Thoroughbreds (2018)
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Thoroughbreds Movie Review
Thoroughbreds is a 2018 indie black comedy teen crime film directed by Cory Finley and starring Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy. It is a pretty good, very interesting flick.
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“That’s the first honest thing you’ve said to me since the sixth grade“
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Per usual give it to independent filmmakers to give us an original American movie. Thoroughbreds truly is an authentic movie unlike any other I’ve seen before. First off, it combines the genres of teen, crime thriller and black comedy into a mostly coherent, intriguing whole.
Most importantly, it is psychologically investing. It portrays the bored, emotionless and wasted lives of some teenage girls, especially those coming from rich families. The film’s basically about an angry, unstable adolescent girl brought to an extreme. It portrays how live isn’t worth living if your are cold and dead inside and I really liked how it contrasted its two main characters.
Yes, the two are very much different as one is emotional and the other is cold, but in the end they become closer and more similar. Amanda is such a different, unusual girl who’s actually rather creepy when you think about it, even from the very first moment. Lily is more emotional, but unstable. Her emotionally complex journey is very interesting to follow.
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Anya Taylor-Joy gave such a terrific, truly powerful performance that is very underrated when it comes to 2018 as she needs to be talked about more. What she did here is a sign of a true talent. Olivia Cooke is also terrific and much better than she was in ‘Ready Player One’ as she’s nuanced here and highly professional.
The adults are not as memorable and I found Mark somewhat underutilized and not well portrayed at all and they needed to portray him better for this story. But Tim is memorable as this drug dealer the two want to use for murder and Anton Yelchin most definitely excelled here in portraying this character in what is tragically his last performance.
Thoroughbreds is just a good, never great movie for one reason alone which is that ending. The film features such a fantastic, suspenseful build up that I was curious what would happen, but the ending messed it all up as it was too bloody and just too much of a perfect conclusion. It was just not cool and not satisfying to me. I don’t honestly know what ending I would have liked or preferred, but this certainly wasn’t the one.
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Otherwise, the film is well made across the board. It is solidly directed by an inexperienced director and very well paced with never a dull moment and it flies by how short and investing it is. The humor is also quite solid, although sparse. The dialogue is easily the highlight of this film as all of those discussions about crime, emotion and people between the two friends are the standout moments in this film. The two have a lot of interesting things to say and I was engaged throughout their conversations. I also liked their odd friendship quite a bit.
Even though it disappointed me a lot with that messy ending, Thoroughbreds is still a very good, strange indie film which is pretty original in its mix of genres and very effective throughout its short runtime. The dialogue is involving and interesting, the plot is original and the performances from Olivia Cooke and especially Anya-Taylor Joy are both superb and a strong showcase of how talented both of them are. Anton Yelchin is also very good in what is tragically his last performance.
