Film – Only God Forgives

Another season, another action film starring Ryan Gosling. Only God Forgives is the latest film from director Nicolas Winding Refn, who is perhaps most famous for directing Gosling in Drive. This time, the action takes place in Bangkok’s criminal underworld. Gosling – broody and silent, as usual – plays Julian, a drug-smuggler. Julian’s life takes a turn for the (even more) complicated with his brother is killed and his mother (played to icy perfection by Kristen Scott Thomas) seeks revenge through her living son.

Only God Forgives hasn’t even come out this side of the Atlantic yet and is already dividing critics, with the BBC, The Week and The Guardian (all UK publications) already weighing in on the debate. Peter Bradshaw, in The Guardian, has called it “an enriched-uranium cake of pulp, with a neon sheen.” Scott Meslow, in The Week, dubbed it “stupid, needlessly gory, and generally unpleasant.” Our verdict on Only God Forgives? You’ll have to make your own mind up.

Only God Forgives will be released on Friday 2nd August.