“We came down here to destabilize your democracy,” proudly boasts Chris (John Malkovich) a 72-year-old CIA operative to a pair of young Chileans, Monica (Mariana Di Girólamo) and Alicia (Ailín Salas) at an airport in Chile in 1973.
The South American country has just elected the first-ever Marxist as president, but the CIA already have plans set to help the military overthrow him. Costa-Gavras’ Oscar-winning gem Missing, released in 1982, handled this event with grave seriousness.
“Your country’s gonna get fucked,” Chris bellows to the two young women. He’s a man who has had it with all the covert ops and killings, well almost, anyway.
Meanwhile his partner Lee (Sam Rockwell) is trying to shut him up so as not to shout out CIA secrets. Chris has cancer and is losing his memory. He’s asked Lee to kill him, so they are off to Easter Island to have one last adventure together.
But their boss and bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi), has also tasked Lee with finding a certain rifle that may have been used by Chris on a certain November day in Dallas in 1963. MJ is also concerned that Chris has begun writing his memoirs and wants those dictations destroyed as well. He has taken Lee’s wife (Parker Posey) and children hostage to make certain Lee gets the job done.
Meanwhile Chris wonders why they’re visiting Easter Island when he’s always expressed that he wanted to die in Venice, Italy. What’s Lee to do?
McDonagh, who gave us the already classic films, In Bruge, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri and The Banshees of Inisherin, adds another brilliant comedic satire to his oeuvre, one that is a profound, scathing comment on our current political climate, both in the U.S. and the world. And, although this was the Nixon administration, proof once again that everything old is always terrifyingly new again. And possibly more catastrophic. Possibly.
The banter between the two lead characters is priceless but writer-director extraordinaire McDonagh and these two gifted actors manage to create a deep bond that transcends the fact that they’re murderers and that we’re watching a nasty-ass dark comedy.
The great Malkovich was born to play this role. He handles McD’s terse, witty, often caustic dialogue with panache but never fails to let glimmers of melancholy and regret seep through, especially in a late narrative phone call with his irascible, estranged brother (Tom Waits). He also nails a speech about how Monica might combat the evil horrors that are inevitably coming to her country.
Rest assured Malkovich will rightly be in the awards conversation as will McD and, perhaps, some of the other actors.
Speaking of: Rockwell has his best role since Three Billboards and despite Lee’s propensity to eat while he kills (something Chris calls him out on), he truly cares for his partner, possibly more than his own wife, and will do what’s necessary to give him a dignified end.
Parker Posey puts her own stamp on the film in just two brief phone call scenes, managing to be both a mean and unfaithful yet caring and loving wife—quite the hat trick. She’s fantastic.
Girólamo and Salas both have their moments.
And Buscemi, channeling a less evil Ralph Fiennes from In Bruge, does fab and funny work as a CIA chief who does not enjoy his job, as is proven by one particular extracurricular activity.
Chris’s Catholicism is mentioned pretty often, mostly by Lee and one wonders if there can be absolution for them, or at the very least forgiveness.
A great malaise is evident in almost every scene of Wild Horse Nine, which had me laughing hysterically one minute and on the verge of tears the next. It’s one of 2026’s finest films.
The film world premiered, in competition, at the Venice Film Festival and will be released by Searchlight Pictures later this year.
