“Thoroughbreds” is classically Hitchcockian in its smoldering homicidal tendencies, yet bracingly current with the spot-on casting of Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke as childhood friends who reconnect and reveal the internal damage they’ve become skilled at suppressing. Yet despite all these comparisons, Finley has created a film that feels original and alive.
Try as they may, his characters find that their wealth and privilege can’t insulate them from who they actually are. And so when they give in to their true natures, it’s simultaneously frightening and liberating. What starts out as darkly funny becomes deeply unsettling, and the road to get there is suspenseful and precise.
Taylor-Joy and Cooke co-star as Lily and Amanda, teenagers who were close as children but have grown apart over the years. Outwardly, they couldn’t seem more different, even though they both hail from the same opulent suburb. Lily is the picture of perfectly coifed preppy chic—so accomplished and brilliant that she finished boarding school early and has come home to begin an internship with a prestigious financial firm. Amanda is makeup-free in her messy waves and overalls—and at the film’s start, she’s come to Lily for tutoring as she recovers from a bloody scandal involving her prized horse. Lily is jittery and polite; Amanda is deadpan and direct. The tension is palpable from the start.
But before either of them has said a word to the other, composer Erik Friedlander’s percussive score puts us on edge, especially with his reliance on slow and steady bass drum. And cinematographer Lyle Vincent’s expert use of Steadicam to navigate the myriad hallways and grand rooms within Lily’s home makes this luxurious place feel like a maze of shadows and secrets.
As these young women dance around each other and feel each other out, Amanda is the one who emerges as the more assertive of the two, even though she’s the one in need of Lily’s help. Cooke is just a master of delivering brutal, low-key one liners. She might just be a sullen, detached teen—or she might be a straight-up sociopath. And Taylor-Joy reveals a chilly narcissism beneath Lily’s polished veneer. Her ability to lie and manipulate with cool efficiency is just chilling.
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7s7vGnqmempWnwW%2BvzqZmq52mnrK4v46tn6iqn6q0qa7RnpusZWJlfnk%3D