Lorna Irvine reviews a 'languid and beautiful, unsettling' film.
Ex-Beta Band member John Maclean's debut feature film has a lucid focus on aesthetics, as with his promo clips for the cult 90s folktronica band--not only was he a musician with them, but he directed many of their distinctive videos.
So, his visual chops are not without question--there are endless panoramic shots, uncomfortably juxtaposed with painterly visions of burnt-out Native American settlements, bullet-peppered forest glades and melted butter gloop in a dish.
But the storytelling itself is simply rendered, often sparse and is all the more effective for it. It's a film to sink right into.
It's the nineteenth century. Gauche aristocratic teenager Jay Cavendish (an impressive, coltish Kodi Smit-McPhee) has travelled from Scotland to America's wilds to track down the peasant girl he loves, Rose Ross (Caren Pistorious, excellent in spite of her distractingly modern eyebrows) who, unbeknownst to him, has a bounty on both her head and her father (Rory McCann).
On his journey, he is 'adopted' by taciturn outlaw Silas Selleck (Michael Fassbender), whose moody, morally unreliable countenance echoes both Clint Eastwood and Henry Fonda alike.
Along the way, the duo encounter bleached-out bones, bullets, absinthe and a creative way to carry the laundry while on horseback.
The body count is as big as it is jaw-droppingly cavalier, providing an unflinching, defiantly unsentimental portrait of how cheap and desperate life has become.
Yet there are scenes of incredible tenderness and humour, like the fatherly shaving scene and Jay's lone egg for breakfast, provided by errant anthropologist and writer Werner (Andrew Robertt).
Rose is a fine character, strong-willed and wilful, and it's refreshing to see a western with feminist overtones that isn't 'Bad Girls', but it has to be said that the most charismatic supporting role comes from sheepskin wearing man Payne, whose gang are out for reward money. Ben Mendelsohn's oddball stare as Payne is reminiscent of Warren Oates in his prime or the late Dennis Hopper. He oozes malevolent cool, his every action erratic, particularly in a drunken scene with Silas where it's uncertain whether he will kiss or kill his ex-friend/gang member.
Such moments of tension are what propel this film to an uncertain and startling unnamed new terrain, where each step is tentative, but (cocked and loaded) with endless possibilities. Languid and beautiful, unsettling and it may well haunt your dreams.
Dir: John Maclean, 2015. UK/New Zealand. Stars: Michael Fassbender,Kodi Smit-McPhee,Ben Mendelsohn. 1 hr 23 mins
At GFT until 9th July
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