Visual & audio are awesome. But damn this shit is sooooooo slow, as others have stated. Maybe it’s some artistic shit that only people who breath rarified air appreciate.
The writing is sparse, understated, slow, non-emotive, as is the acting, and yet it gripped me for the whole runtime. Hyper-realism through restraint. Emptiness and anticipation to build tension. The visuals are the opposite. Classic Refn, bright flashing contrasting colourful lights. Indulgence and excess. Beautiful shot composition and blocking. Slow, meticulous camera movements. This is the first project I've seen in a long time where the use of slow zooms doesn't really bother me, they feel natural here. The music is fantastic. Dark, ominous, dissonant, bassy, mixed loud. There were like a couple edits that I didn't like. That's it. Other than that this is fuckin art.
9/10 I really want to watch this not sober
A life finding itself without purpose. Like comedic gags where the punchline is this guy digging his own grave. A series of vignettes Of a man who was always broken.
A cop slowly going to the red light, embracing the nature of the institutions where he comes from.
Style over substance? Definitely. Drawn Out? Oh hell yes. But that's Nicolas Winding Refn for you people. Now, I'm not gonna lie, I was constantly checking how much time was left. Still enjoyed it though. Refn is at his best when he draws you in, almost hypnotizing. Apart from the schocker at the ending the plot was hella cliched, the dialogue (unwillingly) funny at times and hella awkward. Great acting, William Baldwin was definitely a highlight. I'm interested in where the plot is heading and am stoked to when I get to see how John Hawkes fits into it all.
I appreciate Nicholas Winding Refn's directorial style when watching his movies, but man - this was SO DRAGGED OUT. The scene in the first 20 minutes involving the two police officers, Miles Teller doesn't say a word to Lance Gross' character for 18 minutes. Sorry, that's not how conversation works.
Wow, that was a long premiere. I'm aware Nicolas Winding Refn views this show as one big movie, so the runtime of each episode is extremely varied. But I imagine the premiere has the longest runtime out of all of the episodes. Implying that I'm correct, I just wonder why it had to be the premiere and not any other episode. A weird thing to wonder, I know. Anyway, I enjoyed it, the premiere. The pacing was slow, yes, and perhaps much slower for others, as far as the feeling goes, but I wasn't too bothered by it. I don't necessarily have a strong opinion or preference when it comes to whether an episode is slow-paced or not, so that may be why. In some cases, though, I'd still slightly mind if it's slow or even fast-paced. Back on-track, as far as the premiere itself is concerned, everything was enthralling, despite the slow pacing, lingering shots, and the somewhat long pauses in-between dialogue. Things that seem to be a major turn-off for some people. Me, not really.
Honestly, if things happened at a normal speed, the episode could have easily been 40 min long. As it was, everything was so slow and dragged so bad that it just gave me really bad anxiety. Plus, it made every interaction between characters kinda awkward and uncomfortable.
I couldn't really appreciate the artistic aspects when the slowness just made me want to scream at the TV to hurry the f up. I can't help but wonder who the hell the target demographic is for something like this (maybe film buffs?), cause mainstream it is not, and I definitely can't see it being appealing to average people. To me, this was just plain bad. Would NOT recommend.
wtf did i just watch?
Shout by DeletedBlockedParent2019-06-18T23:03:52Z
A bleak dream.
An incredible start. Nicolas Winding Refn is loudly boasting every ten minutes but I love it! I can understand someone finding the self-indulgence irritating but, as a fan of Refn, it's simply a feast. The blocking here is out of this world, which you can see in every single frame, of which has obviously had 100% effort put into it; literally every frame of this is carefully lit (very neon-orientated) and phenomenally blocked...it's surprising that something this clearly staged is so hypnotic from start to finish. Cliff Martinez once again blows me away with the music he manages to create with some of his best work here, and Cliff's score combined with the gorgeous cinematography is impressive and entrancing, as it accompanies a limited yet still engaging plot both on and off the surface, with major help from a fantastic Miles Teller, who plays a very unique and morally ambigious protagonist.
Mesmerising television. If you are wondering why I didn't rate it higher, you should know that 8 stars for me means I loved it; I certainly loved this and it looks like it's about to lead to something for the history books.