Her Private Hell Review – 'A Load of Old Bollocks'
The review says the film leans on surreal visuals while its narrative remains thin, with comparisons to Pink Narcissus and a cast led by Charles Melton and Sophie Thatcher.
- On Friday, September 25, director Nicolas Winding Refn's Her Private Hell debuts in cinemas following previews on Wednesday, September 23, marking his first theatrical release a decade after The Neon Demon.
- Sophie Thatcher portrays Elle, a human void distant from her father, Johnny Thunders, played by Dougray Scott, while Havana Rose Liu appears as stepmother Dominique alongside Kristine Froseth's influencer character, Hunter.
- Critics noted the narrative feels random and the visuals lack the impact of Refn's past works such as Only God Forgives, with the reviewer describing the film as a "horrible cheese dream".
- Comparisons are drawn to the 1971 surrealist work Pink Narcissus, featuring Charles Melton as an American GI called Private, though the reviewer noted the choppy dialogue remains difficult to assemble.
- Reporting from the Cannes screening, the critic described the film as "a step too far", concluding the project fails to compensate for its lack of coherent narrative with visual brilliance.
15 Articles
15 Articles
Her Private Hell Review – 'A load of old bollocks'
“People will say I’ve become unrelatable,” worries one character in Her Private Hell. This doesn’t feel like an anxiety that Danish filmmaker Nicholas Winding Refn has ever struggled with. He wasn’t especially relatable when making gritty crime dramas like Pusher and Bronson. His breakthrough film, the Ryan Gosling thriller Drive, deployed taciturn masculinity and ultraviolence alongside cool detachment. His work since then has become increasing…
ledauphine.com
Her Private Hell, in theaters this Wednesday, marks the return of filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, after 10 years of absence and having nearly died, in a science-fiction with neon, of a strange freezing and an infernal beauty.
The filmmaker permanently abandons Drive's pop pulses to dig the mystical, cruel and contemplative path of Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon.
Ten years after his last feature film, the Danish filmmaker recycles his personal obsessions in a fable as hazy as it is boring.
This surrealist thriller presents a dark fantasy with a brutal killer, leaving an end open to interpretations.
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