I’m a fan of period piece films that take place in the 50s/60s. There is a specific look and feel to films that take place in these decades. On Swift Horses has a very distinct look and aesthetic to it that sets it apart from most that take place at this time in history. Which follows WWII by a few years.  The ugly look of the country during WWII is followed by a more colorful and vibrant looking country during these decades. Obviously, it’s not this way everywhere,  but for the most part, the country looked better and had a more prosperous feeling to it. 

Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) and her husband Lee (Will Poulter) live in Kansas on the outskirts of Kansas City in the 50s. She’s a waitress, and he’s a mechanical engineer.Their doing fine and making ends meet when Poulter’s characters’ brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) comes back from the Korean War to live with them. He has a back history, but he wants to be a respectable member of the family. When things start going south for Julius, he moves on to Las Vegas, and his brother and his wife do the same to San Diego. 

The cast in this film is one of the best I’ve seen this year. Will Poulter is part of the best cast of the year so far in Warfare. All of the actors in this movie have a bright future ahead of them Edgar-Jones broke on the scene with Where the Crodadd Sing a couple years ago, Jacob Elordi broke started out on the HBO drama show Euphoria, but soon translated into films himself with Saltburn, Saha Calle started her career with The Flash as a n alternate universe version of Supergirl, and Diego Calva started his career with the fantastic film Babylon. All of these are terrific young actors and their all good in this film as well. 

The movie mainly focuses on two of the main cast members. Edgar-Jones and Elordi’s characters. Both of them are tired of their struggles and take things into their own hands. One uses insider information she overhears from the patrons of the diner she works at to gamble on horses. The other uses his natural instincts and quick wit to play card games to make money. Both make friends with others romantically, and these relationships end up getting them in trouble. I genuinely cared about these people, but like so many, they cause their own problems. 

One of the reasons I like this film is because of something I mentioned earlier. The aesthetics ore so well done in this movie. The cars, clothes, hairstyles and various locations all look so good and like they belong in this film. These days, it’s easy to get help with things you need or make the clothes and so forth to create the specific look you need for a film or television show. It hard though to make them all look like they belong in a movie. They need to be a part of the story without having the audience second ingredients guessing the look and feel of a film. This one looks like it’s supposed to look from all the craft departments doing their job.

With politics being so device these days and everyone having an agenda against Trans or LGBT relationships or rights, it seems every filmmaker is making films about this. The two main plots in this movie deal with this stuff. I was glad to see that somebody wrote such a brave story about this sort of thing. The film is based on the novel by Shannon Pufahl, and the screenplay was written by Bryce Kass. The director Daniel Minahan took these texts and created something beautiful and meaningful regarding the LGBT community. I applaud the decision to make this brave film.

On Swift Horses is a solid romantic drama period piece. It deals with topics that haven’t been dealt with in this way before. The story and direction are impeccably done by Pufahl/Kass and Minahan. The cast of younger actors on the rise is phenomenal.  They all play their parts to perfection. The technical parts involved production design, costumes, makeup, and hairstyling are exceptional. The message of the story is the most important part of the film. Especially this day and age, with there being so much vitriol about LGBT relationships. I really liked this movie, but I know why some wouldn’t like it, though.

3 ½ stars

Dan Skip Allen