Cory Finley’s directoral debut, THOROUGHBREDS, is a marvel of an entertainment. Thematically rich and resonant with layered characters that you understand and find disturbingly human. The direction is artful and the performances are jaw-droppingly sublime.
The film follows Lily and Amanda (Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke, respectively), old middle school friends who find each other again when Lily is hired to tutor Amanda for an entrance exam. They bond over Lily’s hatred for her stepfather (Paul Sparks in an understated turn), and eventually hatch a murder plot that ropes in lowlife Tim (Anton Yelchin, the late and great) and things do not go as you might expect.
The film takes light, but sharp, jabs at the phoniness of ‘friendships’ such as Lily and Amanda’s. They only feed off each other to suit their own needs, Amanda is an outcast but too tone deaf or apathetic to do anything about it, and Lily is a narcissist, aiming to do anything in her power to get those she does not like out of her way. This all feeds into scathing satire on class hierarchy. They hire Tim to do the killing because they shouldn’t get their hands dirty because they’re ‘good kids’ with ‘futures’, and there are few if any outward expressions of rage. Taylor-Joy and Cooke’s performances are both very restrained, almost as if outright anger and hate would be beneath them.
The acting is uniformly excellent with Anya Taylor-Joy being the standout. She had a strong start in THE WITCH, and while SPLIT wasn’t quite up it to that standard (it was still good!), THOROUGHBREDS establishes her as one of the best young actresses working right now. The only other movie I’d seen Olivia Cooke in was ME, EARL AND THE DYING GIRL, and she was o.k. in that even if the movie was bad. THOROUGHBREDS allows her talent to shine through, offering a dark, brooding performance.
One of the more desirable elements of THOROUGHBREDS is that it has no problem taking its time. It’s the sign of a great director when they can meander and then continue to hold the audience’s interest. This is a film focused on its characters and it never misses a stroke. Even if there are touches of Hitchcock, it is not laden with set-pieces.
THOROUGHBREDS is a strong start to a promising year, with masterful pacing and acting, as well as well-utilized visual symbolism. A strong recommendation.
Written by Jeff Turner
