NP-Nicholas Winding Refn

[rich]

amazon prime

On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 10:33 AM David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

> Where can this be found?
>
> On Fri, Jun 28, 2019 at 9:11 AM rich <richard.romeo at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> 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
>> --
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>>
>