Pusher

(Nicolas Winding Refn/1996/Denmark)

The first of Winding Refn's trilogy based in and around Copenhagen looking at characters embroiled in the drug scene. Frank, played brilliantly by Kim Bodnia, is a hapless low level heroin dealer who over reaches and gets himself into debt and all sorts of trouble. The spiral of events, shown over the course of a week, as the universe conspires against him increasingly ratchets up the tension. Refn uses fast paced editing, rough dialogue and music to cinematicly face off with the viewer, it’s a brash film, challenging you like one of the characters might if confronted. He also used hand held cameras throughout which give the film a documentary feeling and the lighting is consistently naturalistic and unadulterated giving realism to the entire thing. It is a dark, at times funny but unglorified look at gangsters in a European city. As time and options run out for Frank it keeps you glued no matter how unsympathetic you are to the character himself.

(3.5/5)