There aren’t many movies I’ve defended more passionately in my time than “Only God Forgives." I can recall near shouting matches with friends as they declared it “gaudy” and "pretentious" and I declared it “memorizing” and “haunting." More than a decade on from its debut, and I’m still a member of the “Only God Forgives” fan club and I was delighted to discover this week that it’s currently streaming free on Prime Video and Tubi.
Released in 2013, “Only God Forgives” is a neo-noir crime thriller from director Nicolas Winding Refn. The follow-up to the Danish director’s breakout hit “Drive” (which I rank as one of my favorite movies ever), the surrealist flick saw him reunite with Ryan Gosling for another dark exploration of the criminal world. And in this Bangkok-set feature, Gosling’s character speaks even fewer lines than his mostly-muted protagonist did in “Drive” (just 17 in total).
