re: Bronson

I haven't seen The Master, but performances are part of the vision of a film and rarely disconnected from the framework of the movie. There have been far more bad performances in good movies than great ones in bad films.

In the case of Bronson, Refn knew exactly what he was doing. Bronson never goes through any transformation -- his life is, from day to day, unadulterated violence, and that's the thesis of the film, moreover, Hardy's performance reflects such. It just doesn't work on a thematic, narrative level, but Refn was cognizant of the fact.