After missing out seeing Quentin Tarantino’s The Hateful Eight, I didn’t expect to see a 2015 western, let alone a great one.
I was wrong.
Slow West is an excellent western: more gripping than the Coen Brothers’ True Grit remake, and better paced than Tarantino’s previous western Django Unchained. The latter seems unexpected from a film called Slow West, but with its short run time, gripping storyline, and fascinating array of colorful characters, the film is both quick and memorable. What’s strange is the film still has time for lengthy dialogue and campfire stories, though the tales and discussions are themselves little gems. Slow West could be seen as an assembly of fascinating western short stories each around two to five minutes long, connected by one overarching journey of a naïve young gentleman named Jay (Kodi Smit-McPhee). Each section conveys a piece of the Old West’s brutality, before moving without hesitancy to another event. By the end, the pieces loosely connect through Jay’s journey, which represents the flicker of light within the gritty violence—allowing the film to end on a hopeful note rather than on complete bleakness.
Make no mistake, however, Slow West is brutal, and engaging, thoughtful, visually appealing, suspenseful, comedic (primarily in the black comedy sense) and delightfully entertaining. The film’s cinematography is breathtaking (as it should be for a western), in addition to being artistically creative with visual and sound effects. Acting wise, the film shines with Michael Fassbender sharing the spotlight as Jay’s mysterious escort Silas Selleck. Up until last year I wasn’t a big admirer of Fassbender (his role in Shame being the only real outliner), but after showcasing such a diverse array of impressive performances in Frank, 12 Years a Slave, Steve Jobs, and now Slow West, my tune has changed considerably. Smit-McPhee’s character, as previously stated, works to successfully contrast Slow West’s bleak themes, even when his role ends in brutal irony. The remaining cast are intriguing, unique characters, though their time in the limelight is brief—mostly because they’re dead after a few minutes of screen time. Until I finally see The Hateful Eight, I can’t state for certain if Slow West is the best 2015 western; I can, however, confirm Slow West is one of 2015’s best films, and a must-see for any film lover in general.
