Spanish filmmaker Luis Prieto had a
tall order to fill with Pusher. Which is a British remake of the 1996
Danish Nicolas Winding Refn film of the same name. I was highly
skeptical about this picture, considering the the original Pusher is
a highly regarded film and personally one of my favorite Refn films.
Starting out with the biggest differences between the two is the
original Pusher took place in the deep dark belly of the Danish
underworld. While the remake is much more glitzy and glamorous,
taking place in many high end techno blasting night clubs. It ditches
the grit for a more stylized approach which actually works for the
film. The music is another huge part of the films success, composed
by British dance band “Orbital”. The techno tracks add a nice
kinetic feeling to the film and Prieto keeps the film moving at a
nice frantic pace.
Pusher tells the story of Frank (Richard Coyle) he's a small time
coke dealer living in London. He's living the good life with his
stripper girlfriend Flo (Agyness Deyn) and his
sexually hopeless buddy Tony (Bronson Webb). One day out of the clear
blue Frank is contacted by an old cellmate Marlon (Neil Maskell, Kill
List). Marlon is looking for a good amount of coke, around forty
five thousand worth. Frank meets up with a contact of his, Milo
(Zlatko Burić) a ruthless Serbian gangster. The deal is simple, Milo
will loan the 48K worth of gear to Frank. Frank will make the deal
with Milo and bring the money back. Paying Milo back and taking care
of his debt of 3 grand that he already owes Milo.