EssenceStory Well Deserved Praise

TrueHello Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

Stephan Hammond It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

Aspen Orson There is definitely an excellent idea hidden in the background of the film. Unfortunately, it's difficult to find it.

anniemarshallster This movie is stunningly beautiful to look at with long, fluid moving shots allowing you to observe the characters and the world they live in. Occasional interspersions of abstract moments remind us that we are looking at a created work, not reality. But Refn is SO good at reality (those Laundromats). The style is operatic displaying great emotions – over the top, constructed, with arias and acts of violence - which is what Nicholas Winding Refn is particularly good at. The movie carries many Refn trademarks – fades to red, artificial introductions to the main protagonist (in walking mode with appropriate music), and a refusal to look away. You either go with this film or don't bother. Don't compare it to something else, don't try to remake it in your head. It is there, it is an artefact, look at it in context and respond. I keep returning to the beauty of the film, its openness and expansiveness. The landscape and environment are characters too, created with the leisurely walks the camera likes to take through the videostore, the bookstore, a park or a cemetery. The soundtrack too is acute and astute from Refn's usual collaborator Peter Peter. Additionally the ecstatic Bach represents Lenny's joy in movies, echoed by the ecstatic but cooler music for Lea's joy in books. The shots in these sequences are like something out of M C Escher – twisting,tumbling, turning in on themselves, fantastically angled, the human mind in all its diversity. The plot follows the contrasting fortunes of Leo /Louise (Kim Bodnia /Rikke Louise Andersson) and Lenny /Lea (Mads Mikkelsen /(Liv Corfixen) in their bottom of the heap Copenhagen world far removed from the niceties of Finn Juul Danish modern. Their friends include Louis (Levino Jensen), Louise's very loving but dangerous brother (a racist, violent thug to anyone other than Louise) and Kitjo (Zlatko Buric) who works in the video store with Lenny. The four men – Lenny, Leo, Louis and Kitjo – spend much of their time watching videos – usually of exploitation stuff - but one of the driving forces of the film is how much Lenny (and Kitjo) and the director/writer love their movies. The interactions about movies provide much of the light relief and must amuse the specialist film buffs. Leo and Louise are falling apart as a couple. She is pregnant and determined to keep it. Her attention is all on the coming baby not on him and his insecurities are sending him mad. Leo for reasons never disclosed (so the audience is at liberty to provide some back story) is viscerally appalled at the idea of a baby and at the destruction of their present relationship. He seems part outsider in this society and the casual racism of Louis and his nightclub workmates (which he echoes in their company) sends him further round the twist. He takes it out on Louise, with inevitable consequences for them and Louis. By contrast videostore Lenny and waitress Lea are groping towards an understanding of each other; the videostore and the bookstore are Lenny and Lea's safety, from which they emerge blinking into the world. He's insane about movies, she's insane about books, both are introverted, shy, awkward, obsessive. He's messy but she is tidy. Both are "innocent" of the world and its failings and Lenny doesn't participate in Louis and Leo's racist antics. The chances of this inexperienced pair making it as a couple seem small. And there is of course a setback – Lenny bottles it when he shouldn't. Lenny baulks at going to Leo's funeral (a sunny day, the first in the film – wonderful irony/luck for Refn who it is said filmed chronologically). Afterwards he and Kitjo chew the fat outside the videostore and Kitjo grumbles about his piles. Whatever the cause, Lenny goes back to try Lea's patience again. Are you going to stick around, she asks. Yes, he says, and settles down to wait and the odd couple make their connection. Human, compassionate and a wonderful note of sweetness ending a film which deals with very hard things – but that's where Refn is at this point in time (and Pusher 2 of course but that's another story). There are moments of great humour – Kitjo preparing himself for a night out with the boys laboriously combing his frizzy hair into a mullet and spraying it into shape, Leo giving his sardonic commentaries on the films they view, Lenny preparing a gourmet meal for one of spaghetti topped with ketchup. Yum! And the arias – all about film of course – Lenny's tour de force listing almost every director who has ever lived (occasionally prompted by Kitjo who also handles the more outré porn requests) and his obsession with Fred Williamson as opposed to Steven Seagal. With its humour, cinematic in-jokes, sense of hard reality coupled with an almost surreal vision of love and hate, this is a film to be treasured and measured and talked about with other film lovers. Not an action film then (Lea will be relieved) but a character study of hard men in Copenhagen intertwined with a romantic love story about Lenny and Lea framing that central story of iron blood and death (Leo, Louise and Louis).

