MOVIE: The Mustang drives horse fans crazy

Paul O’Rourke

‘Warhorse’, ‘Seabiscuit’, ‘Black Stallion’, who doesn’t love a good horse movie?

And in a week where there are plenty of average films on release, the new equine offering from Universal Pictures is top of the heap.

‘The Mustang’ tells the “inspired by true events” story of feral horses of the same name that roam Western North America, some of whom are rounded up and bizarrely sent to prison, where they are tamed by inmates and later sold at auction.

In fact it’s more accurate to say that the script concerns one particular Mustang, of course the angry one, who is befriended by an
equally angry inmate played superbly by Matthias Schoenaerts (‘Far from the Madding Crowd’).

In what could have been a by-the-numbers troubled man learns about life from troubled horse, director Laure De Clermont-Tonnerre does an impressive job in adding a level of substance and reflection to a film that is as much about the US prison system as anything else. We award ‘The Mustang’ a review score of 3.5 well-bred stars.

And if prison dramas
are your thing but you want less horsing
around, try ‘The Informer’, which tells the tale of an ex-con recruited by the FBI to take down a dangerous New York drug lord.

This tense crime thriller comes in a close second to ‘The Mustang’, and stars Rosamund Pike (‘Gone Girl’) and Swedish actor, Joel Kinnaman, most recently seen in Amazon’s ‘Hanna’ series. 

For something a lot more alternative and out there, Swedish independent drama ‘Aniara’ features passengers on a starship to Mars who get knocked off track and have to cope with their new reality floating in space. It sounds great, but the budget is low and the results are mediocre at best.

And finally for the youngsters, ‘Asterix: The Secret of the Magic Potion’ is a manic animated offering that seems to think the faster the action and the quicker the dialogue the better.

It’s exhausting stuff, but may be of interest to fans of the original TV show or very young viewers who are in need of some distraction.