Man I am 100% on Refns wavelength. People actively hate his work but the way he sees is how I see, at least visually. His shit is also so odd, auteur, that it just enthralls me.
I see him as a less interesting version of Gaspar Noè, but his Pusher trilogy is fantastic.
I still like his post-Drive stuff though, i think it's flawed but very intriguing.
I'll usually take a sloppy unique movie, over a polished soulless big studio turd. (and this is not to say that all big blockbusters are soulless, or that all "authorial" movies are unique or interesting).
They are starting to blend all together though, his recent efforts.
Reminds me of post-Tree Of Life Malick in a sense, where both directors seemed to take on very different ideas before, and then started to shit out a million movies that sort of blend together.
spoiler (click to show/hide)
Yes, yes, Malick in on another planet.