Writer-director Martin McDonagh’s streak continues with Wild Horse Nine: He’s made five films—and all five are masterpieces.
Spielberg can’t say that about the start of his career. Neither can Scorsese, Tarantino, Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson. McDonagh is in a class all by himself, and his films are not repeating themselves. Each outing is a fresh, original, crisp new offering.
Granted, there is something that runs through all of his movies, as well as his plays—a dark streak. The man is a maestro of dark comedy, and Wild Horse Nine is one of his darkest and funniest works. The man isn’t afraid to get nasty and get weird.
John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell play Chris and Lee, two CIA operatives hanging around Santiago, Chile, in 1973—right before everything gets really, really shitty. For some reason, a which is gradually revealed, the two wind up on a side trip to Easter Island to see the big heads.
Chris has a big reason for being there, and Lee, his partner and best friend, plays a big part in that reason. Go see the movie to find out what that is.
On their way to Easter Island, Chris speaks boldly to fellow passengers about how he is in the CIA, and the Chilean government is fucked. He’s getting a little brash in the final years of his career, and it’s making life a little uncomfortable for Lee and his boss, MJ (Steve Buscemi), a cranky old bastard who Chris believes is addicted to heroin.
MJ is concerned about an older agent seemingly losing it—an agent who has had a very confidential career involving notable events. If those event participations ever became public, it would be a problem, and the notion that Chris is writing his memoirs is, of course, problematic.
This is not the first time Malkovich has played an aging CIA agent determined to write his memoirs: He did that very same thing in the Coen brothers’ Burn After Reading. He’s got the market on “actors playing CIA agents writing their memoirs under suspicious circumstances” cornered.
Malkovich and Rockwell are magic together—a perfect pairing of acting sensibilities. These guys really come off as two men who have spent countless hours together, in too many locations, doing very bad things. When the film takes its dark and highly emotional turns, these two actors prove they are not only up to the task, but that nobody could’ve done it better. This is the very embodiment of perfect casting.
McDonagh’s script goes into some particularly deranged territory. Like Quentin Tarantino before him, he’s not afraid to toy with American history. There are moments in this film, especially when Chris warns a young woman about the perils about to overtake her country, that are as chilling as anything in a movie this year. The movie is fictional, but it is using real history, including the impending unrest in Chile and the horrors that would follow.
Much of the movie is set on Easter Island, so, naturally, it is full of lush scenery beautifully shot by Ben Davis, the cinematographer on all McDonagh’s films. Carter Burwell delivers the excellent score, giving the film another Coen brothers connection. (Burwell has scored 16 of the 18 Coen brothers films, and all of McDonagh’s.)
Malkovich might find himself as the front-runner for the Best Actor Oscar this year. He’s been nominated twice before, but he’s never won. Rockwell has won an Oscar, thanks to the terrific part McDonagh wrote for him in Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. It wouldn’t be surprising to see both in the running for Oscars, along with McDonagh for directing them.
There’s no word yet on what’s next for McDonagh. The guy is so damn good—I’m just assuming it will be yet another masterpiece.