Television Too Old to Die Young - Amazon Prime series from Nicolas Winding Refn

[TheLeon]

 

I dunno. As much as I liked Drive, I don't know if I can handle 10+ hours of his particular brand of BS. 

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, TheLeon said:

I dunno. As much as I liked Drive, I don't know if I can handle 10+ hours of his particular brand of BS. 

 

He's done other things, like Only God Forgives, which I personally enjoyed. So I'd be excited to see more of his work. I mean, it's very David Lynchian so really it's something I could get behind.

 

Also, it appears to have the guy who was just in The Widow, I guess the guy got typecasted as crooked cop guy.

[Greatoneshere]

As a huge Refn fan, I'm all up for this. But I believe this is more like Valhalla Rising, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon, rather than Drive, so this will really test your patience. I'm all in though. 

[Bloodporne]

I wonder if he can outdo himself and actually do a full, say, ten minute segment of someone motionlessly staring into a random corner of a room looking like they've just been lobotomized and had their toys stolen at once. 

 

The cinematography looks gorgeous but that's really a given and all I ever get from his films personally. 

 

[ShreddieMercury]

I watched the first episode of this over the weekend, and it's essentially what you'd expect Refn to do with around 15 hours and seemingly tons of creative control.  If you didn't like Only God Forgives, you will not enjoy this at all, because it's an extension of Refn's languorous and oppressive style.  It's extremely slow, beautifully shot, and most of the characters are expressionless outside of the intense bursts of violence.  It's reminiscent of the Twin Peaks reboot, but stripped of any camp or humor.  It's amazing, is what I'm saying.

[SoberChef]

3 hours ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

I watched the first episode of this over the weekend, and it's essentially what you'd expect Refn to do with around 15 hours and seemingly tons of creative control.  If you didn't like Only God Forgives, you will not enjoy this at all, because it's an extension of Refn's languorous and oppressive style.  It's extremely slow, beautifully shot, and most of the characters are expressionless outside of the intense bursts of violence.  It's reminiscent of the Twin Peaks reboot, but stripped of any camp or humor.  It's amazing, is what I'm saying.

Absolutely NOTHING wrong with this at all...it's just that I have to be "in the mood" for Refn because of this, you know?

[TheLeon]

23 hours ago, Greatoneshere said:

As a huge Refn fan, I'm all up for this. But I believe this is more like Valhalla Rising, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon, rather than Drive, so this will really test your patience. I'm all in though. 

Yeah, I listed the one thing of his that I actually enjoyed.  

 

Everything I’ve read about this makes me fairly certain that I won’t like this, and I’m OK with that. 

[Bloodporne]

13 hours ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

I watched the first episode of this over the weekend, and it's essentially what you'd expect Refn to do with around 15 hours and seemingly tons of creative control.  If you didn't like Only God Forgives, you will not enjoy this at all, because it's an extension of Refn's languorous and oppressive style.  It's extremely slow, beautifully shot, and most of the characters are expressionless outside of the intense bursts of violence.  It's reminiscent of the Twin Peaks reboot, but stripped of any camp or humor.  It's amazing, is what I'm saying.

[Greatoneshere]

15 hours ago, ShreddieMercuryRising said:

I watched the first episode of this over the weekend, and it's essentially what you'd expect Refn to do with around 15 hours and seemingly tons of creative control.  If you didn't like Only God Forgives, you will not enjoy this at all, because it's an extension of Refn's languorous and oppressive style.  It's extremely slow, beautifully shot, and most of the characters are expressionless outside of the intense bursts of violence.  It's reminiscent of the Twin Peaks reboot, but stripped of any camp or humor.  It's amazing, is what I'm saying.

 

It's a yes from me dawg. 

[Greatoneshere]

I haven't seen the show yet, but this interview by Collider that they did with Refn was pretty good for anyone interested.

 

http://collider.com/nicolas-winding-refn-interview-too-old-to-die-young/#images

[Greatoneshere]

Finally started the show and watched the first episode. I actually have to say, even if you don't typically like Refn, you should definitely watch the show. The constant sense of dread and foreboding, ala the darkest parts of Twin Peaks season 3, is incredibly well done. The tension is high throughout, as if at any moment the scene will break into horrific violence. The show is co-created and co-written by both Refn and Ed Brubaker (yes, that Ed Brubaker) and Brubaker really helps give some structure to Refn's languid style. 

 

But be forewarned, this is absolutely peak Refn, with all the beautiful style that entails (but also slow pace). The first episode was 1 hour and 33 minutes, and the second is 1 hour and 37 minutes. To me they flew by because the story is incredibly intriguing as it slowly starts to come together. As always, toxic masculinity is at the very forefront of Refn's mind and the ways he approaches and deals with it is very interesting here. But each episode is its own movie given the length so be prepared to strap in.

 

I'm genuinely interested so far and I think the story is intriguing enough (with the hints dropped about our main character, who is meant to start as an enigma) that I definitely want to see more. But the tone, mood, and atmosphere established are off the charts. The Cliff Martinez synth soundtrack thumping in the background is entrancing. For perspective, Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon (movies I really like) have poor scores on IMDb (a 5.7 and a 6.2, respectively) while Too Old To Die Young has a 7.4/10 (granted the sample size is much smaller for the show vs. those movies in terms of votes cast). That's up there with the Pusher trilogy, Bronson, and Drive and far from Valhalla Rising, Only God Forgives, and The Neon Demon. So if you liked the former Refn films but not the latter Refn films, I think you'll actually like this show. People should give it a try - critics were only given screeners for the 4th and 5th episodes, which is why reviews around the internet suck for this show, saying it's confusing and obtuse. It isn't at all if you start with episode 1, obviously. Dare I say this is an underrated show that'll be given a re-review a few years from now. The closest shows I can compare this too are Hannibal season 3 (specifically, for the beautiful but languid tone), Twin Peaks season 3 (for the slow camerawork, awkward human interactions, and weirdness), and The Knick (in terms of directorial style and a similar Cliff Martinez soundtrack). 

[Greatoneshere]

I've finally finished the show - it was overall excellent, even with a few issues/flaws. This review sums up my feelings, and how I think non-Refn fans would feel, perfectly: 

 

https://www.theringer.com/tv/2019/6/18/18682730/too-old-to-die-young-review-nicolas-winding-refn