Overview
- The film, which opens in select theaters on Friday, July 24, 2026, has no streaming release announced and is being positioned for theatrical and festival audiences.
- Its Cannes premiere produced a notable split reaction with reports of visible audience discomfort and one account of a seven‑minute standing ovation.
- Critics praising the film singled out Pino Donaggio’s score, Magnus Nordenhof Jønck’s saturated cinematography, Gitte Malling’s production design, and Tatsuro Koike’s fight choreography for their strong sensory impact.
- Other reviewers condemned the picture’s loose plotting and aesthetic excess, calling its narrative incoherent and emotionally distant despite strong technical work.
- Refn presents the film as a personal ‘‘resurrection’’ after a near‑fatal health scare, a framing that reinforces his auteur status and could deepen the movie’s appeal to devoted art‑house audiences and festival programmers.