Pusher 3

Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Pusher 3: I’m the Angel of Death is the story of a Serbian drug lord who struggles to maintain his sobriety as he faces many challenges in the wake of his daughter’s upcoming birthday. The third and final film of the Pusher trilogy, the film explores the character of Milo who had been in the previous films as he is played by Zlatko Buric. Also starring Kurt Nielsen, Slavko Labovic, Levino Jensen, and Ilyas Agac reprising their roles from the previous films. The cast also includes Marinela Dekic, Vasilije Bojicic, and Kujtim Loki. Pusher 3 is a ominous yet hypnotic film from Nicolas Winding Refn.

Milo’s daughter Milena (Marinela Dekic) is about to celebrate her 25th birthday at a lavish party in a Copenhagen dining hall as Milo is trying to handle all of the festivities. After learning that Milena is dating a drug dealer named Mike (Levino Jensen), Milo is struggling to maintain his business as well as his newfound sobriety as he’s been going to meetings for recovering addicts. Still wanting to maintain his role as a drug lord, a shipment he was supposed to receive from an Albanian supplier named Luan (Kujtim Loki) revealed to be ecstasy rather than heroin as Milo has no idea what to do with it. Luan’s partner Rexho (Ramadan Hyseni) suggests that Milo should sell it so he can get a new shipment of heroin in return.

When one of Milo’s associates in Muhammad (Ilyas Agac) arrives with his daily take, he tells Milo about the ecstasy as he decides to help Milo sell it as he asks for a bigger cut in return. Milo agrees as he’s trying to prepare food and gather things for Milena’s party as his henchmen become ill with food poisoning forcing Milo to do things himself. At the party, Milo becomes worried about the food as he tries to order fish to replace some of the food he cooked. Instead, an encounter with a dealer in Kurt the Cunt (Kurt Nielsen) adds to trouble while Rexho and his Polish arrive at Milo’s home base with a young hooker forcing Milo to do things as Muhammad hasn’t returned with the money.

With Rexho ordering Milo around to remind him of the huge debt he has, things get worse after a bad deal between Rexho’s Polish friend and a brothel madam named Jeanette (Linse Christansen) over the young hooker. Milo decides to take matters into his own hands where he turns to his old friend Radovan (Slavko Labovic) for help.

The film is about the day in the life of a drug lord who finds himself becoming irrelevant as he’s dealing with his daughter’s birthday, younger drug dealers, and trying to be sober. All of it is told from Milo who was seen in the past two films as a powerful yet friendly drug lord who carries an air of respect. In this film, Milo is a shell of his former self due to these changing times while he is forced to cater to these newer, younger drug dealers who feel like they are more powerful than he is. It’s all part of the world that Nicolas Winding Refn creates to explore this man’s fall as he tries to do what he does while being a good father to his daughter who at times can be a bit selfish towards him. Even as she knows about her father’s business and wants in so her boyfriend can do better.

The screenplay is really a character study of sorts where it follows Milo doing all sorts of activities while going to these addict meetings where he reveals his struggle and such. In the course of the day, things escalate as he has to deal with his daughter, her ambitious boyfriend, all these new dealers, an old one, and everything else where things eventually escalate in the third act. Since the film revolves around a man dealing with these new dealers where he gets screwed in the process. It leads to this third act where an old character from the first film in Radovan is re-introduced but as a very different man who still has his old skills.

Refn’s direction is definitely more engaging in the way he explores the day in the life of this man as it begins with Milo in an addicts anonymous meeting where he reveals he’s been sober for five days. With a lot of hand-held cameras including a scene around the party at a dining hall where the camera is always wandering the table. The direction is very potent to establish the fall of a once powerful drug lord who is struggling to get through an entire day. Particularly as it features scenes of Milo inside a room all by himself where he’s just smoking a cigarette just to get through the day. Even as the film is progressed where Milo would smoke something that is laced with some drugs.

The film eventually gets darker where Refn’s camera becomes much tighter and more in control with these compositions where it’s shown from Milo’s perspective as he’s looking at what is happening around him. Notably the scene involving Rexho, Rexho’s Polish friend, and a brothel madam discussing about the transfer where it’s a simple scene where nothing drastic happens but some of it is shown from Milo’s perspective where he is later seen in the background. The film’s third act is really the most intense moment due to the violence that eventually occurs where there is a newfound brutality that Refn does present as it features the return of an old character from the first film. Overall, Refn creates a truly mesmerizing and chilling film that serves as an intriguing study in the day of a man's life.

Cinematographer Morten Soborg does amazing work with the film‘s stylish photography from the moody interiors created for the party scenes and exterior nighttime shots to the more brighter but crisp look of Milo‘s home base at night. Editor Miriam Norgaard and Anne Osterud do great work in the editing by creating stylish jump cuts to play around with Milo‘s state of mind as well as slower more methodical cutting sequences to help enhance his troubled mood. Production designer Rasmus Thjellesen does nice work with the set pieces such as the place that Milo runs to the dining hall where Milena is having her party with its balloons and such.

