78
Metascore
8 reviews · Provided by Metacritic.com
- 80Los Angeles TimesRobert AbeleLos Angeles TimesRobert AbeleThe introduction of a baby that Tonny supposedly fathered feels worrisome initially...but in Refn's skilled street-realist hands, the child becomes a potent, wailing metaphor for Tonny's own dilemma of rudderless need.
- 80SalonAndrew O'HehirSalonAndrew O'HehirThere’s some shocking violence in Pusher II, but it’s a more expressive cinematic work, verging here and there on dreamlike surrealism.
- 80The New York TimesNathan LeeThe New York TimesNathan LeeWhere "Pusher" worked fresh texture and authenticity into a classic noir template, Pusher II reaches toward the mode of hyperrealist allegory perfected by the Dardenne brothers.
- 80EmpirePatrick PetersEmpirePatrick PetersThe breakneck pace, the seething sense of menace and the unflinching attitude to sex, drugs and violence coagulate into a nastily authentic take on the seediness and venality of modern villainy.
- 80New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinNew York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinEach 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.
- 75The A.V. ClubNoel MurrayThe A.V. ClubNoel MurrayPusher II works best when it's dwelling on the disconnect between Mikkelsen's lurid imagination and his disappointing reality, though it starts to fade when it becomes about the strained relationships of fathers and sons.
- 75New York PostV.A. MusettoNew York PostV.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.
- 70VarietyDeborah YoungVarietyDeborah YoungAlong with the continual build-up of tension and threatened (more than shown) violence, pic is notable for its brutal depiction of the sex industry.