Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Nicolas Winding Refn
Cast
Kim Bodnia,
Mads Mikkelsen,
Laura Drasbæk,
Zlatko Burić,
Slavko Labović,
Peter Andersson
Genre
Action,
Crime,
Drama,
Thriller
A drug pusher botches a deal leaving him in debt to a ruthless drug lord. He becomes increasingly desperate, and he and his partner try to come up with the money while other drug movers sabotage their operations.
The A.V. Club by Noel Murray
As Refn counts down the days and ratchets up the tension, Pusher shifts from a subdued lowlife sketch, with lots of raunchy conversation between Buric and his horndog ex-con buddy Mads Mikkelsen, to a nail-biting look at a man running out of options.
Total Film
There's something rotten in Denmark, as Mean Streets meets GoodFellas in Copenhagen, and while it could never rival either of the above, this striking, powerfully gritty tale about a week in the life of a drug dealer is still well worth seeing. A promising debut.
Variety
The subject has been done before, but Refn avoids the cliches, both in the story itself and its telling.
Village Voice by Dennis Lim
As botched-drug-deal tales go, Pusher digs surprisingly deep— its surface clichés give way to an existential despair that finally swallows the movie whole.
Los Angeles Times by Robert Abele
The film practically vibrates with youthful aggression, sly humor and gathering tension, hurling itself forward like a junkie toward the next fix.
Variety by Gunnar Rehlin
The subject has been done before, but Refn avoids the cliches, both in the story itself and its telling.
Total Film by Staff [Not Credited]
There's something rotten in Denmark, as Mean Streets meets GoodFellas in Copenhagen, and while it could never rival either of the above, this striking, powerfully gritty tale about a week in the life of a drug dealer is still well worth seeing. A promising debut.
New York Magazine (Vulture) by David Edelstein
Each film in Nicolas Winding Refn's mesmerizingly brutal Pusher trilogy can stand on its own, but it's fun to see all three and observe the way the bad guys in one become the sympathetic heroes (or anti-heroes) in another.
Boston Globe
Refn's direction in Pusher exhibits an uncanny prescience for techniques that would peak a decade later as reality TV -- low-budget, digital video; the use of a tipsy, peripatetic camera; and a wide-angle lens to engulf all the action.
New York Post by V.A. Musetto
[Refn] mixes jittery hand-held camerawork, improvised dialogue and available light to create a nightmarish world of sex, drugs and horrific brutality that will turn off many viewers while delighting others.
Boston Globe by Ethan Gilsdorf
Refn's direction in Pusher exhibits an uncanny prescience for techniques that would peak a decade later as reality TV -- low-budget, digital video; the use of a tipsy, peripatetic camera; and a wide-angle lens to engulf all the action.
Salon by Andrew O'Hehir
Pusher begins as a fairly standard ’90s crime saga, almost an open imitation of Quentin Tarantino... But something happens on the way to the film’s haunting and ambiguous conclusion.
Empire
Despite the gritty subject matter, combined with some clichéd set pieces, interest is retained right through to the bleak end, largely due to the direction and Refn's handling of the excellent cast.
Empire by Wendy Richmond
Despite the gritty subject matter, combined with some clichéd set pieces, interest is retained right through to the bleak end, largely due to the direction and Refn's handling of the excellent cast.
The New York Times by Anita Gates
Mr. Refn may yet have justification for boasting about his natural talent. There is one magnificent scene in Pusher... Maybe Mr. Refn's next film will take us into that emotional territory.
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