Thoroughbreds is my kind of movie and I'm not sure that says anything
good about me. It's the prototypical Sundance movie that I'm always in search of.
It a comedy with a dark dramatic heart, anchored by a pair of great
performances by up-and-coming actresses who have both already been in Sundance
movies that I adore.
Amanda (Olivia Cooke) and Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) are
affluent teens with some issues. Amanda is a sociopath. She's not evil, she
just doesn't feel things. After this manifests itself in a particularly gruesome
incident, she becomes an outcast in her community. Lily is all about burying
her feelings and putting on a facade as though everything is fine. The two are
childhood friends who have become distant since high school. After Amanda's
mother bribes Lily to tutor Amanda as a way to get Amanada some human
interaction, the two rekindle their friendship by coming up with a plan to kill
Lily's asshole stepdad. They employ a local drugdealer (Anton Yelchin) with
aspirations of greatness to help them with this. As you can imagine, things
don't go according to plan.
As I said, it's a pretty dark movie. Cooke and
Taylor-Joy are excellent for the roles though. Cooke brings a frankness to
Amanda that is a lot like her character from Me & Earl & the Dying girl. She's not like any
sociopath I can think of in a movie. The film doesn't treat it like it's an act
or that's she's a bad person. She just doesn't feel emotions and the film
doesn't try to apologize for that. She may not be repeatable, but she is understandable.
Taylor-Joy is most famous for The Witch and has
many of the same strengths in this. She layers her emotions. Even when she's
playing things big, you can tell she's holding something back. You never know
exactly what she's thinking. They both have great, expressive eyes that do a
lot of the work for the. I love how well these two play off each other. They
can turn on rapid fire banter without it sounding like they are trying to be
clever. It's like great improv. They don't need to know where the other is
going with something. They just need to be willing and ready to go along with
whatever. Yelchin threw me off a little bit. I kept waiting for him to lean
into something more broad or slapstick. Mostly, he's just pathetic though. And,
Paul Sparks, as Lily's stepfather walks the line between being unlikable and
without being evil quite well, although he's not my favorite part of the cast.
This is one of those movies I'd love to listen to
the commentary for. I suspect there's a lot more to a lot of decisions than I
realized at the time. Like, at one point, Cooke's character is playing a lawn
chess game. I think those moves she makes have meaning. Or maybe they don't.
Either way, I want to know.
The climax of the movie will probably turn a lot of
people off. It confirms that the movie is more drama than comedy. It sets up an
ending that has been rattling around in my head for a while. It has one of
those Inception-like final questions to which your answer says more
about your own personal philosophy than anything else. I loved it! If this
movie it still in my top ten by the end, it will be because of the ending.
Thororoughbreds isn't going to be for everyone. I know a lot of people
who want nothing less than to see another movie about bored rich white people,
and I won't pretend that this movie transcends that description. It's somewhere
between the irreverent comedy of Heathers and the disturbing drama of Beautiful
Creatures. I got a real kick out of it though. It was just what I needed to
recharge my enthusiasm .
Verdict (?): Strongly Recommend*
*...you know, unless you're well-adjusted.
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