Costume designer Jane Whittaker does terrific work with the costumes from the suit that Milo wears to more stylish clothing that the younger dealers were to contrast the different worlds the characters live in. Sound designer Jens Bonding does superb work with the sound to capture the atmosphere of the birthday parties to the sparse sounds of some of the locations that Milo is at. The film’s score by Peter Peter is a wonderful mixture of driving rock and ambient music to set a mood for Milo’s troubled journey in a tense day of his life as it is easily the best score of the trilogy.

The casting by Pernille Lembecke is brilliant for the ensemble that is created as it features some memorable small performances from Linse Christiansen as a brothel madam, Vasilije Bojicic as Milo’s henchman Branko, Levino Jensen as a low-level drug dealer/Milena’s boyfriend Mike, Kurt Nielsen as the troublemaking drug dealer Kurt the Cunt, Kujtim Loki as an Albanian supplier named Luan, and Slavko Labovic as Milo’s old friend Radovan who steals the show as a hood who turned straight. Ramadan Hyseni is very good as a sleazy gangster in Rexho who serves as Luan’s translator while Ilyas Agac is excellent as a young dealer named Muhammad who tries to help Milo with a deal only for something to go wrong.

Marinela Dekic is wonderful as Milo’s daughter Milena who is trying to have a lavish birthday party while wanting to ensure about her financial future as she’s a character who is quite complicated where Dekic allows her to not be a completely un-likeable person. Finally, there’s Zlatko Buric in a marvelous performance as the Serb drug lord Milo. Buric’s performance is very different from the performances he gave in the previous film where he allows himself to show humility as well as a man on the edge as he tries to deal with a tense day. It’s definitely the best thing Buric has done as he creates a truly exhilarating performance as Milo.

Pusher 3 is an incredible film from Nicolas Winding Refn that is highlighted by Zlatko Buric’s brooding performance. While it may not have some of the more intense, exciting moments of the previous films of the trilogy. It is still a very interesting film for the way it highlighted a day in the life of a character losing control. In the end, Pusher 3 is a phenomenal film from Nicolas Winding Refn.

Nicolas Winding Refn Films: Pusher - Bleeder - Fear X - Pusher II - Bronson - Valhalla Rising - Drive - Only God Forgives - The Neon Demon - The Auteurs #12: Nicolas Winding Refn

© thevoid99 2012

Pusher II

Written and directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands is the sequel to the 1996 film Pusher that focuses on the drug culture on Copenhagen. In the second film, the film explores a drug-dealer’s former sidekick as he deals with new challenges in the world of crime and drugs as well as becoming a father for the very first time. The film features two characters from the previous film as its focus is on Tonny who is played by Mads Mikkelsen as the drug lord Milo, played by Zlatko Buric, also returns. Also starring Leif Sylvester, Anne Sorensen, Oyvind Hagen-Traberg, and Kurt Nielsen. Pusher II is a compelling yet visually-hypnotic film from Nicolas Winding Refn.

After being released from prison, Tonny returns to Copenhagen to work at a chop shop run by his criminal father known as the Duke (Leif Sylvester) who isn’t happy to see Tonny. Wanting to prove to himself to his father, Tonny decides to steal a car following a bad night with hookers where he ends up getting a stern lecture from his father. With his friend O (Oyvind Hagen-Traberg) trying to help him out, Tonny learns from O’s girlfriend Gry (Maria Erwolter) that her friend Charlotte (Anne Sorensen) has his baby. Tonny is surprised by the news unsure how to cope as the Duke’s partner Kurt the Cunt (Kurt Nielsen) has Tonny do things where things would often go wrong as Tonny would get the blame.

During a deal with Tonny’s old friend Milo that Kurt wants to do, things go bad as Kurt blames Tonny as he asks Tonny to shoot him in the arm and blame it on Arabs so the Duke wouldn‘t get upset. With the pressure of clearing a debt for his father and Charlotte wanting money for their unnamed child, Tonny gets some devastating news that leaves him becoming more concerned for his child. At a wedding party for O and Gry, Tonny’s concern for his child has him confronting Charlotte for her drug use as he ends up getting into trouble. When Kurt wants Tonny to aid him in something to help make things easy with the Duke. Tonny realizes that something isn’t right while his father wants him to do something that relates to a custody battle he’s having forcing Tonny to make a decision about his life.

The film is about a former drug dealer who returns from prison hoping to do good for his criminal father only to find himself getting into more trouble while learning he has a child that he’s grown to care for. It’s a film that in some ways is about redemption for a man who is an admitted fuck-up but with a good heart despite some of his bad deeds that includes rampant drug use. The film opens with a prologue where Tonny is being lectured by an inmate in prison about conquering his fear that would set up the main narrative as Tonny is a man driven by fear as he’s constantly berated by the people around him.

