This is the second installment in a surprisingly fun trilogy from director Nicolas Winding Refn starring Mads Mikkelsen, a Danish heartthrob who has just recently made his way across the seas to the American Film Industry. You’ll recognize him as Le Chiffre, the man with a blood-weeping eye in Casino Royale.
These movies are about deals that go wrong because in actuality, deals usually go wrong. So many films are about the process of fixing, by superhero like gun toters, it’s refreshing to see a film about the logistics of a crime. Scratch that. This film isn’t realism. It’s an attempt at realism that takes place in a world very similar to ours, where men find themselves in situations that are completely beyond their control.
Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands, a thug movie with white people (this is Denmark), is a refreshing take on the stereotype of the gangster. The title character Tonny is unredeemable, a truly unlucky and untalented dealmaker. Mikkelsen plays him beautifully, as he does all of his roles, a tough guy with awkward undertones. Tonny is out of jail (it’s a little hazy here why he was in jail for the first place and how much time has passed since the first film) and heads to his dad’s chop shop looking for work. Throughout the film he’s trying to regain the trust and respect of his father, the lord of a small crime ring, but nothing seems to go his way.
When Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino were making stylish pictures with clogged sink narratives Nicolas Winding Refn was making something entirely his own. Only the Danes can take the underbelly of society and turn it into a subtle and suspenseful exercise in endurance. Pusher, the first in the series is by far the most adventurous in style and structure, but the second installment builds on its idea, not it’s story, which results in a sister film instead of a sequel.
The Dogma movement has passed and I doubt that filmmakers will find their way back to it, but it’s effects are alive and well in style and tone. The interaction between two characters, when done right, can be just as redeemable as a man flying through the air with guns ablaze.
Yes. You can watch this movie without seeing the original but I do recommend that you see Pusher at some point and time.
NY Times Review
These movies are about deals that go wrong because in actuality, deals usually go wrong. So many films are about the process of fixing, by superhero like gun toters, it’s refreshing to see a film about the logistics of a crime. Scratch that. This film isn’t realism. It’s an attempt at realism that takes place in a world very similar to ours, where men find themselves in situations that are completely beyond their control.
Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands, a thug movie with white people (this is Denmark), is a refreshing take on the stereotype of the gangster. The title character Tonny is unredeemable, a truly unlucky and untalented dealmaker. Mikkelsen plays him beautifully, as he does all of his roles, a tough guy with awkward undertones. Tonny is out of jail (it’s a little hazy here why he was in jail for the first place and how much time has passed since the first film) and heads to his dad’s chop shop looking for work. Throughout the film he’s trying to regain the trust and respect of his father, the lord of a small crime ring, but nothing seems to go his way.
When Guy Ritchie and Quentin Tarantino were making stylish pictures with clogged sink narratives Nicolas Winding Refn was making something entirely his own. Only the Danes can take the underbelly of society and turn it into a subtle and suspenseful exercise in endurance. Pusher, the first in the series is by far the most adventurous in style and structure, but the second installment builds on its idea, not it’s story, which results in a sister film instead of a sequel.
The Dogma movement has passed and I doubt that filmmakers will find their way back to it, but it’s effects are alive and well in style and tone. The interaction between two characters, when done right, can be just as redeemable as a man flying through the air with guns ablaze.
Yes. You can watch this movie without seeing the original but I do recommend that you see Pusher at some point and time.
NY Times Review
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