Friday, May 22, 2015

Slow West Movie Review


Let's Drift

IMDb Plot: Slow West follows Jay, a 16-year-old boy (Kodi Smit-McPhee) on a journey across 19th Century frontier America in search of the woman he loves, while accompanied by mysterious traveler Silas (Michael Fassbender.)


Smit-McPhee is mesmerizing as "a jack rabbit in a den of wolves," who's befriended by the worldly Silas in John Maclean's brilliant directorial debut. Superbly shot, Slow West is a slow boil across a serene, uncluttered canvas. It benefits from a short runtime (84 minutes) yet packs something special into each and every one. Refreshingly authentic, gripping and filled with irony (salt in the wound = my favorite) Maclean's film (along with last year's The Homesman) spearheads a much-needed Western revival in Hollywood. Silas tells Jay early-on, "You need chaperoning, and I'm a chaperone." This is how the West was won.

GradeA-