Thoroughbreds

This is one of the worst movies that I have ever seen. Certainly the very worst of 2018, I really doubt that another film can beat that title out of it. To sum up: an ultra slow hour and half with the "nothing-really-happens" feeling. Just two female teenagers talking idiocies, and then, a "could-be-a-great-character-to-contribute-to-the-plot" Anton Yelchin (R.I.P.) comes along... with nothing to contribute with, but an awfuly wasted final role. Trust me, you don't wannna see this pretentious "art film" that fooled many people (including me) with false advertising of an "American Psychoish film", it has nothing to do with it. This movie is just a mess-up executed idea of a 28 year old weirdo. I wish he stops at filmmaking ASAP.

I saw some very high ratings of this movie, but I am convinced that the people who left those high ratings are people who were involved in the movie trying to trick more people into watching this piece of trash. I only gave it a star because I had to but honestly it wasn't worth a star at all. I only watched it because I love Anton Yelchin and this was has last movie before his untimely passing.

Jill (Anya Taylor-Joy) seems to have it all...a huge and ultra- expensive home, an expensive prep school education and more. Why, exactly, she's tutoring Amanda (Olivia Cooke) is uncertain...as it isn't like she needs the money. And, the pair seem incredibly mismatched. Jill looks like a cover model for Young Debutante Magazine while Amanda is clearly mentally ill...but not in a conventional sense. Instead she has a cluster of personality disorders...most likely an Antisocial Personality and a Schizoid Personality. This means that she doesn't particularly like people...nor does she hate them. She is disconnected and has learned to pretend she has normal emotions but down deep she simply doesn't care about others. But, oddly, the pair finally do begin bonding...and Jill would like her antisocial friend to give her advice on how to murder her step-father! Apart from being Anton Yelchin's final film, it's well worth watching because it shows a very rare sort of person...but one who does exist out there and could potentially be a danger to others. Fascinating throughout with some standout performances...my only quibble, and it's a little one, is that the resolution at the end seemed a bit hard to believe...entertaining but hard to believe.

I watched it through but should have walked out. The script was quite ridiculous realised by very capable actresses. I can see no reason why this film was made it was drivel!

Directory Cory Finley commits the ultimate sin in dead-eyed boarding school thriller. He bored the audience. The movie starts strong with two attractive teens who lost touch at one point in their childhood, and re-connect under different circumstances. Dead on the inside as well as the out, Lily, the wealthier of the two, conspire to murder the (also cold) step-father. It is a massive disservice to compare this to "Heathers" as all the other ignorant reviewers have done thus far. Apparently you're all clueless to the superior "Heavenly Creatures" that treads into the same territory with much more logic. There isn't moment that is what you would sense is a will-they or won't they. They're annoying. And in a shocking image that is seared into my brain, the gratuitous shot of poor Anya Taylor-Joy's kankled feet that instantly turned a stunning thoroughbred into a...mule. The air of the movie is also very much Bret Easton Ellis. Rich and bored and violent. I'm certain a transcript of a book form of this movie requires it goes further than they are willing to do. The only breath of fresh air is Anton Yelchin's Tim. A sweat-drenched drug dealer who satellites a high school living past his youth. He is pitch perfect as that guy who is confused about life but maintains a low-level existence of false dreams and hopes. You get the sense he was raised in upper-middle class and made one too many mistakes with his phony spiel about future success. In this case, he is yanked around by these two harpies who can't decide a direction in life. The ultimate question goes unanswered. The why. There is no other reason for Lily to deal with her situation other than to put herself in other situations. The movie tells you that. It certainly doesn't show you. The step-father doesn't warrant abuse or sass-back nor do you ever have any evidence the mother is treated poorly. Are we to surmise this is but a spoiled brat's view of neglect? Who knows? And then...who cares? I get what the movie is attempting. It's a VERY fine line that when done wrong (as in this fashion) it is aggravating. When done right (as in "Heavenly Creatures") it is mesmerizing. I get why this was dumped post award race artsy fartsy indie. And, in some odd sense, I get an uneasy feeling it may be re-released later in the year due to critics praising it ala "Get Out."

I am one of those viewers that really relies on critics overall opinions when it comes to film. If a film is in the red category on metacritic, I stay away. It is rare that I disagree with the consensus on well reviewed films but this is one of those times. Not one character in the film had a shred of redeeming characteristics. In fact , Olivia Cooke's opening scene establishes her as way more despicable than anything she does throughout the film. The director employs some nice styles in the film but uses the same one several times with very long shots on a character that is doing nothing while something significant is happening off screen. I am reminded of Jim Jarmusch films in that way, only his thing was to kind of keep a shot on a character after the action had subsided . Those were ten and twenty second shots. The scenes in this film were a minute or two. Translation-slow and boring. Avoid this one other than to see Anton Yelchin for the last time, but his role was not a huge part of the film or at least not screen time wise.

I never write reviews, but created an account to write this review. I wanted to walk out on this movie. The person I was attending the movie with did not want to leave, but afterwards, they wished we had. When we left, people looked like I did, like they were trying to shake off a bad nightmare. I walked out wondering why the directors made it, why the screenwriter wrote it, and why this kind of negative messaging is allowed out into our culture. Another review called this film art. This film is not art. It's a film that never should have made it to the theaters.

This movie...if you can actually call it that, is the epitome of everything wrong with today's cinema. For starters: the pace was slow AF. Paint drying would be more interesting. The two lead girl characters are dead inside. I begin wishing they'd murder/suicide one another in the first 5 mins. As I sat there, knowing I wasted my money and life on visual poisoning, I held down my vomit and urge to scream "why." Watch at your own peril. You've been warned.

Thoroughbreds (2017). Chipper F. Xavier, Esq. Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a spoiled, rich kid in Connecticut, living the good life at home with her mother and step-dad Mark (Paul Sparks). When her former friend Amanda (Olivia Cooke), a social misfit, is in need of tutoring for college entrance exams, the two girls rekindle their friendship and bond over their shared dislike of Lily's step-dad. Unfortunately, Mark blindsides Lily by threatening to send her to a boarding school far from home, and the girls decide to take matters into their own hands, with disastrous results. Thoroughbreds is clearly a masterpiece - even when it reveals the disgusting viscera which lies beneath the most attractive human beings. Is "pretty" only something we wear? Is "good" a thing we can see? Do the good guys always wear white? Or is our civility really a mask that we put on and remove at will? Cooke as Amanda clearly and expertly challenges our perceptions as the token sociopath, while Anton Yelchin, in his final screen performance as Tim, rounds out the roster of deplorable characters as a statutory rapist and drug-czar-to-teenagers. But wait - just when you think you know the direction writer-director Cory Finley wants to take us, the plot shifts, and the true monster is revealed. Cooke and Taylor-Joy shine throughout this lushly filmed nightmare as privileged girls who refuse to succumb to the banality of their exclusive lifestyle. Their acting is effortless and convincing, which makes this story all the more insidious. The genius behind this film is self-evident, but like many great works of art, it proves a bitter pill to swallow in the end.

I wanted to like this film. But overall it is fairly poor. The only standout is return to "shining" type cam shots and visuals. These were interesting as novelty when introduced 40 years ago, but were dropped from good filmmaking for good reason. Ultimately this will appeal to filmgoers who like to be manipulated by technique instead of told a story. Even the deus ex machine ending is such a cop out that everyone left the screening shaking their heads.