THE FURIOUS (2025)

The basic premise of The Furious is simple; A mute father with a mysterious past and exceptional fighting skills tries to rescue his daughter from a human trafficking ring. It’s Taken meets prime Jackie Chan with the brutal fight choreography from a Timo Tjahjanto film where the characters have unrealistic healing ability and pain thresholds. Actually – Jackie Chan has already made a Taken-coded film in the form of The Foreigner so it’s really The Foreigner meets Timo Tjahjanto with characters that can shake off blows to the skull with monkey wrenches and hammers. This semi-recent genre of action movies where the martial artists have unclear powers is common now (The Raid, The Night Comes For Us, Shadow Strays, etc). This isn’t the type of movie you watch for logic and common sense. You come for the classic/simple plot and stay for the brutal Jackie Chan-inspired fighting.

In my generation, the older kids in Japan loved to watch Jackie Chan movies – Kenji Tanigaki, Dorkaholics

Wheels on Meals / The Furious

First Strike / The Furious

Operation Condor / The Furious

Project A / The Furious

Police Story / The Furious

The Young Master / The Furious

And like Jackie Chan, Tanaigaki draws from the originals sources that inspired Jackie Chan…

I love classic films like Buster Keaton, Harold Lloyd and Gene Kelly - Kenji Tanigaki, Third Coast Review

The Three Muskateers / The Furious

Jackie aside, this movie also pulls from classic 80s Hong Kong action in general

In my childhood, I loved Hong Kong action cinema - Kenji Tanigaki, Dorkaholics

Yes Madam / The Furious

If you’re willing to accept the almost fantasy-like aspect of The Furious, this is an incredibly fun movie. It’s got the old school action film sensibility with up-to-date fighting that combines mixed martial arts with Tekken finishers.

ROSE OF NEVADA

Rose of Nevada is an almost perfect Venn diagram of ghost story, traditional horror and psychological thriller. All three genres are different but they have a few key similarities like spirits, supernatural beings/occurrences and tortured psyches. This movie has the type of jump scares that you’d find in a traditional horror film. One of the main characters is plagued with disturbing visions that one might find in a physiological thriller. And this is very much a ghost story as it involves a dying town that’s haunted by the disappearance of a boat crew from over 30 years ago.
In the film, two inexperienced sailors in need of money are hired to take a boat out on a fishing excursion on the same cursed fishing boat that once carried the missing boat crew 30 years ago. The job goes well but when they return to their dock, they soon discover they have somehow been transported 30 years in the past to the exact same place but with different identities.

This is sort of a spiritual sequel to Jenkin’s last film; Enys Men. A lot of the imagery is almost identical, we see a lot of the same actors and the tone/music/pacing/ambiance are all the same. The only difference is there is more of a plot to Rose of Nevada.

Mark Jenkin even borrows/steals/pulls from the same sources of inspiration (click here and here to read my thoughts on Enys Men).

Between The Tides / Rose Of Nevada

Meshes Of The Afternoon / Rose Of Nevada

The purest film included in this collection. A camera, a voice, some music. A beautiful and apparently simple portrait of a loved one, but also a love letter to the medium of film itself; a past-tense art form that shows us ghosts and freezes time. Truly transcendental filmmaking - Mark Jenkin on A Portrait Of Ga, Vice

A Portrait Of Ga / Rose Of Nevada

I can’t articulate what effect Bresson’s films have on me, that’s the beauty of it – Mark Jenkin, Ukfilmreview.co.uk

Pickpocket / Rose Of Nevada

For me, Tarkovsky’s films exist outside of time and space. I can’t imagine how a film like Mirror sat within the cinema of its time - Mark Jenkin, Criterion

The Mirror / Rose Of Nevada

this [A Warning To The Curious] is my favourite – a highly atmospheric piece of visual storytelling with a chilling climax. I find the simplicity of the filmmaking invigorating. No doubt born of limitation, this is cinema by way of TV - Mark Jenkin, Vice

A Warning To The Curious / Rose Of Nevada

After watching this movie I think Mark Jenkin and Jean Epstein deserve to be mentioned in the same conversation. The majority of their films take place in rural/remote European fishing towns with (some) non-professional actors.

