Quartile rating: 7/10 · 1 rating
In the Old West, a 17-year-old Scottish boy teams up with a mysterious gunman to find the woman with whom he is infatuated.
Slow West is a lean, stylish neo-western with a distinctive voice — deadpan, elliptical, darkly comic, and visually striking. Director John Maclean brings a truly singular sensibility: the New Zealand landscape standing in for the American frontier, a wry European outsider perspective on Western mythology, and a tone that blends melancholy with absurdist humor in a way few westerns manage. Cinematography by Robbie Ryan is genuinely exceptional — composed with painterly precision, strong use of light and color, and memorable imagery throughout. The premise is slight and the romance at its core is thinly developed, keeping Plot from reaching the top tier. Acting is solid across the board — Fassbender is charismatic and Kodi Smit-McPhee effectively conveys naive idealism — but no performance is truly transformative. The ending delivers a sharp, ironic punch that suits the film's tone, though its impact depends heavily on setup that doesn't fully pay off emotionally, landing it in solid but not exceptional territory.