Nicolas Winding Refn has found a trio of talented actresses in Christina Hendricks, Jena Malone and Bella Heathcoat to join his new film The Neon Demon, based on a script by Refn and Mary Laws. They join Elle Fanning and Abbey Lee, whose involvement was announced earlier. Also signed on is Keanu Reeves who is usually at his best when working with visually arresting filmmakers such as Refn.

The Neon Demon, described as a female-centric “horror film about vicious beauty,” will hopefully be yet another interesting entry in Refn’s filmography. Shooting begins at the end of March in Los Angeles, delightful news for anyone anxious to see the filmmaker return to the setting he captured so well with 2011’s Drive.

Directed by Anurag Kashyap, Gangs of Wasseypur—released in two parts, each nearly three hours in length—attempts to chronicle the violence and corruption in the criminal underworld of this impoverished region of India. Both parts of the film are narrated by Nasir Ahmed (Piyush Mishra), an assistant to Shahid Khan, who continues to stay with the Khan family through their conflict with Ramadhir Singh. The majority of Gangs of Wasseypur Part One tells the story of Shahid Khan whilst the Gangs of Wasseypur Part Two focuses on the Khan families continued war with Singh.

Gangs of Wasseypur, begins with Shahid Khan who, after being thrown out of his village, finds himself working as a hired muscle for Ramadhir Singh, an industrialist who has made a fortune out of mining coal. However, fearing that one day his ‘lapdog’ may replace him at the top of the food chain Ramadhir Singh has Shahid Khan killed. This death has disastrous consequences for Singh, leading to a bloody conflict with Khan’s son Sardar, the feud between the two spanning across generations.

Given the length of Gangs of Wasseypur, it would be fair to say Kashyap is not a filmmaker who attempts to tell a story concisely. As is the case with any story of this length, keeping the audience engaged is something of a challenge and sadly throughout its running time Gangs of Wasseypur feels saddled by exhaustive levels of exposition. The reason for this is that Kashyap is very keen to establish context, with every crime explained in forensic detail, and placed in the context of the changing political and social landscape of the region. At times this offers an interesting insight into the history of India. However, it is detrimental to the narrative, causing it to lack pace, and leads to the film feeling overburdened by the scale of the story it is trying to tell.

However, Kashyap is clearly not a filmmaker without talent. Throughout both films he cleverly inverts the utopian themes of Bollywood, by juxtaposing classic Bollywood songs with images of violence and corruption on the streets of Wasseypur. This idea of the contrast between Bollywood and reality is further reinforced later in the film by Ramadhir Singh who decries all those who are ‘fooled’ by Bollywood film, exclaiming ‘every fucker trying to become the hero, in his own imaginary film.’ Despite the film’s claims towards realism the excessive violence in Gangs of Wasseypur borders on surrealism. Reminiscent of the work of Nicolas Winding Refn, this provocative portrayal of violence gives the film a similar visceral appeal, yet it also lessens the impact of the film as piece of political commentary. It is another example of Kashyap trying to appeal on too many fronts. The film shifts in tone with conflicting messages, becoming confusing and disorienting.

Despite a commendable performance from its cast, in both parts, Gangs of Wasseypur also suffers from a lack of charm or relatable characters to identify with. In Gangs of Wasseypur Part One, in particular, the desire to see Sardar Khan avenge his father loses its impact when interest in his character is hard to maintain. The female characters, when they do come to the surface, are empathetic but too often reduced to the sidelines of the story.

In the end, both parts of Gangs of Wasseypur disappoint. Kashyap is a director who clearly has a keen-eye for conveying violence, and the clever soundtrack hints at a real talent. However, Gangs of Wasseypur is laborious and overly long, its convoluted plot and lack of empathetic characters makes it a challenge to sit through.

Nicolas Winding Refn, who delighted many film-goers with Drive and alienated them with Only God Forgives (our review), has announced his next project, and it is a doozy. The Danish auteur will next make I Walk with the Dead, his first straight-on attempt at horror. The project has long been in development, though Refn finally broke the silence this morning from his twitter account.

Even you are tired of the whole zombie phase we are living through, you have to admit that I Walk with the Dead has a lot of potential. Refn’s stylish brand of filmmaking totally does not compute with the established zombie genre (his synth heavy, violent art films have been seen over and over again in vampire flicks), so there is a lot of room for originality.

More promising, however, is the news that I Walk with the Dead will feature an all-female cast, led by Drive co-star Carey Mulligan. Refn’s films have often been called out as misogynist, at the very least not friendly to his female characters, and so it is great to see a filmmaker responding to criticism by tackling the problems head on. Refn has always been a challenging filmmaker, but now he’s taking on a challenge himself.

In Jodorowsky’s Dune, a documentary about Alejandro Jodorowsky’s failed 1970’s adaptation of the acclaimed sci-fi novel by Frank Herbert, the Chilean-born director–essentially a talking head throughout the film–is more captivating in his musings than most actors are in sweeping, Oscar-bait dramas. It’s delightful to watch Jodorowsky, perpetually impassioned, chronicling the history of the impossibly ambitious production of his mind-altering magnum opus, which ultimately crumbled in his hands and never saw the light of day.

Jodorowsky’s dreams were as big as anybody’s. With Dune, he wanted sober audiences to feel the exact effects of LSD. He wanted to hurtle us through the cosmos in one long shot, blowing Orson Wells’ opening tracking shot in Touch of Evil out of the water. He wanted to open the minds of young people to new frontiers previously unreachable and spark an intellectual revolution. He wanted to fill the screen with gigantic sci-fi creatures that would be hard to film by today’s standards.

He equated his adaptation of Dune to “the coming of a god.”

