Being a fan of Refn's work I had very high expectations for Too Old To Die Young. Not only it satisfied them, it even exceeded them.
My only apprehension was that NWR would stick to the style of The Neon Demon, his previous film, meaning a too far-stretched, often pretentious, aesthetic piece of work with beautiful frames but made only from artificial sets and lighting with no explicit plot (don't get me wrong I really liked The Neon Demon but I highly prefer his anterior work). TOTDY is more between Drive and Only God Forgives. It's actually a compilation of what Refn's best at : dark atmosphere, neon-lit city filmed mostly during nighttime, quiet characters, long scenes and dialogues, driving scenes, gang stories... Obviously the red and blue neon lights are very present, as you would expect coming from this director but there are also a lot of other beautiful scenes with a more natural lighting, like in a desert with the camera slowly moving from one edge to the other, showing a gorgeous landscape with zero movement for almost two minutes straight. This may sound boring but if you are into contemplative movies you will definitely love it.
All 10 episodes are composed of slow, long scenes so don't expect any fast-paced action TV series with lots of gunfights. Yet there are gunfights, fist fights and everything but they do not set the rythm of the show which remains calm and quiet. Violence is in fact omnipresent and you feel that it can explode at any moment. You just admire the picture like if you were wandering in an art gallery and suddenly blood sprays and stains the canvas. Or gunshots pop and break the silence. There is always violence in NWR's movies, but this violence is part of the contemplation.
As Refn said, this is to be appreciated like a 13 hours movie. Yet there are episodes I would gladly watch independently from time to time because the atmosphere and esthetism are truly mesmerizing. The score by Cliff Martinez is obviously near perfect and matches the scenes so well. My only critic and the reason I don't give it a 10 is that the scenario might have been put too much aside in the last two episodes and I feel like some parts of the story have been wrapped with a bit of easiness. But honestly this is almost nothing compared to the quality of the whole thing.
My only apprehension was that NWR would stick to the style of The Neon Demon, his previous film, meaning a too far-stretched, often pretentious, aesthetic piece of work with beautiful frames but made only from artificial sets and lighting with no explicit plot (don't get me wrong I really liked The Neon Demon but I highly prefer his anterior work). TOTDY is more between Drive and Only God Forgives. It's actually a compilation of what Refn's best at : dark atmosphere, neon-lit city filmed mostly during nighttime, quiet characters, long scenes and dialogues, driving scenes, gang stories... Obviously the red and blue neon lights are very present, as you would expect coming from this director but there are also a lot of other beautiful scenes with a more natural lighting, like in a desert with the camera slowly moving from one edge to the other, showing a gorgeous landscape with zero movement for almost two minutes straight. This may sound boring but if you are into contemplative movies you will definitely love it.
All 10 episodes are composed of slow, long scenes so don't expect any fast-paced action TV series with lots of gunfights. Yet there are gunfights, fist fights and everything but they do not set the rythm of the show which remains calm and quiet. Violence is in fact omnipresent and you feel that it can explode at any moment. You just admire the picture like if you were wandering in an art gallery and suddenly blood sprays and stains the canvas. Or gunshots pop and break the silence. There is always violence in NWR's movies, but this violence is part of the contemplation.
As Refn said, this is to be appreciated like a 13 hours movie. Yet there are episodes I would gladly watch independently from time to time because the atmosphere and esthetism are truly mesmerizing. The score by Cliff Martinez is obviously near perfect and matches the scenes so well. My only critic and the reason I don't give it a 10 is that the scenario might have been put too much aside in the last two episodes and I feel like some parts of the story have been wrapped with a bit of easiness. But honestly this is almost nothing compared to the quality of the whole thing.