Must See Movie: Thoroughbreds
Catch it on Hulu while you can.
A Criminally Underrated Ride
“You cannot hesitate. The only thing worse than being incompetent, or being unkind, or being evil, is being indecisive.”
-Olivia Cooke as Amanda, amoral icon of neurodivergence.
Thoroughbreds (2017), the writer/directorial debut of Cory Finley, is a twisted romp that is emphatically worth watching. Yet most of my friends have never heard of it.
Perhaps it’s the film’s title that turns people off. Thoroughbreds sounds like a film about horses, and I understand the aversion to horse movies. Movies about horses are, in my experience, a mawkish subgenre. Thoroughbreds is nothing of the sort, which is made clear in the film’s trailer.
When I recommend the film, the phrase “starring Anya Taylor-Joy as Lily” piques people’s interest. She gives an excellent performance. She always does. Sometimes the mention of Anton Yelchin tugs at potential viewers’ heartstrings. This was one of the star’s final films before his tragic death in a freak automobile accident.
However, Olivia Cooke’s deadpan performance as Amanda, the unfeeling friend, makes Thoroughbreds exceptionally interesting.
Amanda’s exact diagnosis isn’t clear. My degree in armchair psychology would probably place her somewhere on the Narcissistic Personality Disorder spectrum. However, her inability to feel emotions doesn't mean she’s a murderous psychopath.
She’s amoral, not immoral: a distinction that facilitates the comic fish-out-of-water dynamic, and which ultimately emotionally endears us to a character incapable of emotional reciprocity. Amanda’s state of mind is made clear in a snappy exchange between newly reunited friends:
Lily: I guess you're feeling a lot of feelings, uh, right now. It's fresh.
Amanda: Well, that's the funny thing, actually. I really don't.
Lily: Don't what?
Amanda: Feel anything.
Lily: Like, you're numb? Like you don't have any negative feelings...
Amanda: Like I don't have any feelings, ever.
Lily: Sure, you do.
Amanda: I mean sometimes I feel hungry or tired. But, like, joy, guilt? I really don't have any of those.
Lily: I don't understand.
Amanda: Yeah, it's hard to explain. It's really only recently that I've been able to admit it to myself. Because I've gotten so good at watching and imitating other people's emotions that I sort of tricked myself into believing I have them, but I don't.
Lily: So that's a, um...
Amanda: A what?
Lily: A disorder or something?
Amanda: Oh. Well, the shrink would sure like it to be. First it was borderline personality, then severe depression, yesterday, she said it was antisocial with schizoid tendency. She's basically just flipping to random pages of the DSM-5 and throwing medications at me.
I have a perfectly healthy brain. It just doesn't contain feelings. And that doesn't necessarily make me a bad person. It just means I have to work a little harder than everyone else to be good.
Amanda’s demeanor and delivery are comic gold. Her brutal honesty and absence of empathy are simultaneously disarming and disconcerting. To spend time in her psyche is an alien experience that, thanks to smart writing and brilliant performance, never feels alienating. The way she cognates is comprehensible, even if it’s not necessarily relatable. Her amoral tendencies are bolstered by nihilistic reason that, while unfeeling, is never cruel or malicious.
“I think most of this country's moral norms comes from weird old Puritan bullshit. A human life isn't some sacred thing. There's nothing holy about a dick and a vaj getting together and spitting out a little dude.”
-Amanda, on the subject of murder.
Zippy dialogue propels viewers through the scenes of this comic and thrilling neo-noir. Luxurious environments captured with slick cinematography, noteworthy performances, and extraordinary sound design create a transfixing film. It’s the type of film that grabs you and holds you for the film’s (admittedly economical) runtime.
Scenes come together to form a macabre mosaic of teenage angst, absurd wealth, and the transactional bonds of unfeeling intimacy. When all the pieces come together, what you see will leave you speechless.
Catch Thoroughbreds on Hulu while you can. I’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments.
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See you next week, film freaks.