Bleeder

Finally got to check out Nicolas Winding Refn’s second picture, Bleeder.  It’s shot in the same handheld, indie style like Pusher and the cast is essentially the same.  Refn also wrote this giving the characters very natural dialogue and also leaving real heavy shit for the end which is what he loves to do.

I liked it but this is definitely a sophomore slump.  The story unfolds pretty damn slowly, the characters aren’t terribly interesting and there isn’t any pending doom like with Pusher.  There are two stories happening at once and are connected through the characters.  One is about Leo who is going to have a baby with his girlfriend but doesn’t really want to and goes kind of crazy because of it.  The other is about Leo’s friend, Lenny (Mads Mikkelsen (Valhalla Rising)), who works at a video store and virtually only talks about movies.  He wants to go out on a date with this one woman, Lea (Refn’s real life wife), but is shy and has trouble getting up the nerve.

Zlatko Buric (Pushers) also makes an appearance as the video store owner and I absolutely love this guy.  His role in this is small but just hearing him rattle off the million different types of porn he has to some customer is engrossing to watch.

The ending is kinda nuts and involves something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before in a movie.  Jesus, I wonder if that shit actually happens for real.  If it does that’s such a horrible thing to do to someone.  So the last half hour is definitely where it’s at with this one.  But you need to go through the first hour in order for the payoff to have weight.  And Refn is a master at that.  He knows how to set you up with scenes that seem a little dull and even boring at times but when shit goes down it hits you hard as a motherfucker.

Refn is showing the destruction of one relationship and the blossoming of another.  I guess he’s saying that it’s the circle of life.  When one dude fucks up his adult life another begins his.  And who knows where it’ll lead.  For all we know Leo started out like Lenny but decayed into a bad person that only thinks of himself.  Maybe Refn is also saying that we never know what’s inside of us, what we’re capable of.  When push comes to shove how will we react?  Leo starts off as a mild mannered guy but eventually gets a gun and shoves it in someone’s face.  The stress and responsibility of having a child and the changes that come with that was too much for him.  Lenny also struggles with change.  When he gets Lea to go on a date with him he stands her up because it’s a big leap to make that first step towards a relationship.  The subtext of this piece is interesting.

It’s cool and I would recommend this over Fear X but I think you should check out the Pushers, Valhalla Rising or Drive if you haven’t already before giving this a look.