Word: bronsonã
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...most violent prisoner.” The historical Charlie Bronson is a sociopath and a lunatic, a senseless rage-addict and a goon. But apply the words that open the film to the persona Refn manifests in Peterson and, more subtly, Refn himself, and “Bronson?? offers a much more sensible portrait of the artist than it ever does of its subject. But ambitions at auto-portraiture aside, “Bronson?? is, at its heart, a deeply engaging character study that suggests this man may be more (or less) than...
...Bronson?? charms first and foremost in its framing device: Peterson is cast as his own narrator before an audience that seems to applaud at his command. He dresses elegantly, gestures wildly, and wears minstrel make-up of various colors throughout the performance, conducting himself like the ringmaster of some surreal circus. The stage, it seems, is Bronson??s fantasy, where he’s free to put his emotional world into order. When he’s first imprisoned, and finally alone, Peterson begins to cry; Bronson, on stage and in whiteface, by contrast, reveals that...
...film’s final third, where Bronson begins to produce drawings and paintings for his prison’s art program, synthesizes the film’s content with its narrative frame without reducing the enigma of its subject. Bronson??s art is, from what can be seen, mostly cartoonish grotesquery more reminiscent of Daniel Johnston than Basquiat, but his final “piece” is executed with as much theatrical verve and visual splendor in a series of moments as the rest of the film offers in its entirety...
...Bronson?? is, by nature, just short of flawless. Despite an incredible performance from Hardy, the story’s limitations render every other character—from his girlfriend to his quick-witted handler to the chilling pedophile that approaches him in the asylum—fundamentally marginal. It would be a pleasure to watch Hardy’s undeniable range and power at play alongside other talent for extended periods of time; for all his breadth, his character has only two speeds (break-neck and dead-stop) and very little depth. Instead, “Bronson?...
...center serves as a symbolic burial cloth of all those who have suffered, physically and emotionally. As the final connection, the Auschwitz portal inscription “Arbeit Macht Frei” / “Work sets you Free” is constructed of convex mirrors echoing Bronson??s earlier self-portraits which used such mirrors in complex distortions of perspective...