'Only God Forgives' Review Roundup: Ryan Gosling's New Film is Called Preposterous

 On July 19, Nicolas Winding Refn's new film "Only God Forgives" opens in limited release and on Demand.

The film, which stars Ryan Gosling and Kristen Scott Thomas, tells the story of Julian, a drug-smuggler thriving in Bangkok's criminal underworld. His life changes and becomes even more complicated when his mother compels him to find and kill whoever was responsible for his brother's recent death.

The film opened in May at the Cannes Film festival where it was met with boos and mixed reviews. Variety's Peter Debruge stated, "The wallpaper emotes more than Ryan Gosling does in Only God Forgives, an exercise in supreme style and minimal substance from Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn."

Owen Gleiberman from Entertainment Weekly gave the film a C- and wrote, "It's a solemnly preposterous piece of designer revenge pulp, with actors who stand around bathed in red and blue light like David Lynch mannequins in between scenes of torture and murder."

Time Out New York's Keith Uhlich was also negative and stated, "Refn clearly thinks he's saying something profound with this laboriously overproduced dross, and I'm content to let him go on thinking."  

However there were some positive reviews. Jesse Cataldo from Slant Magazine gave the film 3 stars out of 4 and wrote, "It takes the basic form of the revenge flick and dips it in tar, making for a movie that comes out sticky, nasty, and black."

Winding Refn last directed the critically acclaimed film "Drive" as well as "Valhalla Rising." He also directed "Bronson and "Pusher."

Radius TWC will release "Only God Forgives" which is rated R for for strong bloody violence including grisly images, sexual content and language.