A Sydney Film Festival jury comprised of Only Humans and Hugo Weaving has elected Nicolas Winding Refn and a near-mute Ryan Gosling’s sophomoric venture in bloodied cinematic bromance, Only God Forgives, as the winner of the festival’s competition component. Proving that even the most seasoned cineastes are subject to the kind of knee-quivering adolescent whims that dictate the moving-going choices of the general public [anything, seriously anything with Ryan Gosling in it].
The fratricidal, fisticuffing clusterfuck of post-Drive ultra-violent revenge fantasies set in the Bangkok underworld was awarded the $60,000 Sydney Film Festival Prize for its “courageous, audacious and cutting-edge filmmaking”, despite polarising of audiences at Cannes, where it was booed and hailed in equal measure, and at the SFF earlier today.
Jury president Weaving described the film as being both “mesmerising and disturbing”; an “undeniably powerful film, which will polarise opinion as it polarised ours.”
Only God Forgives will receive a national release in Australia on July 18th. Here’s the most recent [as of yesterday] theatrical trailer:
