Wild Horse Nine (A PopEntertainment.com Movie Review)

PopEntertainment

11 minutes ago

4 min read

WILD HORSE NINE (2026)

Starring John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Tom Waits, Parker Posey, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Paola Giannini, Samuel Wayt, Bastián Bodenhöfer, Luciano Reinoso, Sofía Chacón, Laura Vila, Djure Gasic, Isabel Noriega, Mireya Sotoconil, Tongariki Teave, Jaime Omeñaca, Mauricio Pitta, John Heffernan, Poppy O'Shaughnessy and Moisés Angulo.

Screenplay by Martin McDonagh.

Directed by Martin McDonagh.

Distributed by Searchlight Pictures. 117 minutes. Rated R.

Screened at the 2026 Philadelphia Film Festival.

Wild Horse Nine puts a reviewer in a bit of a quandary. Is it okay to really enjoy a film if it is extremely well-written, made with spare style and purpose, well-acted and topically relevant, even if pretty much all of the characters are truly reprehensible people? This film is a look at CIA operatives in the early 1970s pulling strings behind the scenes and doing dirty work as Chile is on the verge of a coup.

These characters are violent, glib, dishonest, cavalier with human life, bumbling, duplicitous, accident-prone, substance abusers, unfeeling, dismissive and on a trip wire for extreme brutality. Hell, one of the characters here is widely believed among his peers to be the person who truly shot John F. Kennedy – and he never once denies it.

But, man, can they speak well.

Of course, this disconnect of subject and craft could be connected to most of the work of Irish playwright-turned-filmmaker Martin McDonagh. He has made a specialty of dubiously moral characters having extremely loquacious dark nights of the soul – everything from In Bruges, to Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, to Seven Psychopaths, to The Banshees of Inisherin. Honestly, Wild Horse Nine is very reminiscent of In Bruges – two ethically-compromised men having deep conversations while waiting around in a stunning tourist area – which is definitely meant as a compliment.

Although Wild Horse Nine revolves around the Chilean coup and starts in that country, most of the film takes place on Easter Island. Their reasons for being there are threefold. CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are keeping their eyes on two student protestors (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) who have come from Chile. Chris has always wanted to see the Island. And Chris has found he has terminal cancer and he wants Lee to kill him on the island – which is both scenic and loosely policed – before he is in too much pain.

Lee really doesn’t want to be there. He doesn’t really care about the scenery, he doesn’t want to have to kill his partner, and one of his superiors (Steve Buscemi) is pressuring him to spy on Chris, who the CIA believes is going rogue. To make sure Lee does their bidding, the Company seems to have kidnapped Lee’s harridan wife (Parker Posey).

Lee isn’t even certain that Chris remembers their deadly bargain. It was mentioned once a month earlier when Lee reluctantly agreed to it, and Chris has not mentioned it again. Yes, he is tying up loose ends in his life like trying to mend fences with his estranged brother (Tom Waits) and truly soaking in the visions of the Island, from the giant heads to the wild horses roaming free. Chris even tries, in his own way, to warn the student revolutionaries about the dangers of following their naïve ideals in a very treacherous world. But couldn’t that all just stem from the knowledge of terminal cancer?

Lots of shocking things happen on the island – most of which I can’t say due to spoilers – but the main thrust of the film is simply the two men talking and coming to terms with their careers and their lives.

Since the pleasures of Wild Horse Nine are so insular, it can only work if the performances live up to the writing, and boy, do they. Particularly good is Malkovich, finding new nuance in the type of tragically cynical man that he has often played. Chris is a habitual liar who has seen and done some horrific, soul-crushing things, but he still has an appreciation for beauty, nature, friendship and even the pure idealism of the student revolutionaries.

Rockwell’s Lee is in a more precarious position, becoming the middleman between Chris, the company and world events. But mostly he is just a good friend trying to be there for someone he has known most of his life as he goes through a challenging time. Rockwell plays Lee as deceptively jocular, projecting an easygoing acceptance of his place in the world while quietly revealing a deeply determined man underneath.

It’s also great to see Buscemi, who has been a bit scarce in film recently due to personal heartache, but who has had two flashy supporting roles in films at the Philly Film Festival this week – this one and The Only Living Pickpocket in New York. Buscemi’s CIA chief is duplicitous and very flawed, but Buscemi gives him surprising depth.

Tom Waits (who had worked with McDonagh before in Seven Psychopaths) radiates a cranky detachment in his one scene. It is one side of a phone conversation with Malkovich filmed with the two actors separately – Waits speaking from a gorgeous western vista, while Malkovich is across the world on Easter Island. The physical distance underscores their emotional distance, and it leads to one of the least cathartic reconciliation discussions in film history. Yet he and Malkovich play off of each other with prickly fondness.

Posey leans into the shrewish wife role with her trademark over-the-top style. Mariana di Girolamo radiates sweetness as seemingly the one truly good and pure character in the film. However, McDonagh is too cynical a writer to leave her innocence untouched, and watching her ideals erode under the influence of Chris and the harsh realities of the world around her becomes one of the film’s saddest turns.

It is quietly heartbreaking when Chris says, “She is life, and I'm leaving it.”

Jay S. Jacobs