'Thoroughbreds' review - The final performance of Anton Yelchin

Sometimes, you just gotta try and murder your stepdad, ya know?

Thoroughbreds isn’t just a new hit indie starring Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke that’s been making the rounds at film festivals for, like, the past two years — it’s also, sadly, the final on-screen performance of the late, great Anton Yelchin.

Thoroughbreds, however, doesn’t drown itself in that sentiment — this is a dark comedy, with more of an emphasis in the dark than in the comedy.

Coming from first time writer and director Cory Finley, Thoroughbreds is the story of two teenage girls who wind up getting into far more trouble than they anticipated after a plan to murder one of their stepdads goes wrong.

Amanda (Cooke) doesn’t feel things. Not physically, of course, but mentally — she’s convinced herself that she’s incapable of feeling emotions like joy or sadness, meaning she’s constantly having to put a fake face on 24/7. You know, like the kind of people you see in serial killer documentaries, although she hasn’t quite reached that level.

She does have a reputation, however, in the tiny town in Connecticut that the story takes place in, for being a freak — a freak who’s likely going to end up in either jail or a psych ward someday, especially after an unfortunate incident involving her and a now deceased horse ended up going viral.

Lily (Joy) doesn’t suffer from the same condition that Amanda does, although there are times when she might wish that she does. Lily’s father passed away a couple of years ago, and her mother has since remarried to Mark (Paul Sparks) — aka the absolute worst human to ever walk the earth.

You might not think that Lily and Amanda would be fit for friendship, but you’d be surprised. Granted, Amanda’s mother literally had to pay Lily to hang out with her daughter the first time they interacted, but Amanda already knew that and was five steps ahead of everyone else at that point.

Lily likes Amanda because of her brutal honesty, as it brings a breath of fresh air to her stale life. Amanda likes Lily…well…we’re not entirely sure why. Amanda is weird like that. But she is fascinated with how much Lily hates Mark, and won’t hesitate to bring up that sore wound at every possible opportunity.

In fact, Amanda is so interested that she begins to come up with an idea — what if they just, like, kill Mark? After all, he’s a big-game hunting a-hole who’s making Lily’s life a living hell, so why not?

While Lily’s skeptical at first, she begins to cave when she realizes how much Amanda has thought it out. Neither of them can be there, of course — Amanda is going to be the number one suspect in this town no matter what, given her reputation. Instead, they need to find someone else to carry out the murder while they both run away for the weekend with their alibis.

Enter Tim (Yelchin), the drop-out delinquent sex-offender who spends his days washing dishes at the retirement home and evenings crashing high-school parties, trying to sell drugs to underage kids. He’s dumb enough to the point where this whole plan might actually work.

It doesn’t work, however, nothing goes to plan as you might have expected. It never really does in movies, does it?

The trailers to Thoroughbreds really did play up the comedic element to the film. While that definitely still has a presence, and Yelchin delivers some great and hilarious lines along the way, that’s actually not the true focus of Thoroughbreds. While it may seem like a dark comedy with slight dramatic elements, it’s really more of a dark drama with slightly comedic elements.

Thoroughbreds, then, chooses to focus on characters and messages. The characters part it does exceedingly well. Something about the dynamic between Lily and Amanda, despite the fact that this friendship makes no sense on paper, fuels this movie from start to finish. It doesn’t hurt that you have such talented actresses who are both going to have long careers in Hollywood, of course, as their chemistry is on point.

Yelchin adds another level of fun and insanity to the whole thing, creating an entertaining ensemble who are able to do a lot with the script they’ve been.

It’s the part about the messages in which Thoroughbreds becomes slightly muddled. Finley has a lot he wants to say about mental health when making this movie. Sometimes, that comes across sharp and effectively, and the point he’s making is really given a chance to resonate with the audience. Other times, it doesn’t feel nearly as smooth and rather like he’s just throwing stuff at the screen to see what sticks.

This never reaches a point where it’s full-on problematic, but given that Thoroughbreds isn’t so much the Coen Brothers-esque film it marketed itself to be and rather is something that wants to deal with these deeper themes, it’s also not nearly as clean as it should have been.

Still, Thoroughbreds is an enjoyable ride that’s way, WAY better than the other release this week, A Wrinkle in Time.

Watch the trailer for Thoroughbreds here and let us know if you’re going to be checking this movie out in the comments below!

 

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