Review of Slow West (2015) by Jenna G — 20 Aug 2015

Always fond of contemporary takes on the Western genre and any film featuring Michael Fassbender, Slow West cried out for my intrigue.

Living up to its title, Slow West is ultimately a very slow film. Unfortunately, I cannot say that I felt it lived up to the "west" part of its name. Slow West doesn't really feel like much of a western. It seems like an experimental independent drama film which happens to contain some selective western iconography as the front for a series of vignettes depicting the events witnessed and stories heard by protagonist Jay Cavendish without much of a sense of developing narrative. They are strung together by transition scenes where the characters do little more than ride horses across the land at a pace matching the title of the film, and ultimately all the stylish imagery in the film fails to sustain itself if the story can't touch viewers.

In essence, Slow West seems to capture a modicum of what western films are all about. It has small plot points and stylish elements iconic of the genre scattered loosely into the story to seem like an anthology of dot points delivering a simplistic explanation of what western cinema is all about. But the fact is that I know what it's about, and I don't like the direction that John Maclean takes it in because it doesn't feel appropriate. To compare Slow West to Jim Jarmusch's experimental take on the genre in Dead Man, the two films both have big name actors and a slow pace yet contrasting colour scehemes. Slow West is bright and Dead Man is dark. The fact is that the West itself is a a sunny place plagued by dirt and violence, so it would most appropriately meet somewhere in the middle. Yet Dead Man decided to take the iconography of the west and make a psychadelic film out of it, while Slow West takes it and makes an amateur production with a strange plot structure and a little much colour. It is a little too bright to match the true grit of the west and the genuine approach to violence that is taken by the film, creaing a sense of imbalance. And when it comes to the script in Slow West, there is too much talking and too little of interest in what the characters have to say. There isn't much of a sense of the individualistic freedom that characterises the Cowboy protagonists of the genre, rather just a collection of characters who have a varying understanding of what it takes to survive in the west. Ultimately, the narrative feels a little too simplistic and the dialogue just doesn't evoke many situations that reached me, so I feel like Slow West lacks sufficient understanding of what western cinema has historically represented.

However, the one thing Slow West captures really well is the blunt nihilism of the setting. Though the somewhat thin character archetypes prevented me from finding much of a connection to the characters, the fact that they all represent nameless faces of the West reflects the grim nature of the story context well. Anyone could be killed at any second, and it's as simple as that. There are no melodramatic Hollywood goodbyes or deus ex machina plot devices to save them from the fate of death, they are just caught up in a game of the quick and the dead. In essence, that's what the west is all about. And while the rest of the film may not expand upon the western universe as much as it could, the generally grim monotony of the experience does give the feature an effective mood.

And the style of the film is genuinely nice. With a slower rate of progression than most western films, Slow West, proves to be a gentle experience much of the time. It lacks the a consistently gritty punch, but it has some sporadic moment of intensity. What it does consistently maintain is an interesting visual style. The low budget nature of Slow West ensures that the scale of the narrative is very small and so it all takes place in a limited set of locations. The genuine plot structure of this may not be the most amusing, but the scenery and production design does evoke a sense of life in the narrative which prevents it from being too boring. It is all captured with nice cinematography and gentle editing as well, and these reach their endeavour during the shootout scenes in the film as the conventional approach to violence makes the experience all seem so bleak. And in essence, that's what violence is. Slow West depicts an understanding of concepts surrounding violence in the west, and its effective production values keep the experience lively.'.

Plus, the cast in Slow West really know what they're doing.

Kodi Smit-McPhee is a decent lead. He does not have much of a great character as his inexperience makes him a character who has to learn in a narrative that hardly develops, but he conveys a sense of being an outsider in the world. He still has ambition and hope about him, unchanged by all that he witnesses throughout the story. This leads him to represent the naive young sheriff archetype of the postmodern western, and he does it with a consistent sense of monotonous spirit. Kodi-Smit McPhee doesn't have the strongest moments when it comes to genuinely saying anything, but the mood that his physical acting captures in the more silent moments of Slow West prove credible.

Michael Fassbender delivers a solid performance. Though his screen time is significantly less than you would expect or hope for, Michael Fassbender delivers a solid job of characterizing Silas Selleck because he knows how to survive in the west and doesn't even flinch when it comes to gunshots. He conveys a sense of lost humanity which drives him to act normal in the face of violence, effectively sharing some entertaining moments with Kodi Smit-McPhee as he teaches the young gun what the west is truly about. Michael Fassbender's diminutive performance renders the most interesting character in Slow West.

So Slow West benefits from the efforts of Michael Fassbender and a sense of blank nihilism, but it's overly simplified western ideology and poorly structured narrative leave little more than a dull script packed with too much dialogue that just fails to be of intrigue.