On Swift Horses (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment
Apr 23
3 min read

ON SWIFT HORSES (2025)

Starring Daisy Edgar-Jones, Jacob Elordi, Will Poulter, Diego Calva, Sasha Calle, Kat Cunning, Don Swayze, Chad Coe, Heather Alexander, John Lee Ames, Eric Brenner, Patrick Burch, Dani Deetté, Jay Huguley, Andrew Keenan-Bolger, Jason Kravits, David Lovio, Kylar Miranda, Boone Platt, Ryan Shukis, Syd Skidmore, Nick Taylor, Maxi Witrak and Richard Allan Jones.

Screenplay by Bryce Kass.

Directed by Daniel Minahan.

Distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. 117 minutes. Rated R.

The 1950s were – obviously – not a very nurturing era for homosexuals. On Swift Horses tries to make a smart and artistic look at the conundrum of being gay in the buttoned-down white and straight world of the Eisenhower administration. When you see those “Making America Great Again” hats, this is the time period for which they are nostalgic.

But, like those hat-wearers, On Swift Horses takes a romanticized, somewhat inaccurate view of the past.

This is not just in tone; it is a problem that infects the entire film. On Swift Horses thinks that it is so much artier and more important than it ends up being that even the very good aspects of the film – and they are definitely there – end up suffering. There are just too many coincidences, too many inexplicable plot choices, too many hoary symbolic moments for this film to be the award-caliber fare that the filmmakers undoubtedly thought they were creating.

On Swift Horses also tries to merge forbidden love with high-stakes gambling, a narrative choice that somewhat trivializes both serious subjects.

However, Daisy Edgar-Jones and Jacob Elordi bring enough star power and personality to their roles that even though the film is imperfect and uneven, it is always watchable.

On Swift Horses takes on the tricky circumstance of a clueless straight white male whose brother is gay, and his wife is at the very least bi-curious. The brother and the wife seem to have a flirty connection that the husband doesn’t have with his spouse – but is that love, or friendship, or simply an understanding of each other’s outsider status in this very conservative era?

The brothers are Lee (Will Poulter) and Julius (Jacob Elordi), two Kansas farm boys who have done a tour of duty in the Korean War. When they get out – Julius is discharged six months before Lee – they plan to move west to San Diego and start a new life. A big part of that new life is Muriel, Lee’s fiancée.

However, the plan was always truly Lee’s dream. Julius claims to be onboard, but while Lee is still at war, Julius ends up in the new gambling capital, Las Vegas, working at a casino with some serious gangsters. While there, he meets and falls in love with his co-worker Henry (Diego Calva), a ne’er-do-well who has an idea for ripping off the casino.

Meanwhile, Muriel, who has had some doubts about life as a housewife, does move west with Lee. They buy a house in a newly sprouted suburban area in San Diego. However, she can’t deny her interest in a gambler’s wife she met at the track (Kat Cunning) and the lesbian woman (Sasha Calle) who lives next door to her and Lee.

In the meantime, Julius and Muriel have been in corresponding via mail behind Lee’s back. Therefore, when Julius appears in San Diego, there is the potential for their quiet suburban existence to be blown up.

As you can see, a lot is going on in On Swift Horses. Too much, sometimes, as the Julius and Muriel sections of the film often feel like two separate stories – as do the sex and gambling. Then things just appear out of nowhere, like nuclear testing outside of Vegas, a possible highway bypass and an orphaned racehorse.

It all feels like a novel – and it was based on a 2019 book of the same title by Shannon Pufahl. However, as a film, it feels a bit overstuffed. It doesn’t have the room to breathe or the time to explain potential plot holes like a novel would. Perhaps it would have worked better as a miniseries.

Jay S. Jacobs