Thoroughbreds (dir. Cory Finley)

Cory Finley's directorial debut "Throughbreds" made waves during it's premiere run at Sundance Film Festival last year, and finally trickles into cinemas with the daunting task of being labeled the last film of the late talent Anton Yelchin's impressive career- cut short in a freak accident at his Hollywood home. Though there should be an equal outpour of sympathy for the American actor's untimely demise, there's plenty here to make it a worthwhile dedication to the Star Trek star , as this dark-comedy finds intrigue and profundity in the darkest caverns of the adolescent female psyche, while still maintinatng an original edge rarely seen in a first-time director’s arsenal. 

The setting is shrewdly chosen as the upper-class suburban white neighborhood of Greenwich, Connecticut, which houses the affluent members of society keen to remove themselves from the hustle and bustle of the neighbouring New York. Our central duo Amanda (Olivia Cooke) and Lily (Ana Taylor-Joy) are old-school friends who have recently reunited in the form of a play date masquerading as a tutoring lesson- orchestrated by Amanda’s mom in a vein attempt to get her to socialize. It’s clear early on why they’re no longer friends - they’re complete opposites to each other: Amanda boasts her work ethic extends merely to “Steve jobs-ing my way through life” - whilst Lily is hoping to get into a big college and follow her dreams. Early sequences seem to suggest the bad influence which Amanda could have over her honor student former friend- as she says things like “I don’t feel anything - I have to work harder to make people think I’m normal” - but as they begin to rekindle their friendship and start to figure out what types of woman they’ve become since their younger years frollicking on horses, a repressed anger starts to perculate - and a harebrained idea materializes. 

For a while, Finley keeps us on our toes as to what the mischief the girls will get up to -  but the remaining question is: who is the worse of the two? Amanda is something of the societal priaha of late - her reputation scared by a incident with her prized horse for which she is facing an animal cruelty charge (she botched the euthinazatoon and ended up stabbing it with a knife) and many of the similarly aged youths in her town view her simply as "the freak". They seem to bond on their attitudes toward taking a life, and a complex morality argument is put on the table - Amanda likens the act to an act of need, like  “putting a sick dog down” - but then their relationship is put to the test, and Lily’s true colors start to resemble something closer to reality (Amanda finds out that Lily’s life is pretty much a lie - she’s been removed from school for plagairsaing and hasn’t been working an internship like she mentioned). It all seems to stem from her disgust on her mom’s new husband Paul Sparks; his taciturn approach to parenting, which involves long stares and and a old-fashioned army captain demeanor run contrary to Lily’s calm and collected spirit - so then comes the idea to bump him off, as Amanda says so nonchalantly; “Do you ever think of just killing him?” - and so they do. 

But they can’t do it alone, here comes Yelchin’s Tim - a idiotic local drug dealer with a god-complex and a shady criminal past. He’s introduced to us trying to sell drugs to pre-teen party dwellers early on, which is where he first meets Lily - they bond on the nature of growing up and the machinations of small town suburbia before our heroines blackmail him into committing the murder for themselves, offering him the chance to bump off Paul Sparks or face a lengthy drug charge. It’s fair to say it’s an underwritten role for the late Yelchin - though his ability to be both preposterously imbelicic in his rhetoric; “In ten years i’m going to be running this town” and indeed sympathetic when the drama asks him to be is a credit to the thespians well honed craft,  and it's fair to say his cinematic presence will be sorely missed (those of you who haven’t already should seek out LIKE CRAZY).

Anchoring the drama is Finley’s acerbic script, which he adapted from his stage -play of the same name. Peppering the dialogue with enough zany one-liners and witty to-and-fro’s garner a generous dollop of chuckles, and as the murder-plot plays out they get more and more fruitful - 'The only thing worse than being incompetent or being unkind or being evil is being indecisive, so says Amanda shepherding Lily with a gun. In the background of the milieu is the most impressive element to Finely’s already multi-faceted bow, creating an atmospheric tone not to dissimilar to that in Park Chan Wooks “Stoker”, as his camera weaves and meanders around the magnificent abode that much of the drama takes place in, there’s a sense of dread and brooding resentment in the opulent materialism - helped immensely also by the piercing and jaunting score. 

Some theatrical productions find it difficult when translating to the big-screen, as audiences can become to aware of it’s constricted landscapes and wordy narrative. Thankfully this is not the case with Finley’s spectacular satire, as he manages to find pathos and empathy in two characters moaning about their privileged backgrounds and achieves the right satirical undertones on the constant battle the millennial has with growing up in a world surrounded with artifice. In the end, you’re not even sure if Lily’s step-father is really that bad of a guy- and that’s the point: so occupied are our titular heroines with self-interest that they aren’t able to understand his parental responsibilities - and that when he berates her for her tardiness and disciplines her for her indiscretions - he’s just doing his job. 

Though Finley’s melodrama holds back on his blood and guts action, which many will feel its building up to- there’s enough here to sink your teeth into. Even if the set-up has been explored a million times elsewhere, there’s a genuine feel of originality about the piece, and given the reception it received during it’s run at Sundance in 2017 (when it was interestingly named Thoroughbred) - this satire on the feebleness of pre-teen immaturity and the psychological weapon that is the confused mind shows real promise for our new indie directing star. 

Rating 3/5