Director: John Maclean
Cast: Michael Fassbender, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn, Rory McCann, Caren Pistorius
Certificate: 15
Run Time: 84 minutes
Synopsis: A young Scottish aristocrat bewitched by love heads on a journey across the American Frontier to find her accompanied by a mysterious and inscrutable frontiersman and pursued by a band of iniquitous opportunists
In his feature debut, musician and filmmaker John Maclean has created a perspective of the American frontier that is as refreshingly entertaining as the violent degenerates who inhabit this new, vibrant and majestic landscape. With blurring convention subversions and inversions, a slow but fast tempo, and unexpected flashes of absurdity and violence, it’s a fantastical world meticulously designed to surprise you when you least expect whilst simultaneously reminding you of its unforgiving desolation and desperation.
Even if you’re not a fan of Westerns, you’ll be a fan of this one.
Scottish aristocrat Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is in the midst of first love; so bewitched that he decides to abandon his birth right and all that he knows (at the tender of 16) in search of his Rose (Caren Pistorius) who has fled to the American frontier with her crofter father (Rory McCann) after a deadly accident on the Cavendish estate.
The film begins with stargazing as a voiceover by one Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), imparts the basics of an amplified and unrequited love story between Jay and Rose. He’s an inscrutable and mysterious frontiersman with an agenda that so happens to coincide with the plans of the young Scottish aristocrat of whom he speaks – well sort of. What he fails to reveal in a stilted manner that would have made John Wayne proud, is the news that a bounty has been issued for Rose and her father to the tune of $2,000 dead or alive and that a number of iniquitous opportunists are also hot on the trail.
Set during the end of the 19th Century and with naïve determination, an over-laden horse, trusty teapot and a guidebook to surviving the west in hand, Jay embarks on his ill-fated journey alone until he is quickly confronted by a showdown between Indian hunters and their prey. Saved by Silas who then goes on to tell Jay that he has agreed to protect him on his journey – for a price of course – the two team up and continue the slow journey to Colorado. McCann inverts the protagonist/slapstick sidekick convention here to comedic effect. Where Jay is submissive and fanciful, waxing poetically of love, Silas is monosyllabic, sharp-witted and dangerously efficient. Jay cares whilst Silas couldn’t care less. Jay devises alternate clotheslines; Silas treats wounds and speaks plainly. ‘You haven’t bedded her yet have you?’ he says in response to Jay’s talk of Rose.
And the pendulum of humorous violence and violent humour steps up each time new characters reveal themselves on screen. The kind of sick humour that I absolutely love when such occasions present themselves like during the hold-up at the general store in the middle of nowhere. It’s perfectly triangulated to include all parties in the violent fray and preceded by poignant words from the shopkeeper ‘You know, if you take my money, this is the only place you could spend it’. Good point.
Not to be outdone in any shape or form, Ben Mendelsohn (who plays Payne) makes his presence known, swaggering into the fray as the party starter with his bottle of absinthe, wearing his ‘I’ve been in Game of Thrones’ behemoth coat, and chomping on his robusto cigars. His performance, as well as the performance of Fassbender and Smit-McPhee, is excellent with each character playing off well against and with each other without feeling forced or overdone.
But the true standout is the film’s visual style. DP Robbie Ryan opts for a smaller, tighter frame that restricts viewing and forces viewers into an intimacy with the characters and the landscapes whilst the shots of onscreen violence linger just enough to exploit the cruelty and intense violence. Filmed in the stunning Mackenzie Country region on the New Zealand’s South Island, the shots of colourful vistas with Russell Lupins in the frame give the environment a vibrancy that doesn’t detract from the barrenness of the plains and balances out the yellow tones of the tussocks reminiscent of American Westerns.
[usr=5] SLOW WEST is wickedly funny delight with a deliciously violent end.
SLOW WEST can be seen during the Tribeca Film Festival on Wednesday 22 April and Friday 24 April 2015, residents in the UK can catch SLOW WEST when it opens in cinemas on 26 June 2015.
