Few filmmakers’ careers fall into two halves like Nicolas Winding Refn’s. Chaos and a palpable sense of inescapable grime characterize the first half of the Danish director’s oeuvre, while a sleek, hyper-composed, and often glacially paced style marks his later work as some of the most recognizable of any filmmaker working today.
But both sides of his filmography offer some of the best films of the last thirty years, and his recent turn to streaming makes Refn one of the most fascinating filmmakers working today. Here, we’ll look at all ten of Nicolas Winding Refn’s feature films and his two streaming shows, ranking his output thus far.
1. Drive (2011)
Based on the novel of the same name by James Sallis, Drive claimed iconic status upon release. The film follows Ryan Gosling as an unnamed “Driver” who gets drawn into a dangerous situation with Los Angeles’s organized crime underworld after a robbery job gone wrong. But things aren’t only about Driver getting out safely, and Drive isn’t only a hyper-stylized crime movie, it’s also a romance.
The first part of the film tracks Driver and his neighbor Irene (Carey Mulligan) as they develop a romance, while the second takes a turn into artfully directed action. Nicolas Winding Refn’s stunning direction makes both aspects of the film impossible to look away from.
2. Too Old To Die Young (2019)
Nicolas Winding Refn’s first streaming show, Too Old to Die Young’s ten-episode run, clocks in at more than twelve and a half hours because the filmmaker allows every scene, every line of dialogue even, to breathe. The show’s slow pace challenges viewers, with several moments that might have audiences wondering if they accidentally paused. But his focus on still images marks the show as perhaps the most Refn project in his filmography. Too Old to Die Young is also Nicolas Winding Refn’s most political work, with themes ranging from rising fascism in the United States to the systemic abuse of women and children.
The show follows corrupt LAPD officer Martin Jones (Miles Teller) and Mexican Cartel leader Jesus Rojas (Augusto Aguilera) as their lives are tied together when Martin kills Jesus’s mother. As the show continues, other characters become prominent as well, including the witch Diana (Jena Malone), her triggerman Viggo (John Hawkes), and the enigmatic Yaritza (Cristina Rodlo), who allies herself with Jesus. There’s nothing like Too Old to Die Young, in Refn’s filmography or otherwise, which gives it unique appeal.
3. Fear X (2003)
Building on an original script from Hubert Selby Jr., author of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream, Refn developed Fear X into one of the most unnerving and mysterious films of the 2000s. The film follows John Turturro as mall security guard Harry, who grows obsessed with discovering who killed his wife and a DEA agent during a shooting at the mall where he works.
But far from a straightforward murder mystery, Fear X wallows in atmosphere and ambiguity. Several plot points are inexplicable, and when Harry finds a clue that leads him to a small town in Montana, the film becomes almost fantastical. The film draws significant inspiration from the work of David Lynch, creating a world that looks like ours but isn’t quite right. Refn’s control of the atmosphere and Turturro’s lead performance make Fear X a brilliant, genre-defying film.
4. The Neon Demon (2016)
It makes perfect sense that a filmmaker as obsessed with beauty as Nicolas Winding Refn would make a film about the nature of beauty and what it means. The Neon Demon tells the story of the mysterious and alluring sixteen-year-old Jesse (Elle Fanning), who moves to Los Angeles to become a model. It doesn’t take long for other models, photographers, and makeup artist Ruby (Jena Malone) to notice her, and soon she’s the talk of the town.
But that kind of attention places a target on Jesse’s back. She begins to face threats from those who want to eliminate her as competition, as well as those who wish to possess her (including Keanu Reeves as a predatory motel manager). The Neon Demon remains Refn’s only outright horror film and his only feature to focus on women, with significant contributions from women behind the camera. But that focus raises questions of whether the film is feminist, misogynist, or somehow both for several commentators. Whatever The Neon Demon’s message, it’s undoubtedly one of the most visually striking films in Nicolas Winding Refn’s filmography.
5. Only God Forgives (2013)
Ryan Gosling re-teamed with Nicolas Winding Refn after the success of Drive for a much more abstract and often alienating film. Only God Forgives pushes the boundaries of extreme violence, narrative comprehensibility, and good taste. The film centers on American drug dealer Julian (Gosling) in Bangkok, whose mother forces him to seek revenge for the death of his brother Billy (Tom Burke). But Billy’s death wasn’t part of the usual drug-related violence; the father of a young woman killed Billy after Billy killed his child.
To make things more complicated, a mysterious Thai police officer played a key part in Billy’s murder, offering the father the opportunity for revenge. When Julian’s mother arrives and demands justice for her dead son, with significant suggestions of having lost a partner in an incestual relationship, Julian must face off against a man who may be divine.
Only God Forgives stands out as the most difficult-to-watch film in Refn’s filmography. But it’s also one of the most rewarding for those interested in pushing themselves.
6. Pusher (1996)
Refn’s first film, Pusher remains his most energetic. Pusher places its titular pusher, drug dealer Frank (Kim Bodnia), in a race against time after the police force him to dump a significant stash, and he hurries to get together the money he owes his supplier. The film tracks Frank through the Copenhagen underworld as he seeks help from his fellow dealer and best friend Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen in his first feature film), semi-girlfriend Vic (Laura Drasbæk), and others.
As Frank scrambles to raise funds, Pusher also shows what his supplier Milo (Zlatko Burić) and his right-hand enforcer Radovan (Slavko Labović) do to get their money back. The scenes with Frank’s pursuers have a brutality to them, as Radovan is very willing to hurt people. But these scenes also include some lovely character moments where the two discuss opening a restaurant. Pusher rarely lets its audience breathe, but when it does, it takes those moments to develop and humanize the characters of its violent world.
