NP-Nicholas Winding Refn

[rich]

Refn has a new series (or a 13 hour movie if you like) called Too Old to
Die Young. Ostensibly a simple tale of a bent LA Sheriff and a up and
coming Mexican cartel boss it has wide and seemingly encyclopedic
references and influences: breaking bad, twin peaks, no country for old men
(I think Refn could direct a version of Blood Meridian--more on that
later), Kill Bill/Reservoir Dogs, James Ellroy, Taxi Driver, Kubrick (many
scenes are shot Barry Lyndon style--one in a Mexican whorehouse resembled
scary paintings of Franz Von Stuck or Otto Dix). There are probably many
others.It's Weimar on the Best Coast, the end of the world, with something
coming in the night i.e. fascism
The acting is stiff, with many long pauses. this is not a show for dialogue
but of impressions, individual scenes are given their full time to flower
(Refn and those he chooses to work with are masters of color, music, and
sound from insects at night, to rippling waters, to the scrape of an axe on
concrete. the long pauses accentuate the violence and I'll warn all that
this is one of the most nihilistic shows out there--rape, incest, folks
burned and buried alive, mass murder, torture. one character surmises the
rise of eroticized violence. there's plenty
I mentioned Blood Meridian--there is a character called the High Priestess
of Death, born out of the desert, who becomes an integral part in the rise
of the young cartel boss. She is the Judge-like character, the seed of
destruction and the central pivot. everything revolves around her. she is
frankly terrifying, even to those she's in with. Women sing narcocorrido
type praises to her as a defender of women. It's hard to take your eyes off
her.
There are many wtf moments in this show--the denouement of a pair of New
Mexican pornographer brothers, in particular. Barry Manilow plays a part.
Some of these scenes with these guys are hard to watch, but there's many of
them I'm afraid.
Not many in this show is even vaguely sympathetic or honorable:The LA
Sheriff's office are fascist keystone cops, fathers lust after daughters,
brutal mothers cocktease sons, women are brutalized, men take advantage of
the weak or other men, women entice men to commit murder justified or not,
men's lives are forfeit for a few thousand dollars.
In a nutshell, it all leads to the belief that only through catastrophic
violence will innocence be born. and while one cringes from much of what is
depicted over these 13 hours, the slow pace, the dismal circumstances, the
at times half-assed buffoonery, flippancy of style and wealth, I do have to
admit it makes its points well. Let's hope it isn't our future

rich