Slow West

Slow West feels like propaganda made to discourage anyone from time-traveling back to the Old West. At one point, a man gets shot in the chest. As he falls, a stray bullet hits a salt jar on a shelf above him, spilling salt into his gaping wound. Life back then sucked.

And that's precisely what's so refreshing about this movie: It doesn't romanticize gunslinging. Instead, it focuses on the day-to-day indignities of living on a horse, constantly in danger of being robbed, murdered, or caught in a flash flood and forced to ride the next day in your underwear while your only clothes dry out. It makes a dusty genre feel distinctly modern.

The audience surrogate in this fascinating unpleasantness is Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a wealthy Scottish boy who sets off across the brutal country in search of his lost love. He makes one face the entire time: stunned but resolute, as if he just stepped in something unexpectedly squishy and wet, but he isn't about to look down to see what it is. That, for nearly 90 minutes. Meanwhile, he lucks into the protective custody of Silas (Michael Fassbender), a quiet desperado with an improbable number of cigars for a guy living out of his saddlebags.

It's not surprising that this version of the American legend is so unromanticized, since its creator is about as far from a cowboy as you can imagine. If you guessed keyboardist in a Scottish folktronica group from the '90s, 10 points for Gryffindor! Slow West was written and directed by John Maclean, the former Beta Band member who left music to make this Sundance favorite about people and salt jars getting shot at.

While a number of Italian directors helped glorify cowboys in the spaghetti Westerns of the '60s, this, um, haggis Western, tries hard to undermine the cowboytriarchy. Maclean even chose to film in New Zealand instead of Colorado, meaning the production benefited Middle-earth more than the actual Western states.

Consider it the equivalent of a peaty Scotch instead of a fine bourbon—both will get you drunk, robbed and left out in your underpants. 

Critic's Grade: A-

SEE IT: Slow West opens Friday at Cinema 21.

WWeek 2015