Only God Forgives

Ryan Gosling takes on Bangkok’s criminal underworld in this kaleidoscopic revenge fantasy from cult director Nicolas Winding Refn.

Cult favourite Nicolas Winding Refn (Drive, Bronson) writes and directs this moody revenge saga, starring Ryan Gosling as Julian, a jaded drug-runner desperate to leave behind Bangkok’s seedy criminal underworld. But his crazed kingpin mother (Kristin Scott-Thomas) has different ideas, especially after the murder of his brother.

Provocatively presented, with equal parts bite and grace, Only God Forgives is both dreamlike in its hallucinatory imagery and a neon-drenched nightmare dripping of blood. Both a nod to Alejandro Jodorowsky (to whom Refn dedicates the film) and a warped vision of its own, Only God Forgives is a violent crime drama that is as cerebral as it is brutally physical.