Images courtesy of Searchlight Pictures
WILD HORSE NINE— 5 STARS
Before we get to the incredibly turbulent Wild Horse Nine, we need to measure one’s memory and calendar. Be honest. What was the last John Malkovich movie you watched? Was one of his three indie or international flicks—The Yellow Tie, In the Hand of Dante, or Opus—from last year in 2025? Can you make it within the past decade with one of his collaborations with Mark Wahlberg, Mile 22 in 2018 or Deepwater Horizon in 2016, or do you need to go all the way back to Warm Bodies or a pair of RED movies? Worst-case scenario, has John been out of your gaze since his 1990s prime with Con Air, Rounders, In the Line of Fire, and, of course, Being John Malkovich? In all honesty, thanks to the COVID-19 streaming days, I can attest that my last experience was 2020’s Arkansas alongside Vince Vaughn, yet even then, his background heel role didn’t garner a mention in that review. Nevertheless, that’s still too long.
LESSON #1: FORGETTING ABOUT GREAT ACTORS— Sometimes—and we shouldn’t do this—we forget about a great actor like John Malkovich. For whatever reasons, they’ve been cast less frequently, have had their prominent roles reduced, or they have aged out of their top-lining prime. This happens the worst for women over 40, when casting directors, producers, and other powers-that-be have collectively decided that they have passed the optimum arm candy age to be an attainable romantic interest and get stuck playing wives and moms for what seems to be the remainder of their careers, unless a true plum part comes along. Look no further than Amy Adams and Anne Hathaway right now.
More often than not, the talent and prowess we remembered them for have never vanished. It just takes the right material and opportunity. Like Frances McDormand and Brendan Gleeson before Malkovich, Oscar-winning Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin filmmaker Martin McDonagh has created a tailor-made showcase for his chosen offbeat lead. Front and center alongside Academy Award winner Sam Rockwell at the age of 72, John gets to relish and enjoy his best role in decades with Wild Horse Nine. Applying the full breadth of his capabilities, the reminder of his eminence is immediate. Cue the WWE “You still got it” chants.
In Wild Horse Nine, Malkovich plays aging CIA agent Chris Carlisle, currently stationed in Santiago, Chile, in 1973 with his trusty partner Lee Chesterfield (Rockwell) under the lead of MJ (a very game Steve Buscemi), the bureau chief. Slurring clandestine history behind the scenes of that South American country’s coup d’état that same year, their characters are there to destabilize democracy, something Chris has vast experience conducting, including operations in Congo, Guatemala, and the internal legend that he was the gunman on the grassy knoll on a fateful day in Dallas, Texas, ten years earlier. Facing an overdue retirement and nursing terminal cancer, Chris is reflecting on his tumultuous career. He used to like the work, but he’s questioning and regretting old actions.
LESSON #2: THE HABITS OF A COMPULSIVE LIAR— Call it an occupational hazard (or skill, from another perspective), but Chris Carlisle and Lee Chesterfield are world-class liars. Chris specializes in creatively inaccurate asides, waxing on about trivia and stories on any number of topics, be it cheese, geography, or terrorist history. As the audience, our challenge, even when we know they’re spies and expect trickery, is spotting the lies versus the truth when we see these characters outside of a proverbial “mission.” While such verbal creativity is a necessity and can lead to infiltrative gain, the moral carelessness and apathy have bled into their everyday lives. As it turns out, this habitual behavior has cost both men most of their personal relationships, like Lee’s beleaguered wife at home, Marge (Parker Posey), and the toll of that is showing when they can’t meet new people or even trust each other’s word after all their years together.
Turning Wild Horse Nine into a picturesque travelogue film for a stretch, fleshed out by pristine natural cinematography by McDonagh and MCU regular Ben Davis and a dreamy score from veteran composer Carter Burwell, Lee is accompanying Chris on a vacation to Easter Island to see the famous wild horses and moai statues. Along the way, they clumsily endear themselves to a pair of fellow travelers, in the form of two Chileans, Monica and Alicia (Kill the Jockey’s Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas of The Astronaut Lovers, respectively). Treating the trip as a comfortable indulgence, Chris has an itch to write a memoir of his exploits, something MJ, knowing the conspiracy theories that would explode with those divulgences, wants to prevent. This holiday is also a last healthy hurrah for the ailing Chris as he stares down mortality.
LESSON #3: PROFESSIONAL LOYALTY VERSUS PERSONAL LOYALTY— Caught in the middle of a loyalty tug-of-war is Lee Chesterfield. On one side, MJ has tasked him with making sure Chris never documents or completes his autobiography at any cost. Yet, amid all the hassles over the years, Chris has always defended and covered for Chris’s lapses, and genuinely cares about him outside the unconventional workplace. More importantly, Chris has poignantly asked Lee to be the one to kill him before the CIA, dementia, or cancer can do it first. What lies ahead becomes the most severe test of true friendship, chalked up with the emoted shrug of “Sometimes you’ve got to do a terrible thing for the greater good.”
LESSON #4: GALLOWS HUMOR AT ITS FINEST— The result of this potentially violent conundrum is some of the rawest forms of comedy and tragedy smashed together in a serene place. True to every Martin McDonagh film since his hit feature debut of In Bruges, the Irish writer and director washes down every hard pill to swallow with a tall, frothy glass of dark comedy. McDonagh’s surly language can both incite or heal tension at any given moment. Death is on the doorstep of just about everyone involved—making survivability excitingly unpredictable—and we cannot help but grin between jaw drops. That effect only works with strong performers who understand McDonagh’s brusque wavelength.
It’s a marvel how well this entire Wild Horse Nine ensemble fits it in a tall tale, rife with twists, populated with rightly pessimistic people. In their supporting roles, Steve Buscemi, playing the “be professional” boss as if he time-traveled straight from Reservoir Dogs, and the properly uncouth and frazzled Parker Posey are game new additions for this pace of dialogue. Higher up the marquee, Sam Rockwell is a known quantity with his vivacious gift of gab, but we should not discount how a sizable amount of the heavy theatrics behind the crass comebacks and rat-a-tat dialogue made by this extreme exercise in gallows humor lie on his, once again, award-worthy shoulders.
The true performative centerpiece of Wild Horse Nine remains John Malkovich. When necessary, his signature sternness as a longtime professional movie villain can still stare a hole through screen partners. You never doubt that Chris Carlisle is a formidable assassin or agent of chaos, yet there’s a man of venerable stature beneath that exterior matching both the aura of the seasoned character and the great actor playing him. Malkovich’s shifty range of mannerisms and flowery delivery, jolted up when shouting profanities or dialed down when quietly taking stock of circumstances, can disarm on-screen opponents and derail the emotional momentum and, moreover, the entire picture. The wringer of this combination of tickling ribs at one moment and breaking our hearts at others is extraordinary and, arguably, the best lead performance of the year.
LOGO DESIGNED BY MEENTS ILLUSTRATED (#1445)
