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Sundance-winning western, the feature debut from writer-director John Maclean. Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) is the mysterious companion of...
Sundance-winning western, the feature debut from writer-director John Maclean. Michael Fassbender (12 Years a Slave) is the mysterious companion of a teenager (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Let Me In) as they traverse 19th century frontier America in search of the young man’s long-lost love. The film was shot in the New Zealand town of Twizel, Canterbury.
"Jay (Smit-McPhee) is a lovelorn 17-year-old Scottish aristocrat who travels to the American West at the close of the 19th century to track down his former lover. Confronted with the harsh realities of the frontier, he falls in with a rough and mysterious traveller named Silas (Fassbender), who soon discovers that the focus of Jay’s affection has a price on her head. Together, the two navigate a vast, untamed wilderness while attempting to stay one step ahead of a bloodthirsty posse and colourful bounty hunter. Their search leads to a bloody confrontation where Jay’s romanticism is the first of many casualties." (Sundance Film Festival)
Maclean, who was also a musician for The Beta Band and The Aliens, co-wrote a few of the songs on the film's soundtrack. "I wanted to use music in the same way as a film like Deliverance did," Maclean explains. "I was hoping if I put enough music in it, I wouldn’t have to put any music on it.”
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Where to watch Slow West
92 %134 reviewsRotten Tomatoes® rating
74 %11,815 reviewsAudience score rating
"The title Slow West might have you worried that you’re in for a long, boring, pretentious Western. Thankfully, writer-director John Maclean’s striking feature debut is the opposite kind of Western – it’s refreshingly concise, running shy of 90 minutes; it’s cleverly paced, using quieter scenes to elevate the impactful ones; and it’s uncompromisingly intelligent, never once turning into pompous art-wank."
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Flicks
Flicks"Has a distinctly Coen-esque flavor in its mix of sly intelligence, bleak humor and unsettling violence..."
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Variety
Variety"Like any good Western, Slow West percolates with the constant threat of violence, but debuting feature director John Maclean wrings the genre for its mythic value."
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Time Out
Time Out"An absurdist deconstruction of classic Hollywood westerns whose 21st-century view of frontier mythology is as sardonic as that of the Coen brothers."
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The New York Times
The New York Times"The word “slow” in the title is no lie, but the movie is far from boring."
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The Guardian
The Guardian"Often feels like the Coen brothers’ rendition of True Grit, if they’d brought Wes Anderson in as a collaborator."
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The Dissolve
The Dissolve"A western fable with an often dreamlike vibe... proves to be a surprisingly sly tale of passion, greed and survival."
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Los Angeles Times
Los Angeles Times"Maclean's screenplay is unshowy but keen."
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Hollywood Reporter
Hollywood ReporterSlow West | Details
Award winner- World Cinema Grand Jury Prize winner at Sundance Film Festival 2015; Cinematography, Production Design and Best Score, NZ Film Awards 2017
- Rating
- R13, Violence & offensive language
- Runtime
- 84
- Genre
- Action, Western
- Country of origin
- UK, New Zealand
