Nicolas Winding Refn is probably most familiar to American audiences for his 2011 high-style-yet-minimalist action drama Drive, where Ryan Gosling wore an amazing jacket, drove a car, and committed some unspeakable acts of violence (as did, weirdly, Albert Brooks, brilliantly cast as the movie’s bad guy). But the Copenhagen-born Refn had been making movies for a full 15 years when Drive came out, and with his next project Her Private Hell about to debut at Cannes ahead of a July release, his first feature Pusher is getting a 4K restoration released on disc and a brief theatrical re-release to celebrate its 30th anniversary.

But you don’t need to live in a city graced by the Pusher re-release, or even shell out big bucks for the 4K package, to check out Refn’s first movie; it’s streaming on Tubi right now! (And if you dig it, he eventually made two sequels.) The movie also provides an early look at Mads Mikkelsen, who has since become a character-actor fixture of American cinema, as well as a leading man in his own right. It’s strange to think that Ref and Mikkelsen had a movie out the same year as Trainspotting (or, for that matter, Independence Day), but time makes fools of us all!

Why Watch Pusher Tonight?

The first thing fans of Refn’s later work might notice about Pusher is how much chattier it is than movies like Drive or Only God Forgives. In place of a taciturn mid-period Ryan Gosling of few words, we follow youngish drug dealer Frank (Kim Bodnia) and his sidekick Tonny (Mads Mikkelsen) as they go about their version of Monday at the office — selling drugs, visiting Frank’s sort-of girlfriend, going out to eat, and going to the club, often accompanied by vulgar banter. Frank’s week is thrown off, however, when a drug deal gone bad leaves him owing a bunch of money he doesn’t have to the pitiless dealer Milo (Zlatko Burić). Frank must scramble for some combination of cash or drugs in a desperate attempt to square things with Milo before he extracts payment in some other way.

Refn’s later, English-language films have a great deal more movie-star glamor (and elegant slow-cinema camerawork) lighting up their seedy worlds; Frank, on the other hand, isn’t an especially likable or charismatic guy, seen largely through handheld and constantly swerving camera that emphasizes his close-to-the-ground vantage point. But both the character and the filmmaking strike a fascinating contrast with future Refn heroes/antiheroes — and also with the post-Tarantino cool-criminal type that was so dominant at the time of Pusher‘s release.

Pusher isn’t quite a kitchen-sink crime drama, but it also doesn’t traffic in any illusions about drug dealing being a particularly enviable profession, especially in the long run. Though we see dealers who are higher up the chain than Frank, none of them seem to be living any kind of music-video lifestyle of illicit wealth. They just have access to more effective thugs as their henchmen, while Frank only has the questionably loyal Tonny. We also see clearly how close Frank is to financial ruin; one run of bad luck, and he’s essentially penniless, backed into a corner without many viable options that don’t involve doing or receiving violence. Even criminals who are more protected than Frank all seem to have outside interests — one likes to bake, apparently badly; another wants to open a restaurant — that make the Copenhagen drug trade seem like

None of this is exactly a revelation on its own. But in the context of both 1990s crime movies and Refn’s full career, Pusher makes for a compelling time capsule. It’s also interesting to see Refn’s later style begin to emerge as the movie goes on; it starts off as a movie about raffish, vulgar criminals meandering about their business; again, shades of Tarantino, though without the elevated dialogue. Eventually, though, it makes a now-familiar descent into neon-lit hell as the walls close in around Frank, and Refn relies more on the visual mood (and, in a few scenes, a pulsing soundtrack) to tell the story.

Pusher was actually followed by two belated sequels when Refn had trouble getting other projects off the ground; one is about Mikkelsen’s Tonny, while the other is about Milo. (They’re both on Tubi, too.) Refn would move on to more ambitious projects, but he clearly found something notable about the criminal underbelly of his hometown.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.

Stream Pusher on Tubi