The Best & The Rest: All Nicolas Winding Refn’s Films, Ranked

8.”Only God Forgives” (2013)
Despite all of Refn’s contrarian bravado following the film’s unenthusiastic response in Cannes, and the aura of cocksure “being booed is a mark of honor” attitude he’s become so good at fronting since, it’s hard to view “Only God Forgives” as anything but a disappointment. Especially now that “The Neon Demon” has arrived, which features many of the same flaws as regards flimsy narrative, yet remains infinitely more watchable, and especially if you watch the documentary “My Life Directed By Nicolas Winding Refn” which illustrates the director’s see-sawing self-doubt during its making. In “Only God Forgives,” which reteams Refn with his “Drive” star Ryan Gosling, alongside Thai actor Vithaya Pansringarm and indisputable MVP Kristin Scott Thomas, the threadbare storyline pits Gosling’s near-mute mama’s boy in a revenge narrative against the sinister, relentless, karaoke-singing Thai policeman who killed his gangster brother. But even though that logline sounds fairly promising, Refn’s tendency to get distracted by the play of light in a passageway, or to fall so in love with a heavily filtered shot of Gosling walking away that he plays it out in full, in excruciating slow motion, is indulged almost to breaking point here. Aside from the scenes with Scott Thomas (in which it is her performance that shines, and not the rather old-hat oedipal conflict), and in amongst the impressive, textural shotmaking and bursts of lurid violence, “Only God Forgives” commits the only unforgivable sin: dullness.

7.“Pusher” (1996)
If Nicolas Winding Refn set out to make a name for himself with his first film, “Pusher,” he succeeded. Following a low-life drug peddler, Frank (Kim Bodnia), over the course of a week, things go from bad to worse. Frank is probably the worst and most unlucky drug dealer in Copenhagen. When he and his partner, Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen), aren’t trying to sell drugs, they’re either aimlessly partying or just wasting time until something happens. After a drug deal goes bad, Frank has to face his friend, Milo (Zlatko Buric), the local drug lord, without the drugs or the money. Refn’s bare bones approach and sparsely populated world reflects the complete lack of glamor that comes with this lifestyle and the loneliness that is inherent in it. Building the anticipation throughout the first half of the film, Refn constantly hints that violence is right around the corner, but resists revealing it. When the violence finally explodes, it is fast, brutal and relentless. As a filmmaker, Refn never interferes with the characters but is always firmly situated right in the middle of the action. The first installment in what would become Refn’s “Pusher” trilogy, the film is a terrific example of the director’s talent and his affinity for anti-heroes, nihilism and unrestrained aggression.

6. “Valhalla Rising” (2009)
Not so much dividing critics as cleaving them in two with a gore-edged axe, “Valhalla Rising” is among the least approachable Refn films to date. The story is of a mute, one-eyed warrior who escapes captivity, falls in with a crew of would-be crusaders and embarks on a doomed voyage to the Holy Lands with them, forming an unlikely alliance with a young boy along the way. And while that synopsis could lend itself to a thigh-slapping, epic swashbuckler with Hollywood-style daddy issues (“Braveheart” meets “The Champ“!) don’t be fooled: this is a glacially paced, sporadically violent arthouse picture for which even the most patient viewer needs to be in the right mood. If you can go with it, however, the film’s contemplative pleasures are manifold: the controlled, slow-developing, sometimes brutal images can evoke Tarkovsky and Bergman, while themes and nuances bring to mind Malick and Herzog. Lofty comparisons indeed, but they are fleeting: despite some characters’ religiosity the film seems deliberately void of philosophical tendencies, featuring few symbols or metaphors — things are what they are, then someone gets an axe in the throat. Really just two things save this microscopically budgeted, willfully obscure endeavor from descending to pretentious student film level: firstly, Refn’s absolute, rock-solid directorial conviction — love it or hate it, you can be in no doubt this is the movie he meant to make. And secondly, Mads Mikkelsen — buried under thick, disfiguring make up and without a single word of dialogue, he still radiates sheer bad-ass intensity and charisma. A rip-roaring thrill ride it is not, but if you fancy spending 90 minutes in a strange state of suspended animation within a nihilistic limbo (and, occasionally, who doesn’t?), ‘Valhalla’ awaits. And as an experiment in the way-pared-back cinema of taciturn masculine violence, it’s far more successful than the more recent “Only God Forgives.”

READ MORE: Cannes: Nicolas Winding Refn Talks ‘The Neon Demon’ Boos, Throws More Insults At Lars Von Trier
5. “The Neon Demon” (2016)

Fizzing with a kind of campy malice, with all the style knobs turned up to 11, “The Neon Demon” ought by rights to be disposable, and in many ways it is. The story is certainly nothing to write home about, as Elle Fanning‘s ingenue arrives onto the LA modeling scene which soon threatens to devour her, if she doesn’t devour it first. But it might be a mark of Refn’s growing maturity that with his most recent outing he has more or less embraced his shortcomings, and has cleverly come up with a premise that plays so much to his flaws it makes them seem like virtues: in short, Refn conceals the shallowness of his approach by making a film about shallowness. It allows him to have his cake and eat it, both heavily critiquing an industry and a culture that idolizes unattainable and unreal beauty standards, while his aesthetic practically writhes in pleasure at delivering those very standards: the pop-video cool of his imagery (along with DP Natasha Braier) is as delicious as it is unwholesome. Also featuring some terrific, sly supporting performances, notably from Abbey Lee, Alessandro Nivola and Jena Malone (the last of whom has a bravura necrophilia scene that she approaches with admirable fearlessness) you can read our full review here. But for now, suffice to say that Refn’s latest is a sick, slick treat, less perhaps a completely filling cinematic meal than a bright sticky lollipop, cherry-flavored to mask the taste of the poison it contains.