AFilmToFar Reviews

Pusher (1996)

Classic 90s Cinema

[8/10 · 8 July 2012]

Quentin Tarantino fan?, Then watch this. Pusher has it all, drugs, violence, sex and great dialogue, it doesn't hold anything back. It's the first film by director Nicholas Winding Refn (Bronson, Drive.) and arguably his best.

The film is shot in a documentary style, in this film we follow small time drug dealer frank who is busted by the cops for trying to sell drugs, as a result of losing his drugs franks is now in debt to a local gangster named Milo, he has one week to come up with Milos money, during this week we see the desperate levels Frank stoops to in order to secure the money. What makes the film is the interesting characters, Frank, Franks girlfriend Vic, Franks friend Tonny, gangster Milo and Milo's henchman Radovan, each character brings something completely different to the film, you will find yourself favouring one of them.

The dialogue contains a lot of extreme racial slurs, and brutal violence, it makes a Quentin Tarantino film look like a PG 13. Overall the film is a fantastic watch, Kim Bodnia (Frank), Laura Drasbaek (Vic), Zlatko Buric (Milo), Slavko Labovic (Radovan) and Mads Mikkelsen (Tonny) are brilliant in this film.

What I love about this film is that it has no good guy, some people will side with Frank, some will side with Milo. Pusher is raw, edgy and most of all, entertaining.

Following (1998)

A Solid Film.

[7/10 · 8 July 2012]

'Everyone has a box.' A must see for Chris Nolan fans, This Neo-noir film is his first, shot with a small budget in black and white with a run time of 70 minutes.

The style used in this film, Nolan uses in his next film 'Memento', if you're a fan of Memento then you will like this. The basis of the plot is that our protagonist(The young man) likes to follow people, not for any reason other then to see where they go, he sets himself rules such as; never follow people for too long, never follow people more than once and never follow women down dark alleys. It's all going fine until one day he follows a young handsome man (Cobb) whom realises he is being followed and confronts the protagonist, Cobb it turns out is a burglar, but he is not your typical burglar and invites our protagonist to accompany him on his burglaries and this ladies and gentlemen is where it gets interesting.....

Overall the movie has an intriguing plot, solid acting and not once becomes tedious or prolonged. Although I found the film to have plot holes, it doesn't ruin the viewing experience. A solid film and a brilliant first effort from Chris Nolan.