Egotistical? Maybe. Crazy? Many thought as much. But his passion and self-belief is undeniably fascinating. Despite Herbert’s novel being considered unfilmable at the time, Jodorowsky (now 85 years of age) was never swayed in his desire to bring his vision to light. (In an endearing moment that speaks to Jodorowsky’s character, he admits with a giggle to not having read the book prior to embarking on his filmic quest.) But he needed a team of people just as kooky as him to get the project off the ground. “Spiritual warriors” he called them. French producer Michel Seydoux, a fan of Jodorowsky’s films, particularly the experimental The Holy Mountain, was his primary confidant and the man who got the ball rolling, financially.

Subsequently Jodorowsky wrote the script (in a castle in France, of course), employed the design talents of H.R. Giger comic book artist Jean Giraud (better known as “Mœbius”) to create the look of the film, got Pink Floyd to do the music (after scolding them for eating cheeseburgers at their meeting), and somehow managed to wrangle Salvador Dali, Mick Jagger, and Orson Wells himself for his cast. This was clearly destined to be the most delightfully nutty sci-fi movie of all time.

With the help of Mœbius, Jodorowsky created a beautiful book comprised of gaudy, elaborate costume designs, detailed storyboards, and gorgeous concept art, that essentially laid out his vision of the film in its entirety. These books, of which there are only a handful in existence, were shopped around to studios in lieu of a traditional movie pitch. Despite the impressive presentation of these coffee table film bibles, none of the studios bit, spelling Dune‘s doom.

Is the legend of “the greatest movie never made” a tragedy or triumph? Perhaps it’s both, but Jodorowsky’s Dune director Frank Pavich leans toward the latter. The documentary focuses on Jodorowsky’s brilliance and brio, with his interview segments stealing the show. He looks fondly on the time he spent developing his failed film with his spirit warrior partners. Only once does he shed his smile, letting out a bit of rage as he curses the stupidity of the studio execs who didn’t take a chance on Dune. The cheerful audacity of some of Jodorowsky’s philosophical statements are shocking, especially one in which he likens the creative process to rape.

Also interesting are the sections of Pavich’s film that concern the “what if?” factor. If Jodorowsky was able to pull Dune off, would Star Wars have failed to launch? Pavich animates some of Mœbius’ sketches to give us a taste of what the film would have looked like, a tease that will likely have geeks around the world salivating in their seats. Despite the weirdness and creative ambition of Jodorowsky’s project, Pavich’s storytelling is mostly conventional, laying everything out in a straight line, clean and clear as crystal, a style that doesn’t reflect the giant ambition of its subject matter, but makes sure that Jodorowsky’s strange ideologies and expansive ideas are digestible for wide audiences.

Jodorowsky’s Dune is a hopeful documentary, pointing to the fact that Jodorowsky’s unfilmed masterpiece will never be dead in the water, so long as his “how-to” book exists. Jodorowsky himself states in the film that he would be happy for another director to pick up where he left off and bring his creation to life, even if it happens after his passing. In the doc, Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn recalls an unforgettable night in which Jodorowsky (a close friend and mentor of his) personally walked him through his famous Dune book page by page, making him one of the only people in the world to have ever “seen”, in a way, Jodorowsky’s masterpiece. Refn seems like a worthy candidate to me…

Jodorowsky’s Dune trailer

Only God Forgives is another highly-stylized film from director Nicholas Winding Refn that stars Ryan Gosling as the lead. Gosling’s character pretty much picks up where he left off in Drive, playing an emotionless badass with few words, trading hobbies of driving for boxing. Due to the sensory obsessed visuals in the film, Only God Forgives is admiringly intoxicating. However, what the film excels at with its display, it lacks in with its narrative.

The story begins when Julian (Ryan Gosling) finds out that his brother Billy (Tom Burke), who co-operates the Thai boxing club and drug trafficking business they run, is murdered for raping and killing a young Thai prostitute. A reoccurring theme in Only God Forgives is that all deaths are violent and brutal, and Billy’s death is no exception. Police Chief Chang’s (Vithaya Pansringarm) idea of justice is to lock Billy in a room with the deceased’s father for him to retaliate on Billy by beating him to death. The result of this sets Julian in action to hunt down Chang to seek revenge; if you can call it that since Billy arguably got what he deserved.

Refn wants to make sure the audience knows that its characters are not only dangerous, but also highly unpredictable. One of the ways he achieves this is by having Chang turn the table on the father that he just helped. He blames the death of the daughter partly on him for knowing and allowing her to be a prostitute. And just like that, Chang chops off the father’s arm.

I cannot help but wonder if a little more action and a little less violence would have made for a more satisfying watch. Refn constantly reminds the audience that these characters are both ruthless and unpredictable, but continues to do so long after it is well-established. For example, we must watch Chang ever so slowly disfigure a man, one appendage at a time. And it may sound like I am against the violence found in the film, which I am not. I just think it is forcefully overstated here.

One of the first things you will likely notice is the red filter that is backlit on many scenes, especially early on, as if to foreshadow the blood bath that is about to occur. Matching the stunning visuals is the hypnotic score that fits perfectly; something that Refn tends to do very well. He wisely brings back Cliff Martinez from Drive to compose the unsettling score.

Only God Forgives is methodically paced, save for sudden outbursts of ruthless violence from time to time. The film resembles a jack-in-the-box as most of the time you know what is going to happen, just not when it is going to happen. The ending feels abrupt and rushed, which is actually a bit bizarre as Gosling moves so turtle like that you mistake many of his scenes to be in slow motion. The weak ending might be because it used its great showdown between characters in the middle of the film, which feels out of place and leaves for a rather anticlimactic ending. Though some broad elements from Drive are present in Only God Forgives, fans of one will by no means guarantees that you will be a fan of the other.