(MA15+) ★★★★★
Director: Martin McDonagh.
Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Tom Waits, Parker Posey.
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| He suddenly realised he wasn't on Christmas Island. |
I was about to write an introduction for this review when I thought I'd better reread some of my previous reviews for Martin McDonagh films. Good thing I did, because my intro for The Banshees Of Inisherin is exactly what I was going to write to kick off my review of Wild Horse Nine.
It goes thus:
Martin McDonagh is yet to make a bad film. His debut In Bruges is iconic, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri was the best film of 2018, and even his weakest film Seven Psychopaths is wildly entertaining.
It was true of The Banshees Of Inisherin and it's true of Wild Horse Nine. McDonagh is still yet to make a bad film.
Plainly, after 25+ years of reviewing I'm running out of ideas. Thankfully, McDonagh is not. His blend of dark humour, savage violence, and deep existential themes is mesmerising. Wild Horse Nine fits his modus operandi - it's ridiculously funny, shockingly dark, and it ruminates on some big ideas around redemption, evil, death, and why the hell America continues to meddle with the notion of "regime change" in other nations.
The two main characters are responsible for some of those international meddlings. Set in Chile in 1973 ahead of the coup that would install militant dictator Pinochet, Chris (Malkovich) and Lee (Rockwell) are CIA agents who have been helping unsettle the situation in the South American nation.
But Chris is unwell and forgetting things, making him a liability. He heads to Easter Island with Lee, for reasons that aren't initially clear.
The slow-burn story is intriguing. Not only is McDonagh deft with a joke or a swear, but he unfolds his narratives in small but gripping ways. Why are they on Easter Island? What have they been doing in Chile? What's going on with Chris' health? What's going on with Lee and his wife? All these questions are asked and they slowly unravel as the plot winds to its satisfying and unavoidable conclusion.
But it's the relationship between Malkovich's also-slowly-unravelling Chris and Rockwell's hapless bystander Lee that is the heart of this film. The sweary antagonism, the silent macho-male love and care between them, the bonding, the humour - it's all fascinating. It's tapping into a theme of The Banshees Of Inisherin - the inability of men to deal with their emotions and relationships in a healthy way. The meaning of life is also dealt with, though not to the depth of The Banshees Of Inisherin.
None of this would work in lesser hands, but Malkovich and Rockwell are pitch perfect, balancing the explosive violence and odd tenderness. Every line of dialogue is masterfully written and masterfully delivered. Malkovich gives the impression he's rambling improv, and Rockwell is along for the ride, though you know that's not the case with a McDonagh script.
Buscemi is also great in a very comedic bit part, while the cameos of Posey and Waits add a splash of colour to the film. The only rational people in the film are two Chilean students played by di Girolamo and Salas, who are wonderful and add poignant layers to the story.
Wild Horse Nine is a far more eccentric film than The Banshees Of Inisherin or Three Billboards. It grasps its themes more lightly and it's filled with more non sequitur moments. But it's just as funny, just as meaningful, and just as memorable.
Wild Horse Nine is the funniest film of the year, and possibly the best.
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