Patricide is served with a side of angry satire in writer/director Cory Finlay’s audacious debut THOROUGHBREDS. It’s a well written and acted film that ultimately doesn’t add up to much, but it manages to tell a compelling story of teen angst and murder with style and confidence. Anya Taylor-Joy stars as Lily, a privileged high school senior preparing for upcoming tests and college entrance exams. She begins tutoring the equally well-healed Amanda (Olivia Cooke), a troubled acquaintance from childhood. “I have a healthy brain. It just doesn’t contain any feelings” claims Amanda, who has been struggling to fit in after murdering a prized race horse (a startling, though non-graphic scene that opens the film). Lily has her own problems including a recent expulsion from boarding school after being caught plagiarizing an essay. Grieving the recent loss of her father, she cries herself to sleep at night in the Connecticut mansion she shares with her mom (Francie Smith) and new stepfather Mark (Paul Sparks), a coldhearted bully she can’t stand and would love to see out of the picture. After some initial awkwardness, the girls ease into a close friendship as the restless Lily finds she can share with Amanda her desire to kill Mark without fear of judgement. Their talks about following through with the murder turn to plans and eventually, action.
While the interactions between the two girls goes down some dark paths, Finlay’s script has a clever sense of humor and a decent understanding of the fury that can build up inside a teenager. Some may find THOROUGHBREDS too cold and calculated, with Finlay directing the actresses to deliver much of his dialog in a detached, deadpan delivery that may have seemed radical in HEATHERS thirty years ago but long ago lost its edge. What makes THOROUGHBREDS watchable is the ruthless and devious manner that the pair goes about planning their crime. The film’s best moments involve Tim, a philosophical, slightly older drug dealer the girls hook up with at a party. Tim, wonderfully played by a manic Anton Yelchin (in his final role), quickly regrets getting involved with the girls after they awkwardly attempt to blackmail him into committing the murder. THOROUGHBREDS is a good showcase for the two females leads, both appealing. Olivia Cooke as Amanda combines an emotionless stare with impressive comic timing, as when she teaches Lily how to fake smile and her ‘technique’ to shed instant tears. Taylor-Joy, in the less-flashy role provides suitable contrast, though Lily becomes a more dangerous and manipulative presence as the story progresses. I appreciate the material’s take on teen violence but I also felt as if I’d seen this story before and that the script’s rote psychological hang-ups and the oversimplified stepfather-daughter dynamic never felt real. Mark is a jerk, but so are a lot of people and the audience doesn’t exactly root for his demise. THOROUGHBREDS may not have as much bite as it needs to be a classic, but it is recommended.
3 1/2 of 5 Stars
THOROUGHBREDS opens in St. Louis today at The Hi-Pointe Theatre
