The playwright, screenwriter and director Martin McDonagh has focused his career on angry and lonely people at moments of crisis. His latest effort, the highly touted Oscar contender Wild Horse Nine, explores aging, frustration and violence beautifully, placing a sad story against the gorgeous backdrop of Easter Island. It’s a very good film; observed in a vacuum, it’s certainly one of the best films of the year. There’s just one problem: McDonagh has made it before.

New Movie Wild Horse Nine Stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA Operatives

McDonagh’s previous film, The Banshees of Inisherin, explored the limits of patience and familiarity in small-town Ireland; his Oscar-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri focused more on justice denied, while keeping the small-town setting. All these works — and most of McDonagh’s excellent plays — play songs in the same key, finding rich characters and gallows humor in extreme circumstances.

Similarity, then, is nothing new for McDonagh, and it’s fine for a filmmaker to patrol similar waters. With Wild Horse Nine, though, the familiarity sounds a bit like repetition.

The new film stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA operatives and occasional hitmen; it’s 1973 in Chile, and they’ve got a government to destabilize. In the meantime, though, they’re dispatched for a bit of down time to nearby Easter Island. Unfortunately, their boss (Steve Buscemi) has an ulterior motive for getting one of these goons to a remote location.

McDonagh’s 2008 film In Bruges starred Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell as hitmen operating in the shadows of Europe. They’ve been dispatched for a bit of down time to nearby Bruges. Unfortunately, their boss (Ralph Fiennes) has an ulterior motive for getting one of these goons to a remote location.

It’s more than a bit cozy — especially when noting that In Bruges was loosely based on Harold Pinter’s play The Dumb Waiter. It works because it’s an excellent and compelling plot. I’m just deeply confused about why McDonagh felt the need to … well, do it again.

Malkovich Leads a Field of Likely Oscar Nominees

If you aren’t thinking about In Bruges, there’s almost nothing to criticize about Wild Horse Nine. The striking contrast between the bleak realities facing the protagonists and the almost disconcertingly beautiful setting of the film — repeatedly represented by the appearance of the titular wild horses — is striking. The film is also beautifully photographed by cinematographer Ben Davis, who is both McDonagh’s go-to shooter and, for a bit of contrast, a frequent cinematographer for Marvel.

The performances, too, are stellar. A game supporting cast is filled with unforgettable, brief turns, including a pair of relatives on the other end of weighty phone calls played by Parker Posey and Tom Waits; McDonagh’s quick-witted dialogue and penchant for gallows humor make Wild Horse Nine morbidly funny from beginning to end.

There’s serious beauty in this film, and it’s more than worth watching. If Malkovich does indeed earn an Oscar for it, it’ll be well-deserved. It’s just sort of already a movie. That’s a small crime, but an odd one.

John Turturro Is The Only Living Pickpocket in New York and More In Theaters This Weekend

Veteran character actor John Turturro stars as an aging thief in The Only Living Pickpocket in New York, a love letter to the Big Apple and a film about what we’re losing when even crime becomes impersonal. When not caring for his ailing wife, Turturro’s character expertly relieves pedestrians and subway riders of their wallets and watches; when he inadvertently targets the brash scion of an organized-crime family, the stakes get impossibly high. Thankfully, The Only Living Pickpocket in New York — which is written and directed by Noah Segan, a protege of Rian Johnson — does not build to flying bullets but rather to quiet, heartbreaking moments. I fear this one might get lost in the shuffle of awards bait; it shouldn’t.

The rest of the box office is a grab bag, as a few curiosities trickle into theaters while holdovers including You Can See Everything and Clayface are expected to stick around the top of the charts. Among the scattered new releases: Breeder, an indie horror feature set at … a remote poodle ranch; The Mongoose, a quickie car-chase flick staring Liam Neeson; Christmas at the Kringles, a yuletide horror-comedy featuring Ron Livingston and Rachel Bilson; and mountain-climbing documentary Everest: The Other Side.

Plus, Don’t Miss These Other Movie Showings

What with it being Halloween weekend, there are also revivals of some horror classics here to scare up a good time. Check your local multiplex; some have 30th-anniversary showings of Scream, 10th-anniversary revivals of Hell House LLC or screenings of John Carpenter’s Halloween. If you’re looking for a new scare, I enjoyed the Jessica Chastain chiller Other Mommy.

If you’re looking to catch up on recent flicks,, read some of my recent reviews — including You Can See Everything, the most talked-about film since at least The Odyssey. (Which is still in a handful of theaters, by the way.) The Social Reckoning, which I liked much more than most critics (or audience members, from the looks of things), is still hanging onto a handful of screens; that’s more than can be said for the already legendary flop Digger, as the Tom Cruise film has already vanished from cinemas.

Read more of Sean Collier’s movie reviews in our guide to the arts, culture, and entertainment.

About the Author

Sean Collier is the editor-in-chief of Shady Ave and the arts and culture editor of TABLE Magazine. Before joining the TABLE Media team, he spent nearly 15 years as a writer, editor and columnist at Pittsburgh Magazine. As the in-house film critic for the top-rated WDVE Morning Show since 2009, he’s been Pittsburgh’s most widely heard voice on movies for nearly two decades. A Pittsburgh native, Sean has since 2020 appeared weekly on KDKA-TV’s popular Pittsburgh Today Live talk show. He’s the co-founder of Vigilance Theater Group and an active stand-up comedian and event host. He can be found on Instagram and Twitter at @seancollierpgh.

Photo Courtesy of Searchlight Pictures

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