I had seen the trailers for this film and heard rave reviews about it for months, but I never got around to seeing it in theaters. After renting it on Redbox, I'm frankly glad that I didn't spend $9 to see this. Thoroughbreds is a sparsely funny but dark drama that follows the lives of two girls and their rekindled friendship. While the performances were great and all the technical pieces were done well, there wasn't a story engaging enough to keep me from nodding off now and then.
The things that drew me in the most about this film were its cast and technical achievements. Amanda, played by Olivia Cooke and Lily, played by Anya Taylor-Joy, had some great performances and truly channeled the dark comedy side of their acting. Even though it was more dark than comedy, this film paved the way for a lot of good moments. Cooke and Taylor-Joy had great chemistry together as they played off each other very nicely. The late Anton Yelchin also stars in this film as a creepy drug dealer named Tim who tries to assist the girls in the killing of Lily's step-father. His performance was great as well and definitely fit into the tone of this film, even though it was a dull, stereotypical, character. All of the technical parts of this film are what drew me in the most, however. The set and costume design stood out to me, as it was obvious a lot of thought and effort was put into creating the softly haunting atmosphere of these two girls' world. The cinematography aided in this too: the long, lingering shots throughout the house and during the characters' dialogue added to the well-developed, uneasy vibe.
My biggest issue, however, is what is typically most important in a film: the plot. The writing and directing in this movie was very dull, and I feel that first time director Cory Finley could have chosen to go a more straightforward way. My main problem was that the conclusion of the film just seemed empty to me. The message was not clear at all and only confused me further. It is easy to understand that Lily ended up drugging Amanda and framing her for killing her step-father, but the dialogue did not do this content justice. This occurred throughout the movie too. It was a simple plot but there was no buildup to any kind of dramatic climax. Because of that, it just seemed so shallow and made me feel nothing. This indifference made me not care about the characters at all. Maybe that was the point and I'm missing something? I just could not understand the purpose of the film, per se.
Friends of mine who have seen this film absolutely adored it. While I was initially excited about it, I simply can't wrap my head around why this film has gotten such good reviews. While all films can be up for analyzation in countless different ways, there was no message in this one or anything to make you think about. I can see an examination of how young girls react to death and how dark their rekindled minds can be, but it just did not work with the tidy yet chilling atmosphere of Lily's home. Thoroughbreds could have easily been a short film, and I feel that it would be much more effective as one too. Many of the scenes were purely written for just dark dialogue, and because of this, it became tedious. Like I mentioned before, I felt emotionless through the whole thing, just like the main characters.
Cooke and Taylor-Joy are wonderful together, but sadly, this story was not. Thoroughbreds is an often confusing and dull film that is not quite my type. I understand the adoration for dark comedies like this, but I personally need a good story for them to work effectively and get at least some kind of emotion out of me.
My Rating: ★★½
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