Slow West 2015

Kyle Smith, New York Post: "Slow West" certainly lives up to its title: It's one poky Western, plodding and perambulating and moseying across the 1870 frontier on a grim march to a pointless ending. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: John Maclean's impeccably crafted writing-directing debut at times has a distinctly Coen-esque flavor in its mix of sly intelligence, bleak humor and unsettling violence, exuding fierce confidence even when these qualities don't always cohere. Read more

Mike D'Angelo, AV Club: Maclean has something worthwhile to say about the true brutality of the old West, especially as it relates to immigration, but he hasn't quite found a compelling context for those musings, and he sprays ideas like buckshot. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: It's always entertaining to see a genre tweaked, at least when it's done so with the proper mix of respect and madness at work in "Slow West." Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: It's all of 84 minutes. But when it's done, you know you've seen something. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Writer-director John Maclean insists at every opportunity that the American west teemed with brutality and that every positive myth about the region was built on a lie, yet he doesn't deliver this familiar revisionist history with much force. Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: The film is too artsy for its own good, but it has some marvelous Coen Brothers-style black humor. Read more

John DeFore, Hollywood Reporter: A wholly enjoyable buddy Western punctuated by occasional shocks of black humor. Read more

Gary Goldstein, Los Angeles Times: A western fable with an often dreamlike vibe, "Slow West" proves to be a surprisingly sly tale of passion, greed and survival. Read more

Anthony Lane, New Yorker: Just as your attention starts to wander, "Slow West" pulls it up short. The director is John Maclean, making his debut, and, if he demonstrates how hard it is to handle whimsy, he more than atones for it ... Read more

Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: This is a western through alternative eyes and ears, though what motivates everyone in it - love, money, fear, redemption - is as familiar as an old pair of boots. Read more

Stephen Holden, New York Times: An absurdist deconstruction of classic Hollywood westerns whose 21st-century view of frontier mythology is as sardonic as that of the Coen brothers. Read more

Molly Eichel, Philadelphia Inquirer: Maclean's film is a wonderfully dreamy, if meandering, take on the western. Like all movies that use their fantastic surroundings, Slow West is best seen on a big screen. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Like most genre manipulations, the film feels one step removed from inspiration - that is, more inspired by other movies than by direct experience. It also lives up to its name. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: The story builds to an ironic anticlimax that few of the films that inspired this one would embrace. Read more

David Sims, The Atlantic: Slow West crescendos into a bravura shootout between all the involved parties, and it's as gorgeous, nihilistic, and brutally sad as the rest of the film. Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: There's more to the story than meets the bull's eye in Slow West, a brainy and genre-defying western by newcomer John Maclean. Read more

Alonso Duralde, TheWrap: Might meander a bit, but it never gets lost, and while the film is currently available on demand, it takes a big screen to fully appreciate the wide-open spaces and treacherous, stunning wilderness captured so effectively by cinematographer Robbie Ryan. Read more

David Ehrlich, Time Out: An angular Western that sublimates the fading promise of the New World into a fairy tale of unrequited love, Slow West starts with "once upon a time" and ends with a crackle of incredible savagery. Read more

Jim Slotek, Toronto Sun: Essentially an old-school Western with some interesting tweaks, Slow West -- the debut feature from musician-turned-filmmaker John Maclean -- is a simple story told, yes, slowly. But it offers a bang-up finish. Read more

Nick Schager, Village Voice: A neo-western that operates in purely mythic terms, Slow West evokes an 1870 America steeped in isolation, heartbreak, suffering, and misery. Read more

Alan Scherstuhl, Village Voice: It's the rare western that invites you to imagine what life then and there might actually have felt like, sight gags and all. Maclean is a supremely promising talent. Read more

Bilge Ebiri, New York Magazine/Vulture: An absurdist, melancholy coming-of-age tale that jumps from odd comedy to striking violence to stirring reflection. Read more

Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post: [A] meandering, deliberate and tearless - yet oddly moving - western vehicle, which is both slow and, as gunslinger movies tend to be, action packed. Read more