By Joanna Orland
There are funny moments, funny lines, funny deliveries, and familiar territory covered in Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine. The film sees the singular McDonagh bring his cutting humour to Chile and Easter Island, in a tonally awkward riff on some of his most beloved work. Like In Bruges, Wild Horse Nine is a story of male friendship, juxtaposed against ingrained brutality and violence. Unlike In Bruges, Wild Horse Nine is an absolute slog.
There’s a certain expectation that comes with a Martin McDonagh film. The intertwined friendships and violence are a part of what he’s good at writing, but it’s his sharp dialogue that usually brings his scripts to life. Wild Horse Nine has both of these things, yet instead of feeling clever or interesting, the film feels self-smug and jarring. There are moments of humour and pathos, but primarily McDonagh’s words stick out like a sore thumb when delivered by CIA agents in 1970s Chile.
Martin McDonagh’s Script Isn’t As Clever as It Thinks It Is
Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are two CIA agents who have been sent to Chile to covertly destabilize the country’s democracy. They’re on a muddy mission in Easter Island, where Chris is facing an existential crisis over his past, and Lee is facing a moral crisis over what to do about Chris.
Unlike previous McDonagh greats like In Bruges or The Banshees of Inisherin, the central relationship isn’t as much the focus here. There are CIA conspiracies, plot twists that are predictable, and a host of other distractions peppered throughout. Not that McDonagh’s only good work has been about male friendship, but Wild Horse Nine is trying to do too many things, and it doesn’t do any of them well.
The film does have some excellent and classic McDonagh-style writing. It comes in waves, rather than washing over you, and it feels like it’s written to be clever rather than suit the story or characters. It’s verbose for the sake of it, and McDonagh’s poetic Irish way is lost in the American intonation.
The script serves only the writer and not the characters, as their narrative and arcs feel played for jokes rather than authenticity. The jokes are not funny or frequent enough. There are a few, there are always at least a few even in the worst of McDonagh’s work, but they’re fleeting and exhausting to wait for between long stretches of exposition and opinion.
Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, and Parker Posey Find Their Way With the Dialogue
Sam Rockwell obviously knows what to do with a Martin McDonagh script and manages to thrive in one of the filmmaker’s weakest films yet. Steve Buscemi also seems to know how to work a McDonagh script, masterfully delivering his jokes in a surprising and fresh way.
The absolutely perfect addition to McDonagh’s ensemble is Parker Posey as Lee’s wife, Marge. She feels so natural in this absurd character and script that she dominates it with her usual flamboyancy, so much so that it almost feels like she’s gone off script to improvise and inhabit this character. If the entire movie were about Lee and Marge, it would have been a better, or at least funnier, and more interesting one.
A Martin McDonagh Film Should Be Better Than This
This pairing of McDonagh and Malkovich does neither of them any favours. Despite being wonderful talents individually, together they are less than the sum of their parts. John Malkovich is a wonderful actor and can add pathos to Chris’ emotional and character arc, but McDonagh’s words sound clunky coming out of his mouth. He almost trips over them as they take over from his emotional performance, stunting it and creating an incongruency between the genuineness of the character and the believability of what he’s saying.
Of all McDonagh’s previous work, Wild Horse Nine most resembles Seven Psychopaths, but without the wild rogue energy that made that one more fun. This one is laborious to sit through, and even the saving grace of Sam Rockwell, along with the small but cutting roles that Buscemi and Posey play, cannot truly salvage it.
Does Wild Horse Nine get both harsher critiques and more favourable consideration because it’s coming from the usually witty and acerbic Martin McDonagh? Absolutely. Is it a film that works on its own merit? Absolutely not. The McDonagh name may raise expectations, but Wild Horse Nine does almost neigh to meet them.
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Wild Horse Nine
Directed by Martin McDonagh
Starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Mariana Di Girolamo, Ailin Salas, Tom Waits, and Parker Posey
Reviewed at TIFF 2026