Finis Terrae / Rose Of Nevada

L'or Des Mers / Rose Of Nevada

Mor'vran / Rose Of Nevada

Much like most new releases that I post about on here, this is a movie I enjoyed very much but don’t know too many people I would recommend it to. I mostly just used this as a cheap excuse to share some side-by-side comparisons that I had fun making.

HER PRIVATE HELL

Her Private Hell is Nicolas Winding Refn doing a parody of his own films. There’s even a few direct callbacks to Only God Forgives.

Only God Forgives / Her Private Hell

Only God Forgives / Her Private Hell

If you don’t like post-Drive Refn, this movie is not for you. It’s almost as if Refn used every negative critique of his work over the years as an inspiration for his latest project. This is his slowest movie to date. There’s tons of neon lighting and homages to his favorite filmmakers. 

And the thing is...I’m not even mad at it. I will not recommend this movie to anyone. I barely know what it’s even about but I enjoyed this in a guilty pleasure kind of way.
In a dystopian future, a young actress trying to find her father crosses paths with a violent soldier trying to find his daughter. Beyond that, this is kind of a feature length perfume commercial where the pretty imagery trumps the plot (the city that the story takes place in is plagued with a mysterious gas that fogs the city 24/7 along with a leather-clad serial killer).


Instead of the typical reference points like Michael Mann, Williams Friedkin, Dario Argento and others - Refn references the likes of Kenneth Anger, Mario Bava, Kubrick and his mentor Jodorowsky. To be fair, Anger has always been a reference point for Refn but, outside of Ryan Gosling posing in the Scorpion Jacket in Drive, no one ever seems to highlight that except me (click here to read more)…

I’m not a film analyst but most of the things we do nowadays, also in advertising, lead back to Kenneth Anger’s work - Nicolas Winding Refn, Indiewire

Fireworks / Her Private Hell

Scorpio Rising / Her Private Hell

Scorpio Rising / Her Private Hell

Planet Of The Vampires / Her Private Hell

Planet Of The Vampires / Her Private Hell

Planet Of The Vampires / Her Private Hell

Vampyr has always reminded me of a mysterious dream I once had when I was very little. The film has always stayed with me. I watch it before I make every film - Nicolas Winding Refn, Criterion

Vampyr / Her Private Hell

Unique, brilliant, fantastic! I love this movie! - Nicolas Winding Refn on Tokyo Drifter, Criterion

Tokyo Drifter / Her Private Hell

A Trip To The Moon / Her Private Hell

Seeing The Shining is like watching a painting of pure terror. It has no purpose, sexuality or function other than to completely terrorize you - Nicolas Winding Refn, Moviemaker Magazine

The Shining / Her Private Hell

2001... / Her Private Hell

I offered to read the tarot for him [REFN] and from then on he had me read his tarot every time he made a new movie - Alejandro Jodorowsky, Vulture

The Holy Mountain / Her Private Hell

Refn does kind of reference Michael Mann but instead of typical stuff like Manhunter and Thief, he pulls from The Keep.

The Keep / Her Private Hell

This could also be seen as a reference to everything from Demons to The Fog

The Fog / Her Private Hell

The Fog / Her Private Hell

Demons / Her Private Hell

I'm hesitant to compare anything even slightly weird to David Lynch, but Refn is a fan and there are some very specific Lynch-isms in Her Private Hell

film is such an early medium in a way. You know what I mean? If you go through the history of painters, you can always say that somebody was inspired by someone to do that or to do this, and of course, it's the same thing with film. Every art form is an exchange to someone else, whether it's generational, whether it's of an experience, of an opportunity - Nicolas Winding Refn on influence of David Lynch, nrftsjournal

Inland Empire / Her Private Hell

Wild At Heart / Her Private Hell

This indiewire article from a few years ago serves as a nice companion to Her Private Hell (click here).

If anything, this was just an excuse for Nicolas Refn to make a movie collage of his inspirations (which gives me an excuse to make a bunch of side-by-side comparisons to share).