Too Old To Die Young Review: Dark and Nihilistic, With Infinite Style
Sometimes, waiting for a film of an admired filmmaker can be a long wait. In the case of Nicolas Winding Refn’s Too Old To Die Young, over twelve hours of his meticulous and specific style is a large shockwave.
The ten episode series, created by Refn and Ed Brubaker, is a crime thriller of a different sort, running on style and emotion and delivering an artistic vision of darkness consuming all it touches. At its center is Miles Teller as Martin Jones, a cop whose moonlighting as a killer for a gang leads down massive avenues of consequence he may not realize.
Augusto Aguilera co-stars as Jesus, who finds himself on the receiving end of Martin’s work and goes on a large-scale journey to reach his full potential, Cristina Rodlo’s Yaritza at his side. John Hawkes’ Viggo and Jena Malone’s Diana factor in as figures of import, as well, both entering Martin’s life and aligning to his way of thinking.
At first glance, it’s a grand tale of broken characters trying to right the world to their view. But the way Refn and Brubaker, through Refn’s direction, tell the story is much more intimate and driven by visuals and the style to the point of the story becoming almost secondary. It’s an atmosphere piece, through and through.
Its characters are outsiders looking in, people who have lost deep pieces of themselves. This can leave them appearing almost lifeless or lacking empathy. Some do suffer from that, certainly, to a fault; but it’s more that they are locked inside lives of moral ambiguity, where right and wrong are nowhere to be seen.
Some match the style better with their performances, while some prove a touch too unresponsive. Jena Malone continues to match Refn’s style with command, and John Hawkes becomes the quiet force of the season, this vulnerable but deadly shadow.
Miles Teller makes a compelling lead, though he sometimes falls into the pitfall of having nothing to do other than stand or sit there, as the scene requires. Sometimes his character works, others it leaves something to be desired.
The standout, though, comes in Cristina Rodlo’s Yaritza. Her performance dominates the entire run, a difficult character to read but endlessly fascinating to watch. She plays on character’s desires and stereotypes in order to gain footing, Yaritza becoming a more central piece to the puzzle of making the show work.
Some episodes come across as coda for Nicolas Winding Refn’s previous works. Some of the cartel storyline fits right in with the Pusher trilogy; some of the seedier points remind of The Neon Demon; and a lot of the long, stretched scenes are reminiscent of Only God Forgives. It all has the feel of links to past work.
None more so than the fifth episode, the standout of the bunch. There’s hints of unfinished business from his most popular work, Drive, a rage-filled 76 minutes of disturbing imagery and broken revenge, rising to a crescendo of a car chase and Barry Manilow.
The ten episodes may prove to be too nasty and mean-spirited for some. The treatment of women can be questionable at times, though the violence and cruelty does, over time, factor over to all of its characters. The show balances the questionable with strong-willed and fascinating characters, where women manage to become the power and swing the pendulum of control the opening hours showed no sign of, like with the previously mentioned Yaritza.
The show can also be slow and methodical, lethargic in its movement of both the camera and its characters. Refn loves a good tracking shot, filling it with so much visual information but nary a sign of story. Everything is done leisurely, letting moments breathe and play to their absolute sustainable size.
It’s near-impenetrable in one instant, and boundless and exciting in the next, almost uncharacteristically broad. But these all feel of the same cohesive story, this epic tale of two men lost in a cycle of violence and anger. Fight through the less cohesive moments, and there will be deeply rewarding moments, maybe not of character, but of artistic and cathartic release.
What you get, at the end of Too Old To Die Young‘s 754-minute runtime, is arthouse cinema within the confines of television. It’s not for everyone, perhaps gloriously so. This is the artist’s vision, touching on all his past work and placing nihilism at their absolute core.
The show is a lengthy dive into a dark and seedy idea: that things have to get a lot worse before they can get better. They get worse, potentially too far for a broader audience. But the voice and the style shine so brightly, marking Too Old To Die Young as a great, though flawed, season of television. Much like David Lynch’s Twin Peaks: The Return, it falls upon how far you will follow a creator down the rabbit hole.
What did you think of Too Old To Die Young? Share your thoughts in the comments below!
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Too Old To Die Young is now available on Amazon Prime Video.
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Kevin Lever
Kevin Lever has been following television closely for most of his life, but in starting to cover it, he has grown a further appreciation. He strives to give the blockbusters their due, and give the lesser known shows a spotlight to find more fans.