We should all be able to go out on our own terms…

After a successful festival run, Wild Horse Nine is finally landing in theatres for the general public and it doesn’t disappoint as writer/director Martin McDonagh keeps his trade mark acerbic wit while giving us something filled with heart that just might be the filmmakers’ most accessible film to date.

Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island by their bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). Amongst the island’s iconic statues, and as the long-time partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris’s newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to send everyone’s trip to this remote paradise sideways.

In a strange way; Wild Horse Nine is actually a celebration of life because even as it’s wrapped up in sarcasm, anti-fascist sentiments, dark comedy and political leanings, there’s any undeniable joy to these proceedings as it’s ultimately a story about two friends navigating an increasingly insane world that they find themselves in the middle of.

Much like many of his films, McDonagh finds the right two leads to help make the cinematic jazz that only he can.  In this unlikely backdrop, this is two middle aged (or older) men taking stalk of their lives and not being terribly happy with the results.  The script actually takes the job that these two men do and makes it secondary as what is ultimately a love story between two men unfold in an era when men weren’t really allowed to have feelings.

Obviously the movie looks great and the script crackles with its razor dialogue and two master actors who can banter with the best of them.  Frequent collaborator Rockwell knows McDonagh’s beats like the back of his hand and Malkovich keeps up with absolute ease because it’s a rare combination when actors can make audiences do spit takes while laughing but also actually giving a damn about these two characters.  Its career best work from both men with Malkovich strongly angling for his third Academy award nomination and maybe even his first ever win.

Parker Posey and Steve Buscemi come in for support but its Chilean star Mariana Di Girolamo who you may recognize from 2019’s Ema who really breaks out as an emotional foil for Malkovich’s character who is confronting his mortality and is looking for one last genuine connection with someone other than his long-time partner in Rockwell.  She’s Malkovich’s last chance for humanistic validation and leaving something positive in the wake of the carnage that is his career.

Ultimately Wild Horse Nine threads the needle between the gonzo rapid fire patter of movies like In Bruges and the more humanistic tone of something like Three Billboards because this film much like his previous effort; The Banshees of Inisherin lets the actors shine above all other things.  While this took place in the exotic locale of Easter Island, it could have been a radio play and been just as good.  In his trademark style, he made two irredeemable characters who were players in some of the most major political upheavals of the modern age, not only likeable, but actually kind of damn loveable.  McDonagh is a master in finding the heart in the dark hilarity of the world around us.