I saw it tonight and enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not as enamoured of it as you are. I'm not sure if the intention was to pastiche films like Drive in order to subvert genre expectations or just to openly mock them, but either way it came off like an (unsuccessful) attempt to emulate the things that made Drive (and others like it) great. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it isn't, it's just that it builds up a lot of goodwill and then sacrifices some of it with a rather limp final act that was heavily telegraphed. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't gel for me. It's better than average and I'd certainly watch it again, but it's no classic.
Oh, and a question to those who liked Drive but were disappointed by Only God Forgives: Didn't you watch Valhalla Rising? Now that was inaccessible.
I quite liked Valhalla Rising to a point. Nowhere near Drive though of course. I actually hate OGF now!I saw it tonight and enjoyed it well enough, but I'm not as enamoured of it as you are. I'm not sure if the intention was to pastiche films like Drive in order to subvert genre expectations or just to openly mock them, but either way it came off like an (unsuccessful) attempt to emulate the things that made Drive (and others like it) great. That's not to say it's a bad film, because it isn't, it's just that it builds up a lot of goodwill and then sacrifices some of it with a rather limp final act that was heavily telegraphed. Again, this may have been intentional, but it didn't gel for me. It's better than average and I'd certainly watch it again, but it's no classic.
Oh, and a question to those who liked Drive but were disappointed by Only God Forgives: Didn't you watch Valhalla Rising? Now that was inaccessible.
Yep, agree with all that. Its almost like Refn-Winding is saying 'you want something - I am going to give you the opposite'. I admire the bravery if you like but I certainly dont admire the results.I think it does pastiche films in order to subvert genre expectations - but that the films are more like 80s/90s Van Damme etc. vehicles, like Nowhere to Run; the stranger-walks-into-a-town films. It was the style that, to me, felt very Drive. But pre-Drive. If Drive and Only God Forgives were on some kind of style progression curve, then The Guest would precede them. But I knew you'd be a tough customer to please, so it's good to know that you still enjoyed it.
As for Only God Forgives coming as a surprise. I agree, Valhalla was very ethereal. Indeed most of what Refn's done has been elusive to say the least, with Drive probably one of his most accessible. The problem is that, right from the get-go, they promoted OGF as being a 'spiritual' sequel to Drive. They talked about the re-teaming with Gosling. They talked about his character being the mirror of his Drive character. They talked about him spending months learning Thai boxing for the role. All this stuff paints a picture of what to expect from the film, none of which really translates into a Valhalla-esque style-over-story outing where Gosling has no boxing skills, is nothing like his Drive character, and where the film is nothing like Drive. And certainly not a 'spiritual' sequel, whatever that means.