By Emilio Frenk.
Director: Cory Finley
Cast: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin, Paul Sparks, Francie Swift, Kaili Vernoff and Alex Wolff.
Rating: Excellent.
Filmmaker Cory Finley makes his directorial debut with “Thoroughbreds” and I was very impressed with this film.
The movie takes place in Suburban Connecticut and centers in Amanda (Olivia Cooke) and Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) two girls who rekindle their friendship after not seeing each other for a time.
Everything goes well until Amanda meets Mark (Paul Sparks) who happens to be Lily`s mean and cruel stepfather.
After noticing Lily`s frustration, Amanda tells asks her if she wants to kill him. At the beginning Lily doesn´t think that but later she ends up accepting.
Now both Amanda and Lily will try to get solve this issue before it gets any worse, to the point that both of them can drive them crazy.
I mentioned previously that “Thoroughbreds” took my by surprise and this was because I had no idea what the movie was going to be about.
There were posters that compared with “Heathers”, which has similarities and there is no doubt that Cory Finley used it as a major inspiration since you can see some things on this movie to the 80´s film.
Cory Finley wrote a fine screenplay with rich characters. He went straight to what the movie was going to be about and just revelead some backstory but enough so we can understand and relate to the main characters.
The dialogue he wrote was very good and this two girls really have issues and this one of the things that made this movie interesting.
This genre can have the tendency that the characters can be boring but here was not the case and both Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy give remarkable performances in this movie.
The directing was very good, the use of steady cam in the film was very well made, specially in the opening miss en scene where we see Amanda play by Olivia Cooke when she is in the house of her friend.
Every shot has a meaning in this film and visually is very well made. The editing has a very good pace and the score hit the mark in the most important scenes of this film.
Anton Yelchin was very good in this film and it´s a shame he passed away in a very youn age and I can say that he gave one of his finest performances.
Paul Sparks is a monster in this movie and you hate him at all times, but that´s why this film looks so good.
This film was a huge rollercoaster ride and again it really took me by surprise. This are the kind of movie that I really enjoy and this was the case.
“Throughbreds” has one of the major twists that I have seen in a film and I was surprised when I saw this during the third act of this film and the ending was very good.
Cory Finley started his career in the right track and he definitely has a bright future if he continues in this path.
“Thoroughbreds” is one of the year´s best films, I highly recommend it by the performances, directing and writing on Cory Finley.