{"id":19355,"date":"2026-11-13T14:56:38","date_gmt":"2026-11-13T14:56:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=19355"},"modified":"2026-11-13T14:56:39","modified_gmt":"2026-11-13T14:56:39","slug":"review-wild-horse-nine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cinemacocoa.com\/?p=19355","title":{"rendered":"Review: Wild Horse Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The trailer sold a lighter movie than it actually is.

In the early 1970s, two CIA agents leave Santiago for Easter Island for a retreat of sorts. But the reason they are there isn’t as beign as it appears.

Wild Horse Nine<\/em> is the newest movie from writer-director Martin McDonagh (Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri<\/em>) and stars John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, and Steve Buscemi. Joining them is Ail\u00edn Salas and Mariana di Girolamo. The film is less like Three Billboards<\/em> and more like McDonagh’s other movies, In Bruges <\/em>and The Banshees of Inisherin<\/em>. The plot focussing very closely on two characters and the undulating status of their relationship. All while exploring a beautiful location.

This film though, was not what I expected it to be.

The story follows CIA hitmen Lee and Chris. Lee (Rockwell) is taking Chris (Malkovich) to Easter Island at the behest of their superior MJ (Buscemi). They leave behind Santiago, Chile, and arrive at Easter Island. But it isn’t long before the audience learn that this is a farewell trip for Chris, who is imminently dying from cancer. Lee struggles to follow Chris’s degredating speech and train of thought, especially with his boss (and his wife) pestering him over the phone. But while Chris indulges with the blissful holiday, grim truths about their work come out. Intentional or not. Something else is going on…
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Malkovich and Rockwell having a blast as Chris and Lee<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n


As with all of McDonagh’s work so far, we have some strong character performances here. There’s no denying it. Sam Rockwell is an alternative Colin Farrell in every sense, while Malkovich is proving just how good an actor he really is. Not to say Rockwell is following someone else, but the same energy is very apparent. Some great expressions of bewilderment and befuddlement against his co-star’s glib statements and phrasing. His performance only enhances Malkovich’s.

This is where all of the levity lies. In the chemistry these two have. But it also relies a lot on Malkovich’s performance as a man whose brain is being destroyed by cancer. It… feels sad a lot of the time. While the Chris character is clearly an aging assassin and has done terrible things, we aren’t privy to them. So for the first half of the film, the comedy is just: isn’t it funny when he says the inappropriate thing? Then there would be very random diatribes, which get a laugh because its so bizarre. The comedy is funny only in brief moments.

The film looks beautiful. McDonagh knows how to shoot wide open spaces of nature. The location is clearly the real island, Rapa Nui, and it looks gorgeous. Complete with the “big heads” as Chris calls them. Coupled with that are period-accurate vehicles, clothing, and interiors. The trailer seems to lean into the “hip 70s” vibe, which really isn’t the movie’s theme… at all.

The movie’s theme is about fascism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n


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Mariana di Girolamo enjoys sand and sun with Malkovich<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n



The trailer’s music promotes a high energy 70’s caper. Tying in with the movie’s glib, silly dialogue. To watch the trailer in a honest light, pretend the music isn’t playing.

Because the silly dialogue is barely relevant. Half of the silly dialogue is actually deadly serious, when all the cards are on the table. The fictional storyline is a hidden mystery that is unfolded during Chris and Lee’s little holiday. But to unfold it is to reveal how damaged and sad Chris actually is. This is compounded by two women from Santiago who coincidentally are holidaying with them. Played by Ail\u00edn Salas and Mariana di Girolamo.

These two women represent Santiago’s democracy. Which the two CIA men’s presence is literally here to disrupt. This film takes place not long before the Chilean coup d’\u00e9tat. With the CIA, working under Nixon, helped to fulfill. Chris, Lee, MJ, and other major players in this film, are terrible <\/em>people. There are clashes of agency and ideology whenever these women meet our protagonists.

Yeah, real… fun… movie.

This film is highly political, evidently. With the character of Chris in its centre. Malkovich plays a blinder here; for the first act we don’t know how to accept him. For the second act we learn to empathise with him. By the end, it is a mixture of empathy and regret and fear. But the movie’s conclusion is not some satire, or piece of levity. It leaves it partly up to interpretation and partly wallowing in reality. These men are terrorists. They are part of a machine that ruins people’s lives deliberately and irreparably.

There is an argument to be made that through regrets shown, aand a symbolic gesture, that hope lives. But given reality, it is faint optimism. Ultimately I feel a bit misled by the trailer. Malkovich nails it, though. If you are a fan of his work and can manage a piece of light fiction about the destruction of democracy, check it out?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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