Thoroughbreds - Blu-ray Review

[Michael Scott]

Thoroughbreds

Movie:
Video:
Audio:
Extras:
Final Score: ​

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Movie
I always get a little sucker punched after watching a movie that comes out shortly after the demise of a newly deceased actor. I had the same reaction with Robin Williams dying and seeing a few films that had been stuck in production make their way to home video. This time it’s with Anton Yelchin, and after realizing the details of his tragic death, makes me a little heart sick over the young man being plucked from his cinematic career. Most of these movies are fairly low budget, or low quality, films that have been stuck in studio’s backlog (only to be rushed out after the death brings public attention to the actor/actress), but Thoroughbreds is in a category all its own. Hypnotic, fascinating, and completely black to the core, it acts as a window into the creation of a psychopath. One that is entirely simple in its execution, but also carries heaver and more weighty introspection with it.

Lily (Anya Taylor-Joy) is a straight and narrow rich snob living her life in the lap of luxury. The only diversion she has from her privileged life is tutoring Amanda (Olivia Cooke), another rich snob, but with completely different problems. You see, Amanda is a complete and total psychopath (I use that in the clinical terminology) who feels nothing, has zero guilt about anything, and to the outside world is a complete and total whack job. Even Amanda’s own mother is desperate to socialize her, so Lily garners $200 an hour to tutor Amanda in school. Even though she’s repulsed by Amanda’s inhuman features, Lily is fascinated by the brutal honesty that Amanda exudes when they interact. Slowly the two girls form an odd friendship based upon Lily’s complete and utter revulsion at the fake life her parents lead.

The focal point of this “friendship” (the idea of the two girls being ACTUALLY friends is touched upon later on in the film when Amanda bemusingly comments that you can’t be friends with someone who just fakes emotion) is Lily’s hatred of her step father, Mark (Paul Sparks). For some reason Lily absolutely despises the stuck up rich interloper, and wishes that he would just leave her and her vapid mother alone. When Mark shoves her off to a boarding school for troubled teens for the next school year, the two girls hatch up a crazy plan to murder Mark with the help of the local drug dealer (played by Anton Yelchin).

Thoroughbreds is paced very methodically and slowly, building up to the final act with a sense of tense uneasiness throughout. The mood is set with a rather odd choice of scoring, mixing 1950s style music with elements of horror and thriller tones underlying the discordant music. It adds a feeling of disconnection and dreaminess to the film, giving it a sort of surreal sensation as you watch the two girls and their plot unfolding. As I said above, the movie is a rather simple movie in its execution. We watch two girls as they try to murder one of their step fathers. However, it’s the underlying themes that really are the center of attention here (or at least, SHOULD be). Amanda is an utter psychopath to the core (clinically speaking). Here emotional distance scares everyone around her but Lily, but that itself isn’t an endorsement. Rather Lily has her own emotional demons that are controlling her, and its fascinating to watch as she slowly is morphed into a clinical psychopath by the end of the film, While Amanda has the teeniest cracks in her mental armor go down after the events. In a way it’s a sort of mental mind swap, with one becoming slightly more human, while the other changes into the monster that everyone thought Amandna was.

Originally meant for the theater stage, but then adapted into film, Thoroughbreds marks the debut film from writer/director Cory Finley. While there’s a few rough edges along the way, I was completely fascinated by the movie. There are times when I thought to myself (really am not sure this is a great movie), but no matter how hard I tried I couldn’t tear my eyes away from the screen. The black nature of the film is enhanced by the odd choice of music and impeccable cinematography, and it’s not until the end that the viewer really understands what the point of the movie was about. Olivia Cooke and Anya Taylor-Joy do an impeccable job as the two girls, and sadly Anton Yelchin is given very little screen time in the movie (although appropriate considering he’s not one of the two subjects we’re really focusing on in the movie).




Rating:

Rated R for disturbing behavior, bloody images, language, sexual references, and some drug content




Video:

Thoroughbreds’ 2.39:1 AVC encoded Blu-ray wasn’t shot with razor sharp clarity in mind, but the digital photography translates well into Blu-ray and looks quite fetching at times. The image is a bit soft, with some strange focus shots going on that keep things in the foreground rather crisp, while the background gets less attention to detail. However, the up close shots are rather intimately detailed, with great looking facial details and some warm coloring going on. The film’s overall color palette is on the muted side, with hazy looking pastels and earth tones taking over the majority of the colors. There are some splashes of color here and there (the country club, or the inside of the tanning booth), but otherwise this is a grim and rather earthy looking film. Blacks are solid, showing off good shadow detail and impressive shadow depth, but there are times when the muted colors gives the blacks a bit of a milky texture to them.






Audio:

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA track for the film is stable, but nothing too spectacular. It fits the mood of the film perfectly, with a typical audio mix that puts a lot of focus on the front end of the sound stage. Vocals are crisp and dialog well defined, while the pulsating beating of drums every few seconds punctuates the harsh silence that can fall between Lily and Amanda. While it’s not overly exuberant with the surrounds, the track fills in the cracks with tribal drum beats, and the hypnotic and almost disgusting, sound of the rowing machine that Mark uses throughout the film. LFE is mild, but still quite punchy, adding in some weight to the score as well as the before mentioned rowing machine. It’s not a track that requires a WHOLE lot of excitement from the mix, but it IS quite precise and accurate, setting the mood for the dark film quite impressively.





Extras:

• The Look of Thoroughbreds - Featurette
• Character Profiles
• Deleted Scenes

Final Score: ​

I had a hard time categorizing Thoroughbreds. Is it a thriller? A horror movie? Dark drama? While it has elements of each of them, I’d really have to categorize the movie as a dark character study. It shows us into the mind of two young women, and unravels WHY they do the terrible things that they do. There is no overly dramatic exposition about their young life trauma, or the some need to rationalize WHY they do certain things, but instead clinically peels back some of the layers of evil and mental issues to show the thought processes behind them. Even if they don’t jive with how we WANT them to be by the end of the movie. Universal presents a technically sound Blu-ray, with good video and audio, but a distinctly anemic array of extras to enjoy (which is why the final rating is 3.5/5 instead of 4/5 like the film and audio/video scores reflect). It may not be for everyone, but I was completely fascinated by the dark character study of Lily and Amanda, and give it a solid thumbs up as a mesmerizing watch.


Technical Specifications:

Starring: Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy, Anton Yelchin
Directed by: Cory Finley
Written by: Cory Finley
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1 AVC
Audio: English: DTS-HD MA 5.1, Spanish, French DTS 5.1
Subtitles: English SDH, Spanish, French
Studio: Universal
Rated: R
Runtime: 92 minutes
Blu-Ray Release Date: June 5th, 2018

Image

• Michael Scott
• May 11, 2017

Recommendation: Fascinating Watch

 

[tripplej]

Thanks for the review. I will check this out once it is on amazon prime/netflix.

 

[Asere]

I finally caught this one. I was expecting a little more maybe a little more gore, maybe not too slow in getting somewhere but overall the movie had you going. I feel asleep towards the end and I am not real sure what happened there but will re watch the last 20 minutes.

 

[Michael Scott]

definitely a bit of a slower mover for sure. It's not everyone's cup of tea, but I liked it