Cold War paranoia meets Martin McDonagh’s darkly absurdist humor.
⭐⭐⭐1/2 Rating: 3.5 out of 4
Martin McDonagh wrote and directed this dark comedy set in Chile on the eve of the 1973 coup that ousted democratically elected President Salvador Allende and ushered in the U.S.-backed dictatorship of Gen. Augusto Pinochet. That world-shaping Cold War event, along with the ouster and killing of Congolese Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba and the Kennedy assassination, looms large in this farcical take on power games and power dynamics. It may also just be McDonagh’s strongest work yet.
Anyone familiar with McDonagh knows his penchant for absurdist spins on the human condition. “Wild Horse Nine” stars John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as CIA agents sent to Santiago to help destabilize the Allende government. In texture and temperament, it’s closest to McDonagh’s “In Bruges” (2008), another near-surreal gem about men with guns and time to kill in a far-flung locale — you could argue it’s a loose remake.
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