Ryan Gosling and "Drive" director Nicolas Winding Refn created quite the stir during this year's Cannes Film Festival with their upcoming film "Only God Forgives."
The film is a violent tale of a drug dealer (Gosling) avenging his brother's death, and is set to open in select theatres this Friday. The movie has received mixed and bitter reviews. Gosling's newest endeavor premiere at Cannes last May, to reports of boos and walk outs, but some also gave a standing ovation when the film ended.
TheWrap.com writes that what "Only God Forgives" amounts to, "in the end, is the careful work of a serial killer. Refn isn't literally killing women, but he's indulging in one bloody killing after another, and practically licking the knife afterwards."
Critics are split down the middle, but most are discouraging movie-lovers to skip the R-rated flick. According to USA Today, there are scenes of arms, legs, hearts and eyes being sliced.
"Refn, (screw) you and the whole Asian action-porn attitude you rode in on," rails film critic Jeffrey Wells on the website hollywood-elsewhere.com. "I was repelled by this film in ways I didn't know I could be repelled."
However, the movie did win best film at the Sydney Film Festival in June.
"Winding Refn's brash defiance in the face of expectation and conservatism is to be applauded," wrote Ed Gibbs of the Sydney Morning Herald.
With some many mixed reviews from critics, it's difficult to decipher which opinions to consider over others. However, one writer summed up online reviews in a nutshell.
"The Internet has become the equivalent of a Boston bar at 2 a.m.," Michael Levine, author of Guerrilla P.R., told USA Today. "You don't know who to trust, and you're not going to remember most of what was said."
