The Mustang

There's an interesting relationship at play here, between two untamed souls, and the often challenging path one has to undertake in order to gain someone's trust. As a portrait, however, it doesn't dig deep enough into the psychology behind the character's violent temper and it's generally let down by some frustratingly bad editing that doesn't allow the film to coalesce into a satisfying whole. Schoenaerts is fine, but doesn't exactly break new ground.

Refreshing to see a prison film that tries to find the light. "The Mustang" doesn't bank on tension and violence to carry the story forward; all of the human drama is secondary to a deeper story about solitude and finding reflection in the natural world. It's so beautiful and Schoenaerts screen presence is all-consuming.

When the ending came all I could think was that this was a really beautiful little story. It's not really like other prison movies in the sense that it's not terribly graphic or violent, though there are scenes of that. It uses what little violence it has to make a different point, anyway. Schoenaerts was really great here. There was a lot of passion on display here and genuine warmth from how the story and characters develop. Plus, just any movie about a bond between animal and human gets me.

How could you not love this?! HE FISTFIGHTS A HORSE!

I think I have a larger-than-I-realized soft spot for passion projects - something this movie very much falls into the realm of for Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre. Despite the handful of plot points that were either dropped or not fully realized (ie. what about the drug ring?), I quite enjoyed this and it's a sleeper to find its way into my Top 30 for 2019. Bruce Dern delivers the goods, and Matthias Schoenaerts gives a performance as Roman that is at the same time reserved and boisterous.

A guy who showed himself not only incapable, but outright violent towards horses gets personally called out of solitary to help with the horses and, having looked at a couple of ads in an equestrian journal, is now the horse whisperer.

ABD'nin vahşi topraklarındaki atları eğitmeye çalışan hapishane mahkumlarının filmi. Mustang atlarını eğitmeye çalışan mahkum, hem kendini, hem de vahşi atı ehlileştirmelidir. Film o kadar yavan ki, hoş bir konuyu sıkıcı hale getirmiş. Matthias, acemi kovboy halleri fecaat. Hapishane filmleri bakımından boş. Filmin sonunda, özgürlük var. Atını seven kovboy.

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Matthias Schoenaerts turns in another killer performance and somehow still gets outdone by the horse.

While it might be the umpteenth variation on the old "boy and his horse" plot, the fresh prison trappings, and some beautiful scenery, help distinguish it and Schoenaerts' un-showy lead performance provides a solid anchor, solid enough to keep everything on track during some undeveloped wanderings, and at times confusing editing style. Dern proves he has to do little more than show up to be memorable these days, but he does imbue the gruff trainer with a heart of gold with inherent interest.

Another gutpunchingly terrific performance by a perfectly cast Schoenaerts, who either has a great agent or a knack for picking good indie movies to star in. His overpowering physical and emotional presence stars in every scene, a type of minimalistic no-frills charisma-acting that I would call The Strong Silent Type 3.0

This is a quiet, compelling character piece that showcases incredible performances from Schoenaerts and Bruce Dern as the man running the program.

Undeniably finds affection from the viewer as it uncovers how humane and sensitive life can be, even at it's lowest moments. Caught off guard with emotion, I will gladly still meditate on this later.