7. Valhalla Rising (2009)
A turning point in Refn’s career, Valhalla Rising begins the director’s love affair with the kinds of long, drawn-out scenes with minimal dialogue that characterize the latter half of his career. The film also falls into a strange space visually. It’s much crisper than his grainy early films but takes place in an unknown, barren wilderness during the twelfth century. This compliment creates a disconnect between the clarity of the images and the filth that sometimes literally covers characters.
The film’s story centers on a non-speaking Norse warrior called One-Eye (Mikkelsen again) and a young boy who travel with a group of Crusaders seeking the Holy Land. The travelers get lost in an all-consuming fog and don’t know where they have arrived once they find land, but the Christian leader argues that they should conquer the land in the name of God. Valhalla Rising uses this narrative to explore themes of religion and its relationship to violence, delivering one of the most thought-provoking and viscerally thrilling films about faith.
8. Bronson (2008)
The only biopic in Refn’s filmography thus far, Bronson tells the true story of Britain’s most violent criminal, Michael Peterson, who took the name Charles Bronson from the actor. Tom Hardy plays Peterson in one of his most electrifying performances, relishing in surreal sequences that see Peterson speaking directly to the audience in a theatrical setting.
That theatrical setting allows Peterson to introduce and comment on the vignettes that make up the film, often lending humor to the violent actions we see. Bronson stands out as one of the most unique biopics ever made, not only for the peculiarity of its central figure but also because of Nicolas Winding Refn’s directorial choices and Hardy’s incredibly physical performance.
9. Pusher 3 (2005)
Nicolas Winding Refn never intended for Pusher to have sequels. After making a flop with Fear X, Refin needed to make some money, so he returned to the world he’d created with his first film and formed a trilogy. Neither the second nor the third film are as downright pulse-pounding as the first, but they have their charms. Pusher 3 centers on Milo (once again played by Burić) as he simultaneously attempts to sell off a shipment of ecstasy he received in place of his usual heroin and cook a party-sized meal for his daughter’s 25th birthday. Suffice it to say that he struggles to achieve both goals.
The film introduces absurd humor into the grimy Copenhagen underworld, with an extended sequence of body disposal that features some downright silly moments. But it doesn’t shy away from the horrors of the underworld either, paralleling Milo’s spoiled daughter with a young trafficked girl in one scene. It’s a strange film, but Burić’s performance and the offbeat sense of humor make it the second-best of the series.
10. Pusher II (2004)
Pusher II shifts focus from the first film to Tonny (Mikkelsen) and functions more as a character study than a crime thriller. The movie tracks Tonny as he gets out of prison (again) and attempts to become a more responsible, but not non-criminal, person. He gets a job working for his father, a gangster known as The Duke (Leif Sylvester), at a garage. He learns that he has a child and begins to care for the baby, but he makes a fool of himself when he has a public fight with the child’s mother in the middle of a party.
Pusher II portrays a man who wants to do and be better for those around him but is always his worst enemy. It’s an affecting drama that just so happens to take place in the same Copenhagen underworld as the first Pusher film. Mikkelsen gives a devastating performance.
11. Bleeder (1999)
Refn’s second film reunites Bodnia, Mikkelsen, and Burić in a film that takes time to develop. Bleeder starts as a small-scale drama about video rental store clerk Lenny (Mikkelsen), his coworker and fellow cinephile Kitjo (Burić), and their friend Leo (Bodnia). But as the film goes on, Lenny and Leo’s stories begin to fracture in both narrative and tone.
Leo has a baby on the way and becomes more volatile, with his pregnant girlfriend and her brother leading him down a path toward violence. On the other hand, Lenny works on getting up the courage to speak with, ask out, and then actually go on a date with nearby diner worker Lea (Liv Corfixen). That split makes Bleeder a fascinating film. Sadly, neither storyline delivers the same level of excitement, striking images, or affecting character portraits as his best work.
12. Copenhagen Cowboy (2023)
After years away from Copenhagen and its grimy underworld, Refn returned with his most recent project and second streaming show, Copenhagen Cowboy. The six-episode show will interest fans of Refn as it combines his more recent slow pacing and extremely crisp cinematography with the subject and setting of his early work. The show fails to succeed, in part, because the first two episodes play out in a brothel, and its many threads never cohere into something engaging.
The show isn’t a total failure, though. Some ideas in Copenhagen Cowboy promise something more interesting. The show, which follows a potentially supernaturally gifted young Miu (Angela Bundalovic) as she makes her way through Copenhagen’s criminal underworld, hints at blood feuds, vampires, aliens, and more. But it leaves those elements oblique instead of focusing on a more cliche story of Miu helping a woman retrieve her child from a gangster. Like all of Refn’s output since Drive, it features stunning visuals in every frame.
Film and TV Critic, Pop Culture Writer
Expertise: Horror, Animation, Queer Film
Education: Master’s Degree in Philosophy from Boston College, Dual Bachelor’s Degree in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston College
Organizer of Queer Film Challenge on Letterboxd
Over 200 reviews, essays, articles, and lists across various sites
Experience: Kyle Logan has been writing about film since studying film and philosophy as an undergraduate at Boston College. Kyle began writing about film professionally in 2020 and has written for many sites including Screen Anarchy, Film Stories, and Fangoria. Kyle has also organized the Queer Film Challenge on Letterboxd since 2020, highlighting the queer history of film and bringing attention to rising queer filmmakers. Kyle now works full time with Wealth of Geeks, contributing lists, reviews, and podcast appearances on topics as varied as film, travel, and Halloween candy.