#byNWR. Auteur. Provocateur. Crazy Dane. Pick your favorite describer for filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, and it probably will fit. This week the self proclaimed hashtag, NWR, or #byNWR, gets his own episode as Jim and his guest, Bill Muir, discuss the works of Refn, and the debate begins now.
Admittedly Jim and Bill have not caught up with Refn’s early works, The Pusher trilogy or Valhalla Rising, but Bill watched Bronson, and then Jim and Bill watched everything else.
What’s in store for you, the listener, in this episode? Well..first the laughs. If you’ve caught any of the Bill co-hosted episodes from the summer, you know that Jim and Bill like to kid each other about, pretty much everything. And if you like that, well good news–there’s more in store for you. If you didn’t, good news is there’s less of that in this episode, and more on #NWR.
But Jim and Bill discuss Refn’s US breakthrough, Drive, and then Bill puts up a valid defense of Only God Forgives. Jim and Bill both enjoyed The Neon Demon, and then for the main course, Jim and Bill take a deep dive into #NWR’s limited Amazon Prime series, Too Old to Die Young. There are some debates between the two, but ultimately they each enjoyed #NWR’s meditation on evil, with its breakout performance by Cristina Rodlo, and great performances all around from Miles Teller, Augusto Aguilera, Nell Tiger Free, Jena Malone, John Hawkes, Babs Olusanmokum, William Baldwin, and Hart Bochner. There are some real insane things to be encountered when one takes on Too Old to Die Young, but for those not afraid of a challenge, it may just be up your ally.
