The final film of Danish writer/ director Nicolas Winding Refn’s gripping Pusher trilogy, which weaves its way through the seedy underbelly of the Copenhagen streets, is also the most compelling. Often sustained heart attackes, the tension in these films is almost intolerable as one wrong decision or act of misfortune drags our (anti)hero into a spiral of self destruction. We saw it with Frank in Pusher 1 and Tonny in Pusher 2. In Pusher 3 we spend 24 hours with Milo, who you would be familiar with from the previous films. Again he’s a drug dealer, however he’s also a respectable businessman with his own club and house in the burbs. We open with him at a narcotics anonymous meeting, at first you think he’s just looking for people to sell to (yes these films are that nasty), yet it quickly becomes clear that he’s genuinely attempting to curb his own addiction. It also becomes clear that because this is a Pusher film that he is unlikely to succeed. If anything it’s an early tell for the audience of his Achilles heel This film is a domino affect, where in preparing for his daughters 25th birthday celebrations he cooks up some food making his underlings sick, thereby sealing his fate. That simple. But how it all unravels is harrowing high stakes stuff. It’s almost impossible to breath as Milo attempts to negotiate his daughters birthday celebrations and the increasingly difficult situation he finds himself in. This is violent nasty and very very clever filmmaking.
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