Wild Horse Nine - Movie Review

The Movie: Wild Horse Nine

The Director: Martin McDonagh

The Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Ailín Salas, Mariana di Girolamo

The Story: CIA agents Chris and Lee face a trust-testing mission from Santiago to Easter Island during 1973 in Chile.

The Rating: 7 / 10

The Review:

There's been times in my life where I've wondered what my life would be like if I had a terminal illness. How would my daily decisions be affected knowing that the inevitable was approaching. Would I try to live life to the fullest? Would I be able to? As my body began to deteriorate, would my brain still be able to function or would that start to go as well? How long would I be able to just function as a human being let alone thriving as one? These are questions that Martin McDonagh, the film's writer and director, poses through John Malkovich's character.

McDonagh has made some very entertaining movies in his career including the award winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, Seven Psychopaths, and En Bruges although I think this movie might be his most thoughtful and introspective effort to date. Exploring mortality can be taken in many different directions and McDonagh fills his movie with a signature ethos and style that is equal parts comedy and drama with a little bit of action thrown in just for fun. Casting the type of characters that he writes also has to be very particular which I think is why he keeps working with a lot of the same people, Sam Rockwell being a prime example.

Rockwell plays perfectly alongside Malkovich's character in a sort of buddy comedy that is in the process of riding off into the sunset with each having reasons not to trust the other, of course because the work for the CIA. I think this is some of the best work I've ever seen from both of them and the way they play off of each other is really what sold this movie for me. Without these two particular men in the specific roles, the movie would be nowhere near as entertaining as it is with them.

The movie is really fun although most of the comedy is in the first half and then McDonagh has to dig deeper into the story and some of the hijinks that do carryover get a little redundant but not enough to derail the whole thing. The director does a great job of balancing everything out, so it also doesn't get too heavy at any point either, it's just a solid and entertaining movie that leaves you feeling good at the end. Thanks for reading this review. We're getting close to awards season and I've already been posting more reviews than usual. I appreciate you following along on this journey and hopefully you're able to enjoy some of these movies as well.