Fear X has the reputation of being a complete bomb, and considered Refn's worst effort. I guess there's some merit to that considering that less than 700 people of Letterboxd have watched it. Regardless, I don't think it's anywhere near as bad as it's regarded to be.

Fear X is not for mainstream audience, but none of Refn's work is. I've seen all of his films except Bleeder (cause I can't find it), and the last two installments of the Pusher trilogy. Overall, I think Fear X is the most accessible of the bunch. A slow mystery staring John Turturro that has shades of Lynchian and a touch of the Coen's work, although that might just be because of Turturro's…

”All that talk never prepared me for the reality.”

Fear X is like Memento without the backwards editing; surprisingly the former came out two years after the latter and YET STILL, there is not as much imagination or creativity.

To his credit, Nicolas Winding Refn cast good actors at least. Canadian-born Deborah Kara Unger ranks among one of the most underrated actresses of all time. Why she never received better scripts is beyond me. Refn also had the foresight to cast John Turturro as Harry, a man who is aiming to avenge his wife's death.

There's some thoughtful cinematography. There are some hallway scenes that evoke Refn's later Only God Forgives and Neon Demon. But then, they really evoke Stanley…

You can't change what was, what used to be.

Tuesday afternoon, it's Refn time, baby. For a good while of Fear X, I was sort of confused. Not with the film itself, but why it did so horribly in the States, very nearly sending our old buddy Nic into bankruptcy. It reminded me a lot of Memento, this twisty-turny thriller about a complicated man looking for the truth behind his wife's death. Sounds familiar, right? Then, after a certain point, the now infamous freaky side of Refn came out completely. More characters are introduced, the imagery gets trippy, and the way everything wraps up is, to say the least, ambiguous. Sort of tragically funny that Refn really thought this was…

Fear X toys with many ideas; the most prominent being metaphysical mystery, vigilante personas and the dangers of isolation, but it falls apart as Nicholas Winding Refn never successfully ties the three together. The narrative follows John Turturro as he internally implodes following the murder of his wife, observing him in his suburban Wisconsin (represent) habitat. Turturro is really stripped of all his usual actorly talents, but still feels at home in Refn's discordant tone, embodying the weird ambiance of the film in general. In a way, this is Refn's attempt to marry the thriller genre to his style of arthouse, constantly toying with each to make something new entirely. He made a puzzle, an intricately woven gestures, details, mannerisms,…

One of few movies to accurately portray the feeling of being gangstalked. This movie will make you feel like the satellite men are outside your house, burning your teeth and face and balls and penis with 5G rays. Impossible to believe that this was made by Winding Refn...I guess Drive (2011) is the odd man out, which I didn't expect. Maybe I owe Only God Forgives (2013) another shot? Maybe. But for now, what I know is that this movie is nuts and it really surprised me.

What starts off as basically just Lost Highway: Some Other Director's Cut evolves rather gracefully into a truly terrifying and so, so cold schizophrenic breakdown, meditating in unease on the concepts of obsession…

Obsession is a funny thing because you never know what it will lead to. It can lead to discovery, sure, but more often than not, it is dangerous. Such is the case here, and so Refn's focus on obsession and its effects is as meticulous as Harry's surveying of security camera footage. Both make for an immersive viewing experience is an immersive one -- immersive in the sense that the alienation from reality which Harry experiences is effective due to its tangibility. You can feel the unease as it builds, and even if you're prepared for it, there's a good chance you'll be caught be off-guard.

Is what is real just as real as what is imaged? This is an…

I saw a description of this as "if David Lynch directed Memento" and I don't entirely disagree with that assessment. Oftentimes something is called Lynchian whenever it's vaguely surreal (recent discourse around the new Marvel show has been mostly that). I'm not about to call myself a Lynch expert as a person who has only seen the pilot of Twin Peaks, but there's an intentional artificiality combined with those primary-colored sets for starters.

What I mean to say is that this feels Lynchian to me, like a lower budget Lynch, and it coming from Nicholas Winding Refn of all people was a huge surprise. I'll admit it: he's not my favorite. I like Drive well enough, but it often feels…