The Neon Demon is the salacious antidote to our summer blockbuster disease

This is gaudy, grotesque fun

The Neon Demon is a visually incredible experience.
(Image credit: The Neon Demon/EPK)

After the slick-as-chrome Drive (2011), a neo-noir thriller about small-time criminals, director Nicolas Winding Refn was supposed to be The Next Big Thing.

The Danish auteur had been crafting lugubrious arthouse thrillers about drug peddlers and Kenneth Anger-inspired norse warriors for 15 years, but didn't have an American hit until Drive, which made more than $70 million on a budget of $14 million and won Best Director honors at Cannes. Drive starred pretty boy Notebook heartthrob (and Oscar nominee) Ryan Gosling, who asked Refn to direct the film. Communicating in clipped, terse intonations and slight facial tics, Gosling transmogrified into a stoic, face-stomping (but still very pretty) cipher with wonderful sartorial taste. GQ fell in love with Gosling's denim-on-denim style and music fans fell in love with the dream-pop soundtrack. Movie writers hypothesized that Refn, with his penchant for high-contrast, deeply saturated colors (he's colorblind), synth-laden scores, and gloriously gaudy violence, would become Hollywood's most sought-after director. They were wrong.

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Greg Cwik

Greg Cwik is a writer and editor. His work appears at Vulture, Playboy, Entertainment Weekly, The Believer, The AV Club, and other good places.