12 Movies That Tried Too Hard To Innovate (And Sucked Anyway)
11. Only God Forgives
Only God Forgives was Nicolas Winding Refn's follow-up to his brilliant 2011 movie Drive but despite having a similar image-driven, dialogue-light style to Drive, Only God Forgives completely failed where Drive worked so well. Why? Because, just like Terrence Malick with the aforementioned The Tree of Life, Refn got carried away.
Drive had a simple, grounded story where the characters' emotions and relationships were always clear; in contrast, Only God Forgives is far too self-indulgent to work.
Filled with surreal, confusing moments and even featuring a character who is literally meant to be God, Only God Forgives is just a pretentious mess and an unsuccessful venture for its enormously talented director.
Looking on the bright side, Refn's next film The Neon Demon was a bounce back for him, partly because it avoided going into such confusing, over-the-top territory like Only God Forgives did and had a simpler story-line.