Rented a flick on iTunes called Thoroughbreds, a flick that is critics compared to Heathers (in a good way) when it was first released earlier this year. It’s a decent comparison… this film shares the same darkly humorous DNA of terrible high school girls with that film. Something tells me Heathers ultimately has more on its mean girl mind, but this is a pretty good flick too.
The film features two disaffected teen girls… one rich but on the outs at school, the other who did unspeakable things to a horse with a knife. The second girl suggests she has no emotions at all… but she does need tutoring which bring the two girls together. Something else that brings them together: an interest in murdering one of their step-fathers.
Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy star as the two girls and they are very good playing emotionally disaffected youths. Olivia Cooke is the one with doesn’t have the emotions, though she does explain how to turn them on and off as needed. Anya Taylor-Joy is the other girl and she starts sunny and peppy which is very rare for this young actress. I’d only seen her previously in the movies Morgan, The Witch, and Split where she played similar subdued and troubles girls. So it was nice to see she can actually smile.
Also starring in the movie is Anton Yelchin… this was apparently his final performance before dying. He plays the local drug dealer who they somewhat ineptly hire (against his will) to off the step-dad. Good performance, not much of a stretch for him but good anyway.
The movie’s first half is really good – more of a character piece about the two young actresses. But the closer it gets to its murder plot, the more it kind of starts to lose its way. It doesn’t flounder so much as laze around indifferently. I kept waiting for some biting comedy, darker moments… something to liven things up. But the longer it goes, the more emotionless and static the film is. This might have been intentional… to show how the girls’ emotions are shutting down, but it did suck the life out of the flick.
But overall, this just means it goes from a pretty great movie to just a good one. I did enjoy the film and I think I might get more out of it if I ever see it again. Not sure I will… but it’s certainly worth seeing once. Especially if you like disaffected youth films with a darkly humorous edge. Sometimes very dark. Sometimes gloomy.
Score: 8419