TIFF Report: Pusher Review
Nicolas Winding Refn's debut film caused quite a stir in his native Denmark on its release in 1996 and for good reason. Pusher is a grim, stylish look at Copenhagen's seamy underbelly, an aspect of Danish culture not often explored, and with it's richly complex characters, stunningly intimate cinematography and style to burn it was a brash, confident debut that marked the explosion of a huge new talent onto the scene. But hold up a second ... if Pusher was made in 1996 why is it screening at a 2005 film festival? Simple enough ... over the past year Refn has revisted his cast of characters to generate not one but two sequels to the original film and in the process created a trilogy of crime films that rank amongst the world's very best. Knowing a good thing when they see it the Toronto Film Festival programmers have brought the entire trilogy over and are screening them back to back to back for the cost of a single admission. Mark my words: this is the best ticket of the entire festival.
Pusher stars ScreenAnarchy favorite Kim Bodnia as Frank, a low level street dealer in Copenhagen. Frank's life is pretty sweet ... he's got a steady supply of customers, a good relationship with his supplier and a healthy bank roll stashed away. His life largely consists of tooling around the city streets with his partner in crime, Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen, another ScreenAnarchy fave), and just generally refusing to grow up. But in the drug world when things go bad they go bad fast ... Frank has a major sale on the line, so major that he can't afford to make the buy with the cash he has on hand and picks up the drugs on credit, with the understanding that he will be back in a couple hours to pay the bill. When the deal goes sour and the cops move in Frank makes a break for it, eventually making it to a river where he wades in and ditches the drugs before the cops can catch up. But now Frank has no drugs, no cash and Milo, his angry Serbian drug supplier, to contend with. Making matters even worse the weak-willed Tonny has agreed to sign a statement against Frank to save his own skin. The film then follows Frank through the next several days of increasing panic as he frantically tries to find a way to put things right with Milo ...
The launches with an immediate kick of adrenaline as Refn blares loud rock music and presents each of his characters standing motionless under harsh lighting to introduce the entire cast before moving into the body of the film. While his camera is largely handheld and DV - both typical of Danish film these days - he weilds it with a fluorish, embracing stylish moves to an extent that few do on either side of the pond. But for all the circling shots, car rigs and pounding music Refn knows exactly where his real strength lies: his characters and the brilliant cast he has assembled to play them. There are any number of films that follow similar plot lines to Pusher, what sets this apart is that Refn has struck a flawless balance between criminal activity and human character. He knows full well that the film won't have any punch unless we care about these people and he gives every one of them ample time to breath. We see pretty quickly that these aren't really bad people, per se, just generally hopeless and desperate ones forced to extreme measures to try and get by. As a result they make a deep impact as we invest ourselves in them and share in Frank's panic and fear.
Kim Bodnia, who admittedly can be a bit hit and miss in his roles, turns in the performance of his life in this film, a performance he has only rivalled with his leading turn in Refn's sophomore film Bleeder. Frank is a bundle of contradictions: deeply loyal to his friends but capable of extreme anger and violence when turned upon, in love with a stripper but so offended by her job that he refuses to sleep with her, a schemer who is nonetheless surprisingly trusting of people. Bodnia takes Frank, who could easily have come across as a thuggish goon and makes him tangible and real. Mikkelsen is typically strong as Tonny - a role he would reprise to devastating effect in Pusher 2 - as is Zlatko Buric as drug lord Milo.
Refn's sense of style makes Pusher an exhilerating ride from start to finish. His skill as a writer and his actors' skill as performers give the film a depth that will ensure it sticks with you well beyond the haunting final frame. Absolutely not to be missed.
