Nicolas Winding Refn seems to have cornered himself in an unwinnable dilemma after the success of 2011’s “Drive.” Before that film’s resounding critical and commercial success, Refn was mostly an unheralded cult filmmaker with a knack for extreme violence. That reputation fit him perfectly. “Drive” changed that, audiences ate up its highly-stylized, revenge-fantasy fairy tale, and now, with every movie Refn releases, there comes unfair expectations. “Drive” was an accessible film which used the director’s specific aesthetics and made him gain more followers in the process. The problem was that he followed up that film with “Only God Forgives,” and “The Neon Demon,” two projects that were far less accessible to the masses. Refn has even acknowledged that he doesn’t want to do “Drive” again, and for good reason, the success of that film was almost, partly, a mistake, it wasn’t supposed to be that popular, but it struck a chord with audiences and, consequentially, resulted in numerous rip-offs.
This latest opus from the Danish writer-director, titled “Too Old to Die Young,” will premiere on television in June. It will probably have a few of its episodes premiering at Cannes this coming May. The trailer was just released and, well, it looks very Refn-esque. It stars Miles Teller (“Yo Whiplash”) as “a grieving police officer who, along with the man who shot his partner, finds himself in an underworld filled with working-class hit men, Yakuza soldiers, cartel assassins sent from Mexico, Russian mafia captains and gangs of teen killers.