{"id":55952,"date":"2026-11-09T14:00:57","date_gmt":"2026-11-09T19:00:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=55952"},"modified":"2026-11-09T14:00:57","modified_gmt":"2026-11-09T19:00:57","slug":"wild-horse-nine-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2026\/11\/09\/wild-horse-nine-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Wild Horse Nine [2026]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Two CIA hitmen take a vacation to Easter Island in 1973. Bickering and battling break out amid the island’s beauty. Martin McDonagh\u2019s sharp and unexpectedly moving dark comedy joins the crowded ranks of 2026\u2019s best films.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In many ways, Wild Horse Nine is an amalgamation of writer-director Martin McDonagh\u2019s film work. The bickering hitmen of In Bruges, the slick Tarantino<\/a>-esque energy of Seven Psychopaths, the emotional depth (and Sam Rockwell<\/a> in an Oscar-winning performance) of Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri,<\/a> and the exploration of male friendship and life regrets of The Banshees of Inisherin. Man, look at at that. When one\u2019s weakest film is Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, that\u2019s a damned fine track record. Calling Wild Horse Nine a \u201cgreatest hits\u201d of McDonagh might sound dismissive. But it\u2019s not. In fact, Wild Horse Nine might be his finest film. A sharp, quippy script with a small collection of pitch-perfect performances giving life to developed, lived-in characters, a grand design in production value, and a wonderful sense of dark humor tinged with regret and longing. It’s all utterly charming and surprisingly touching under all the bravado, foul language, and gun play.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Set in 1973, Wild Horse Nine follows a pair of CIA operatives stationed in Santiago, Chile, there to destabilize the democratically elected Allende in favor of the cruel Pinochet. Chris and Lee are best friends, whose barbed, hilarious conversations drive the film. Younger Lee, Sam Rockwell,<\/a> heads off to Easter Island (aka Rapa Nui) with the older Chris for what seems like a vacation. The older man is increasingly unhinged, in part from being John Malkovich<\/a>, approaching retirement and having a deadly cancer; he\u2019s having memory issues and toiling with writing a memoir. The possibility\u00a0that the memoir will reveal CIA secrets sets off their boss, MJ,\u00a0Steve Buscemi,<\/a><\/span>\u00a0in another smaller but important role after Only Living Pickpocket in New York<\/a>. There, they see the heads (properly called Moai), come across the titular wild horses, anger the locals and other visitors, including a pair of college students, one of whom, Monica, played by Mariana Di Girolamo, Chris becomes enamored with.\u00a0 Enamored is not the right word, as McDonald is smart enough not to force a romantic notion. But Chris recognizes something in her sweetness. Di Girolamo receives some of Malkovich’s most perky and fiery monologuing (in a film peppered with them), and their rapport is phenomenal. Meanwhile, the men struggle with their histories, memories, and the future (Pinochet’s cruelty looms over the film), and with moving through their lives, with Lee trying to handle Chris, keep his head together, and suss out his future place in the industry.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

John Malkovich is going full John Malkovich, but it\u2019s one of the BEST John Malkovich. Loud, crude, demanding, but with an amazing something; a heart inside the dying CIA companyman. Yes, it\u2019s nearly clich\u00e9 to have a sick older man with a violent life to think about their death and regrets, but Chris is one only Malkovich could play. An absolute ass, but one with a sheer force of \u201cI shouldn\u2019t like you, but I do.\u201d And damn if he doesn\u2019t work so incredibly well with Sam Rockwell. It\u2019s a wonder they’ve not worked with one another before. Their energies match so perfectly. Rockwell and Malkovich lean into and control each other’s madness of performances; both are masters of mischief and together are truly delightful to watch banter. They are perfectly suited to one another, with the bickering of two old friends who know and love one another.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

If he wasn\u2019t so brilliant, Steve Buscemi<\/a> could nearly be a third wheel for his part, but his own brand of strange humor melds and reforms, showing again his skill as a top-tier character actor.\u00a0 Mariana di Girolamo is truly remarkable, with her and Ailin Salas as the other left-wing students Chris\u2019s abrasive personality butts up against but yet connects to is special. Parker Posey<\/a> gets the absolute most of her two scenes as Rockwell\u2019s alcoholic, cheating wife; she\u2019s acting alone with a phone and makes it all her own. Not to be outdone by Posey’s two scenes, Tom Waits<\/a> wows in a single go.<\/span><\/p>\n

McDonagh’s script is loud, crude, wonderfully profane, and incredibly funny, with the barbed wit and beat of a stage comedy. However, like McDonagh\u2019s other films, it has an an underlying sadness; of pain and bitterness and regret. Akin to The Banshees of Inisherin, it mostly hides the hurt until it builds enough in the simmer that it bubbles over. I remember showing my wife The Banshees, and we had to stop so she could have a good cry: \u201cI didn\u2019t expect it to be so depressing.\u201d McDonagh nearly blind sides. It works: the first time, Malkovich\u2019s Chris, usually so brash and confident in anything he says, pauses and asks a question we know he knows the answer to, very meekly; it’s hard and steers our outlook. With a master writer also directing, McDonagh has the power to steer the audience with pinpoint precision, moving the audience with near-perfect pacing, wonderfully controlling how we feel, what we see, and delighting in the set-ups and pay-offs.<\/span>\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I\u2019d be remiss to focus on the writing, character, and performances and leave the technical production behind. The production design, costuming, and cinematography work in perfect tandem to create a visually engaging, beautiful film. The colorful 70s clothing of <\/span>Eimer N\u00ed Mhaoldomhnaigh<\/span> is textured in rich, big, but not showy ways. Denis Scnegg\u2019s production design is just as colorful and interesting, using the island’s real locations to their best advantage. But holy crap, Ben Davis, who has worked with McDonagh since Seven Psychopaths, uses the Island, with the deep green grass and the bright blue skies, for astonishing effect (and a Searchers shot elsewhere made a smile). Wild Horse Nine is only the second film, at least in this scope, to film on Rapa Nui, after the fittingly titled Rapa Nui in 1994, and Davis uses this rarity to its full effect, reverently working with the Moai. Wowing. Let\u2019s not forget Carter Burwell\u2019s great score.<\/span><\/p>\n

Wild Horse Nine has easily entered into the competion as another favorite in a year jammed with great films.\u00a0 Martin McDonagh’s writing and direction are both pushing up a slew of amazing performances, namely of John Malkovich at his best, along with Sam Rockwell, Parker Posey, and Mariana di Girolamo. With a sharp script, and amazing production values, Wild Horse Nine comes together as a brilliant dark comedy.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Two CIA hitmen take a vacation to Easter Island in 1973. Bickering and battling break out amid the island’s beauty. Martin McDonagh\u2019s sharp and unexpectedly moving dark comedy joins the crowded ranks of 2026\u2019s best films.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[219,302],"class_list":["post-55952","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-comedy","tag-drama"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55952","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55952"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55952\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55953,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55952\/revisions\/55953"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55952"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55952"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55952"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}