With its pop-cultural savvy and gritty, pared-down visuals, the work of Danish-born, American-bred director Nicolas Winding Refn plays like Lars von Trier scrapping with Quentin Tarantino.
Pusher is the more impressive of this double bill, casting Kim Bodnia as a drug dealer desperate for dough after a deal goes awry. Capturing the uneasy atmosphere of criminal camaraderie, it's a finely acted, unflinching thriller, which ticks along tensely until a bloody denouement.
Many of the same actors (Mads Mikkelsen, Zlatko Buric) return for Bleeder, the second part of Refn's planned trilogy on low-life in Copenhagen (which looks like Portsmouth with piles). Focusing on four film-loving friends in dead-end jobs, it's a sombre, heavygoing reflection on masculinity, poverty and violence. Admirable and all that, but you'd still rather watch Reservoir Dogs.