Jack Coen Leo and Louise are a young couple living together in Copenhagen. Leo often goes out with his friends while Louise usually stays home. But when Louise tells Leo she's pregnant, a spark is ignited and Leo begins to become cold and distant. His anger and self-hatred finally erupt into violence against Louise (plot).Nicolas Winding Refn, the genius behind many good films like "Pusher" and lately the best film in 2011 "Drive" write and direct fine film and present this in tow parts First in Leo character and his problem with his wife, Scend in Lenny character and how the filmgeek turn to a normal guy with girls.The actors are brilliant all around, especially Mads Mikkelsen who does a fantastic performance as a filmgeek, with major problems when it comes to talking and being around girls. And Kim Bodnia gives a really introspective performance that proves his status as one of europe's if not the whole worlds best actors.The film was great and worth watching, i love everything in this film the conversation between the characters was great especially when they talk about films, the bloody scene well made by the staff .. and the last few seconds when the light off in the restaurant Lenny & Lea staring each other!.4/5

zombola I don't know where to start with this film. Pusher in my opinion is one of the greatest gangster films of all time, superbly shot with incredible performances, a fantastic storyline and most of all completely realistic. So it would suffice to say that Refn's second film should be just as good if not better, how can you top Pusher? Well the simple answer is you cant and Refn hasn't even tried. He's gone for the more subtle approach and seems to have worked backwards by creating this very slow arty piece. What i think he has done is pay his respects to all of his favourite films without paying homage to any of them. I think he's tried to highlight peoples outlets. We have Lenny the quiet video store clerk who watches 4 films a day all of which are graphically violent and thats it, his life is film, Im guessing this is a reference to a traits of Refn's own character but then we move on to how these things can affect you with Leo's character, he has no outlet, the guys meet up once a week for film night and don't talk, Leo doesn't really understand film and why things are the way that they, he is growing increasingly disappointed witn his life and decides to buy a gun, he doesn't even know why - he needs an outlet. Lea's character is very similar to Lennys except her medium are books, graphic books. There are some very nice shots of the video store and the book shop, a persons collection of fiction endlessly spanning into infinity.Whilst watching i put the slow pace and intense snappy diologue down to character build up and that when we finally see the violent revenge it would make me care even more for the characters, this was not the case. leo wakes up in a factory and instead of Louis beaten him up or torturing him they decide to inject him with HIV+ blood, this is the only refernec i can see to the title 'Bleeder'. Yes its horrible and wrong but hardly a climax, there was no build up, no suspense, no impending doom and what a ridiculous way to exact revenge on someone, its hardly quick. Leo is obviously going to get his own back and he does... wow sigh.So, the acting is good, the cinematography is great, the storyline is boring, the diologue is boring, the end is boring. You don't feel any different from beginning to end after watching it, so whats the point? because he could.There is no explanation the only thing i can say is don't expect it to be anything like pusher.

arseface So I travel from Sweden to Copenhagen to see a movie, paying about 15 bucks for the trip, and another 10 for the movie. 25 bucks for a movie???? Was it worth it????Damn right it was, this is Nicholas Winding Refn´s second feature, and after his masterful debut: Pusher I really had my hopes up. And boy was it good.The tempo is a little slower than Pusher, but it really suits the movie. It´s got great dialogue that kinda reminded me of Clerks in some places, especially the scenes in the videostore. The theme of the movie in my mind is about men, and our problems with talking to each other and to women. Sure there are scenes with really disturbing and realistic violence. But I feel it has more in common with John Cassavettes, than Abel Ferrara and Martin Scorsese that I think were refn inspirations for Pusher.The actors are brilliant all around, especially Mads Mikkelsen who does a fantastic performance as a filmgeek, with major problems when it comes to talking and being around girls. And Kim Bodnia gives a really introspective performance that proves his status as one of europe´s if not the whole worlds best actors.All in all a very powerful, and intense movie that is a must see