To compare it to an English-language deconstructive film, it does for the gangster genrewhatJarheaddid for the war genre.

It’s a shocking and upsetting crime film at times, but also an engrossing one.

It’s a bold and beautiful film, and hugely impressive considering it was Malick’s feature debut.

Only God Forgives movie poster

Image via Wild Side Films

NEXT:The Best Gangster Movies from Hollywood’s Golden Age, Ranked

Ryan Gosling in ‘Only God Forgives’

Image via Film District

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Cast Placeholder Image

Michel Poiccard  and Patricia Franchini walking side by side in Breathless

Image via StudioCanal

Sonatine - 1993

Image via Shochiku

Fallen Angels

Image via Fallen Angels

Blue Velvet’ (1986)  (1)

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Anna Karina as Odile, Sami Frey as Franz, and Claude Brasseur as Arther in Band of Ousiders

Image via Columbia Pictures

Joaquin Phoenix looking forward while sitting next to Ekaterina Samson who is looking down in You Were Never Really Here

Image via Amazon Studios

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The Cook, the Thief, His Wife & Her Lover - 1989 (1)

Image via Palace Pictures

Badlands - 1973

Image via Warner Bros.

Alain Delon as Jef Costello with a gun pointed to his face in the 1967 film Le Samouraï.

Image via S.N. Prodis

Only God Forgives