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Q&A
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A health expert turned filmmaker makes his East Coast premiere
CULTURE VULTURE
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The Pusher Trilogy
Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn
Review by Ethan Alter

Don't let the title fool you: "The Pusher Trilogy" isn't a trilogy in the "Lord of the Rings" or "Star Wars" sense of the word. Although these three Danish crime dramas are all set in the same city (Copenhagen) and feature some of the same characters, each film tells a stand-alone story that's only loosely linked to what has come before or what comes next. At the same time, writer/director Nicolas Winding Refn does employ a similar narrative structure in all three movies. Each installment finds a criminal getting involved in a drug deal that goes bad, landing him in debt to a more powerful associate. His subsequent efforts to climb out of the hole he's dug for himself only wind up making the situation worse. Ultimately, the respective stories end the only way they could: in violence.

Dope series: Nicolas Winding Refn's "The Pusher Trilogy" gives drug dealers three chances to score.

While this is the broad outline Refn follows throughout, the specific details vary from movie to movie. The original "Pusher" centers on dope dealer Frank (Kim Bodnia), who is made the target of a sting operation and ends up owing his supplier Milo (Zlatko Buric) a ridiculous amount of money. "Pusher II: With Blood on My Hands" follows Frank's former partner Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) as he attempts to make a name for himself amongst his gangster father's crew. Finally, Milo takes center stage in "Pusher III: I'm the Angel of Death," in which the now-older criminal finds his authority challenged by a couple of young guns on the eve of his beloved daughter's 25th birthday celebration.

Made over a period of almost ten years, "The Pusher Trilogy" allows viewers to observe Refn's evolution as a filmmaker. The director shot "Pusher" in 1996 at the age of 26 and the movie displays the hip nihilism of a young cineaste in love with the films of Scorsese and Tarantino. By the time he returned to the series in 2004, Refn was a family man in his mid-30s. It's no surprise then that the two sequels are emotionally richer than the first film, while remaining equally dark and disturbing (the finale of "Pusher III" is particularly gruesome). Be warned: it's difficult to watch one "Pusher" film without getting hooked on the whole series.