UK/Ireland (Film4/Element Pictures/Screen Ireland), 2019. Directed by Nick Rowland, written by Joe Murtagh (based on the short story by Colin Barrett). Main cast: Cosmo Jarvis, Barry Keoghan, Niamh Algar, Liam Carney, David Wilmomt, Ned Dennehy.
Calm with Horses puts us in the shoes of Douglas, an ex-boxer, now the muscle of a small, brutal criminal gang in an unremarkable Irish town. Violence is no joy for the simple-minded Douglas, it’s just work he ended up doing since he hadn’t known better and, although he hardly seems to grasp abstract concepts such as morality or the corrosive nature of violence, he feels somewhat appalled by the world he’s found himself in. And there comes the family’s head, the Medieval-looking patriarch/farmer/torturer, and orders Douglas’s first kill, sending him and his master/friend into the purgatory of doubt and guilt.
I believe there’s a fairly well-established tradition of a particular kind of British crime drama. Often peeking into the underbelly of various, seemingly dull locations and communities, employing a detached, understated aeasthetic and mixing what some call “kitchen sink drama” (or drama of everyday domestic dysfunction) with tropes of a hard-boiled thriller, these films may well draw inspiration from traditional Hollywood melodrama, but often look and feel radically different. Yet they’ve become just as much a trademark as the silly sub-genre of British “guns-and-geezers” gangster flicks.
When done well, they occupy the sweet spot between the pleasures of a genre film with the down-to-earth, stern aesthetic and issue-driven storytelling of the British social realist tradition. Naturally, some have been more efficient in this respect than others, with genre clichés always lurking about, threatening to undermine the laborious effort. I could only draw on my anecdotal evidence. Sometimes the social-realist dimension seems to be little more than an attempt to insert certain “gravitas“ to what is essentially a standard piece of pulp – see, or rather don’t see, 2008’s Harry Brown, where poor housing estates and references to youth criminality serve as a gloomy backdrop to a piece of standard (albeit efficient) Death Wish-style tosh. Such “realism” may be a mere gimmick, a way to render contrived plotting and pretentious dialogue seem more respectable. Many films manage to reconcile the two elements quite well, with unnervingly plausible setting and central conflicts going toe to toe with the film’s borderline exploitative features, a fine example being Paul Andrew Williams’s London to Brighton. Few, in my experience, achieve perfect balance, one example being Ben Wheatley’s 2011 Kill List, which, to be fair, is rather an exception to the rule, since it managed to deal with the threat of a by-the-numbers finale dictated by genre conventions by descending into utter mayhem.
Actually, the aforementioned London to Brighton came to my mind a couple of times while watching Calm with Horses. The 2006 thriller is a fine example of raw social realism, with a relatable lead having to do unspeakable things and depicting the London criminal underworld as a filthy, yet mediocre realm inhabited by sad, morally bankrupt outsiders. To my taste, however, the genre element forced the film somewhat off the rails in the final act, with demonic gangsters and shocking plot twists undoing some of the tragic, yet matter-of-fact plausibility of the plot.
Calm with Horses is more successful in that respect. While some plot points are quite predictable, they actually help soothe the initial, alienating impact of the film, its first act being a difficult watch indeed. After the prospect of following the terrifying and at this point wholly unlikable protagonist in his daily routine of cruel beatings, it comes as a relief when we find ourselves on a more familiar ground. What is more, the film doesn’t follow the conventions doggedly – actually, there were moments when I found myself hoping the film would not go down the (silly, cliched) path that was appearing on the horizon, and, thankfully, it never did. All the same, I could not shake off the feeling of being given a favour I never asked for. However unpleasant the first 15-or-so minutes are, they actually hint at something more demanding, and perhaps more adventurous.
All the same, it’s definitely a very fine piece of work with immersive visuals, perfectly tense pacing and excellent performances, particularly Cosmo Jarvis managing to capture both the protagonist’s menace and vulnerability. Lest we forget the truly great soundtrack by Benjamin John Power (aka Blanck Mass), a prolific electronic musician known both for his work in Fuck Buttons and his solo career.
Calm with Horses on IMDb: https://m.imdb.com/title/tt4460792/?ref_=nv_sr_srsg_0
Calm with Horses on BFI Player: https://player.bfi.org.uk/rentals/film/watch-calm-with-horses-2019-online
London to Brighton on IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0490166/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1
Blanck Mass on Discogs: https://www.discogs.com/artist/2307335-Blanck-Mass
Antonín Handl 