, finds himself in an underworld filled with working-class hit men, Yakuza soldiers, cartel assassins sent from Mexico, Russian mafia captains and gangs of teen killers."

Sounds positively ludicrous. That's not necessarily a criticism mind you. But all that together sounds like a lot to take in in a limited time period. Here's hoping it works!

apparently Darius Khondji is the primary cinematographer. Refn + Khondji doing a TV series. what a time to be alive.

Persona wrote: Wed May 23, 2018 1:03 pm apparently Darius Khondji is the primary cinematographer. Refn + Khondji doing a TV series. what a time to be alive.

It's on the clapperboard in the photo above!

ha, so it is!

Cliff Martinez is composing the score for the series and recently stated that it's going to be, uh, ten 90-minute episodes.

Yoikes.

If it were fifteen 60 minute episodes it wouldn't seem so bad. I'm sure the Twin Peaks model has sort of reset how much leeway these filmmakers are giving themselves with regard to the length of something like this. But, of course, if it's bad, it'll be totally insufferable.

mfunk9786 wrote: Tue Feb 05, 2019 4:37 pm If it were fifteen 60 minute episodes it wouldn't seem so bad. I'm sure the Twin Peaks model has sort of reset how much leeway these filmmakers are giving themselves with regard to the length of something like this. But, of course, if it's bad, it'll be totally insufferable.

Totally valid point. I like some of Refn's stuff but it was hard enough for me to get through 2 hrs of Only God Forgives or Neon Demon, so picturing the viewing experience of what will basically be ten feature-length Refns back-to-back... kind of sends a shudder through me. I guess I was picturing more something along the lines of 8-10 60-minute episodes.

Yes, this looks like a Refn film all right

I'd say it looks like self-parody but we're way past that point with Refn. This is his thing, I guess.

But I will watch for all that Khondji camera goodness.

It has neon, exotic animals, shady thugs and Jena Malone. Seeing Refn pigeonhole his style more and more after Drive is nothing if not at least courageous

It also has, and I'm not making this up, Hideo Kojima, the Metal Gear Solid guy in it.

Now streaming on amazon, episodes range from 97 to 30 minutes.

I'm watching it.

The pace is glaaaaaacial. Which I wouldn't mind if this were a movie, and so far I am enjoying it more than OGF or Neon Demon... but the prospect of getting through ten episodes feels incredibly daunting.

People compared it to Twin Peaks: The Return but this is even slower than that and substitute Lynch's humor and genuine imagination with Refn just doing Refn.

But Khondji and Martinez are doing God's work on the thing and I am kind of intrigued by the absolute smorgasboard of characters, even if they all talk at the same turtle's pace, so I dunno, I might make it through more of this.

I immensely dislike episodic things/series but I'm keen enough on Refn I still want to buy this -- anyone know if it's likely to get a physical release at some point? Or is Amazon (only) god forbid like Netflix where their releases exclusively exist locked away within an intangible internet cloud?

There are Netflix shows which get physical releases, mostly shows which are not produced entirely by them. Amazon's movies get physical releases, but not sure if a series of theirs ever did.