In its opening minutes, the movie already throws in at least two nods to Lethal Weapon, the 1987 action movie that put writer-director Shane Black on the map.

Only God Forgives is a brutal orgy of violence. Scenes are merely strung together to segue from one violent, bloody outburst to the next.

This post is brought to you by our advertiser, Radius-TWC. Ryan Gosling and director Nicolas Winding Refn (DRIVE) are back with the visionary thriller ONLY GOD FORGIVES. Julian (Gosling), an American fugitive from justice, runs a boxing club in Bangkok as a front for his drug business. His mother, Crystal (Kristin Scott Thomas), arrives from the US to collect the body of her favorite son, Billy, who was killed after savagely murdering a young Thai…

You may feel the need to shower after seeing The Ides of March. The film’s marketers could have repurposed No Country for Old Men‘s tagline, “There are no clean getaways,” because in the cutthroat political stage on display here, nobody gets out without slinging not just mud, but probably some raw sewage as well.

You know this story and its elements by heart. A basically good-hearted hero with a dark side. A woman in trouble. A femme fatale. Powerful forces of evil conspiring to drag our hero to his demise. Quiet, atmospheric contemplation. Fast cars and city lights. Nicolas Winding Refn’s Drive is a 50s noir, filtered through a 70s existential thriller, all dressed up as a neon-bathed, synthesizer-scored 80s L.A. action flick. Yet no matter how well versed you are in its influences, you’ve never seen a movie quite like this before.

Early in their courtship, Dean (Ryan Gosling) serenades Cindy (Michelle Williams) on a city street, late at night, with the pop standard, “You Only Hurt the One You Love”. By the time we see this moment, in flashback, it’s already quite clear that in the present, they’re making good on that song’s title. But something else interesting is going on beneath the surface of the youthful romantic exuberance of the scene.