It's hard for me not to sit here and just immediately call Slow West, the new throwback action-western from first time feature writer/director John Maclean a masterpiece of filmmaking. This is the kind of film that grips the viewer from the start and doesn't stop until it wants to. Once the film is wrapped up, a strange feeling will come over me. I realized I had just watched a game changer in the world of film. Yes, it's not true that Slow West will become a box office smash nor may it ever find an audience beyond film junkies such as myself. However, it will allow directors far and wide to see that there is room for their films on the marquee that will proudly take the spot of another action film that Michael Bay is unfortunately belching out. Further more, this is the kind of film that the word "cinematic" is made off. Its only real fault is that there is significantly more interest in the visual aesthetic, acting and deliberate pace that builds up very nicely than the story itself.
However, that's Maclean realizing filmmakers are doing it all wrong. People like Bay don't focus on the story at all while many arthouse films seem TOO invested in the story and not enough in how it's playing out. Here, Maclean takes the story and all other aspects and tells the story well enough to be invested in it but not so much that the genuine desert backdrops don't make the viewer's eyes pop. This is a visual orgy in motion for its entire run time. Not once did the sets stop paying due diligence to the westerns of yesteryear. If John Wayne, John Ford, Buck Rogers, David Dortort, Lorne Greene and so many others who helped shape the western were alive today, they would be nothing but proud of the work done here.
The film follows Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee,) a young guy who travels from Scotland into the west to find the love of his life. He blames himself for the move she and her father had to make and he wants to find that spark with her yet again. In his travels, Jay meets Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender,) a man with a quick trigger hand and an even quicker mouth. Silas agrees to help Jay get to where he's going, especially with the threat of mad man Payne (Ben Mendelsohn) and his murderous posse approaching
Smit-McPhee and Fassbender have excellent chemistry here. Their banter is fun, their growing respect for one another palpable and their kindness felt. From the first second, it is totally believable that these two guys would agree to travel together. They're honest men who just want to get to their own little havens and they both realize two heads are better than one. Also, Mendelsohn is incredible here. All three men have proven to be phenomenally talented actors who can disappear into their roles in the snap of a finger. All do career best work here. Smit-McPhee gives Jay equal parts vulnerability and toughness, never falling too far into the category of one. Fassbender is hilarious and makes Silas both a believable bad boy and a realistic wise guy. Mendelsohn thoroughly embraces his role of a slime ball who would do anything to watch blood be spilt. The acting makes the otherwise wacky story a great success.
However, Maclean, along with the costume and set workers, must be applauded as well. Maclean both writes and directs like a long time veteran of Hollywood while the costumes and sets both look stunning. I honestly forgot I was watching a film for almost the entire thing and just believed I was in the old west. That's where Maclean really gets credit for dialing down of the story. If the plot had been too drawn out, that complete engagement and feeling of being there would have never worked. Maclean makes me feel hot and thirsty as I am vicariously walking that desert with Jay and Silas.
Slow West is an entirely different film from someone who has no desire to conform to the filmmakers of today. This is the kind of film that needs to be made much more often--one that challenges the world of both blockbusters and independent films and shows faults in both of them while never being condescending to either. Maclean has made a perfect combination of a Hollywood action film, an arresting visual ordeal and an equal parts touching, funny, sad and overall palpable independent drama.
(5 out of 5 Stars, The film is rated R for violence and brief language)
