Pusher

Pusher

Pusher is the kind of crime film that feels like it was found in the pocket of a leather jacket after a very bad weekend. Directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, this gritty Danish thriller follows Frank, a small-time drug dealer whose life unravels spectacularly after a deal goes wrong and he suddenly owes a terrifying amount of money to some very unpleasant people. From there, things get worse, then somehow worse again.

What makes Pusher so effective is its refusal to glamorise the criminal underworld. There are no master criminals playing five-dimensional chess here. Most of the characters are stressed, desperate, impulsive and constantly making terrible decisions. The film moves with a raw, nervous energy, dropping viewers into a world of debt, violence and panic where every phone call feels like bad news. Tough, tense and surprisingly funny in places, Pusher launched Refn's career and remains one of the sharpest and most influential European crime films of the 1990s.