The screenplay explores Tonny as a man who is very flawed but also one who earns pity due to the fact that he was unloved by his father while having to do deeds where he’s also treated with indifference and little respect in his father’s criminal deeds. Making things worse is the fact that the woman he impregnated is a drug-addled whore who just wants money and really doesn’t care for the baby that he just found out. Though he’s wary at first about the baby, he would eventually come to care for him despite his uncertainty if he can care for the baby. Still, Nicolas Winding Refn would find ways for Tonny to eventually come to his senses where it would take a series of events that would push him to redemption and conquering his fear.

Refn’s direction is definitely entrancing for the way he opens the film with a simple scene of Tonny inside a cell talking to an inmate where it is followed by a scene of Tonny beating up someone and then being chased. It’s part of a setup of what Tonny is doing as Refn does reuse a lot of the techniques he had done with the first film. Yet, it’s more refined due to the fact that Refn wanted to focus on this man’s attempt to earn respect as that word is tattooed on the back of his head. Refn always has the camera in the back of Tonny’s head although the situations that Tonny is in doesn’t give him what he needs.

Since the film is shot on location in Copenhagen with hand-held cameras, it allows Refn to create a world that Tonny is in where he feels completely out of place by the people he’s with. Scenes such has the wedding party shows a world where everyone is celebrating but Tonny, who is berated by his father’s speech for being someone that is never going to amount to anything, has the camera fixed on Tonny who is watching everything around him. It’s a chilling scene where Refn is waiting for the moment for Tonny to snap. Overall, Refn creates a truly haunting film that explores a man’s attempt to gain respect in the world of drugs.

Cinematographer Morten Soborg does amazing work with the film‘s cinematography from the stylish lighting colors for the scenes in the wedding party and the brothels that Tonny is in to more entrancing grainy camera work for some of the nighttime exteriors in the Copenhagen locations. Editors Anne Osterud and Janus Billeskov Jansen do excellent work with the editing by utilizing a few jump cuts to play out some of the film‘s action while keeping things straightforward for the non-suspenseful moments of the film. Production designer Rasmus Thjellesen does fantastic work with the set pieces such as the Duke’s chop shop as well as the home of Gry and Charlotte to emphasize the world where Tonny is unwanted.

Costume designer Jane Whittaker does terrific work with the costumes from the suits that the Duke wears to the sweat clothes that Tonny wears to contrast the level of respect they have. Sound designer Jens Bonding does brilliant work with the sound to capture the atmosphere of the locations such as the sparseness of the chop shop to the raucous wedding party scene. The film’s score by Peter Peter and Keli Hlodversson is superb for its mixture of ambient to pulsating electronic music to play up the world that Tonny is surrounded by as it features music by several underground Danish acts compiled by music supervisor Lol Hammond.

The film’s cast is incredible for the ensemble that is created as it includes memorable small roles from Ilyas Agac as a gun dealer, Maria Erwolter as O’s girlfriend Gry, Karsten Schroder as the Duke’s brother Red, and Zlatko Buric as Tonny’s old friend in Serbian drug lord Milo. Oyvind-Hagen Traberg is very good as Tonny’s sole friend O who reveals to him about the baby while trying to get him not to mess things up. Kurt Nielsen is great as the dangerous Kurt the Cunt who gets Tonny into a lot of trouble and make him do things that are questionable. Anne Sorensen is wonderful as the drug-addled hooker Charlotte who verbally abuses Tonny for what he did to her as she treats him like shit.

Leif Sylvester is great as Tonny’s crime lord father the Duke who berates Tonny for his incompetence while publicly humiliating him as he would force Tonny to do something that is immoral as it’s a very chilling performance. Finally there’s Mads Mikkelsen in a phenomenal performance as Tonny. It’s a role where Mikkelsen displays bits of humor that he had previously played in the first film but has him become a much more confused man who couldn’t seem to do anything right while yearning to win his father’s respect. It’s an entrancing performance from Mikkelsen who makes Tonny a very endearing character despite his flaws and the uncertainty that he has.

Pusher II is a remarkable film from Nicolas Winding Refn that features an amazing performance from Mads Mikkelsen. While it may not have the more enthralling tone of the previous film in terms of its violence and energy. It is still an intriguing sequel for the way Refn explores the life a man who feels on the outs with the world he was once a part of. In the end, Pusher II is an extraordinary film from Nicolas Winding Refn.

Nicolas Winding Refn Films: Pusher - Bleeder - Fear X - Pusher 3 - Bronson - Valhalla Rising - Drive - Only God Forgives - The Neon Demon - The Auteurs #12: Nicolas Winding Refn

© thevoid99 2012