If there’s anything you can count on Martin McDonagh to do, it’s make movies about tender male friendships. They’re some of the straightest white-men movies ever, but they’ll make you teary-eyed. You’ll look at your bro and go, “I love you.”
Between In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin, the Irish writer-director blends dark comedy with action or drama, wringing out a sincere, affectionate glimpse at despair between boys. Oftentimes, it’s against a backdrop where the location acts as a tertiary character. Since Colin Farrell already got his time, he sent his other favorite white boy, Sam Rockwell, to support John Malkovich. The two bestie CIA agents wrestle with mortality while heavily surveilled by their own organization on Easter Island in Wild Horse Nine.
In many ways, the film remixes In Bruges’ structure and characterizations with Inisherin’s soulfulness. It may lack innovation (and is a step down from Inisherin), but his signature writing, comedic strength, sharpness, and heart stand firm. As a damn good Martin McDonagh flick, it ranks among the finest films of 2026.
MPA Rating: R (for pervasive language, some strong violence, drug use and sexual references.)
Runtime: 1 Hour and 58 Minutes (118 minutes)
Language: English
Production Companies: Blueprint Pictures, Film4 Productions
Distributor: Searchlight Pictures
Director: Martin McDonagh
Screenwriter: Martin McDonagh
Cast: John Malkovich, Sam Rockwell, Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, Tom Waits, Mariana di Girolamo, Ailín Salas, Paola Giannini
U.S Release Date: November 6, 2026
It’s 1973 in Chile, and longtime CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are about to head to Rapa Nui, or as we bum-ass Americans call it, Easter Island. Lee wishes to see the stone hedge and work on his memoir. Chris tends to TMI to people he shouldn’t be saying shit to. At the airport during Salvador Allende’s presidency, they encounter young leftist college students Monica (Mariana di Girolamo) and Alicia (Ailín Salas), and Chris foreshadows the imminent Pinochet-led Chilean coup d'état. Not even cryptic with it, just plainly telling them, “Your country is about to get fucked!” What does he have to lose, considering he’s dying of cancer and his own memory is working against him, in need of constant morphine to make sure his brain chemistry is present? Unbeknownst to Chris, their boss, MJ (Steve Buscemi), assigns Lee to recover whatever incriminating information Chris might have and take him out. As they navigate the island, taking long looks at the Moai sculptures and herds of horses, we see ripples of their shared pasts, conspiracies, and surveillance.
Martin McDonagh gets reflective without losing his taste for mischief.
McDonagh has been wearing his fear of mortality on his sleeve lately. He presents motifs of aging and growth, with sad undercurrents of grieving boiling to the surface. His edgy, irreverent humor is still omnipresent. But his current career feels like watching someone who used to be a punkish badass sit in his red velvet chair, looking at the fireplace and contemplating life itself. Whereas Inisherin explored the grief of a friendship abruptly ending in Ireland, Wild Horse Nine and its Chilean backdrop grieve a life unfulfilled at a late age. Granted, it would’ve been less eyebrow‑raising if it hadn’t utilized the real historical prelude to the Chilean coup.
The film mostly focuses on Chris, McDonagh’s oldest lead, and the most challenging to read. Partly because of his dementia, or his 50% inability to tell the truth, considering his whole life as a CIA agent and acute perceptiveness, with Malkovich giving a soft-spoken, flamboyant voice. This makes for a fascinating character, equally funny in his filterless demeanor and tragedy. His recluse brother (Tom “I’m gonna be in an Oscar movie somehow this season” Waits) refuses to talk to him due to one historical event he may or may not have had a hand in. Chris's characterization and unrelenting remorse — a coming to terms rather than a coming to God (he is Catholic) — paired with Malkovich’s tender portrayal, let this character and the story flourish.
The most annoying person you know will probably dismiss Chris for being a man for The Man. Not in the same way as Rockwell’s racist Dixon from Three Billboards (which I still very much like!) having a “how to not be racist” arc. McDonagh draws many similarities to a reality where so many are absorbed in our professions, American nationalism, capitalism, and patriotism as the root of all evil. I keep going back to a riveting monologue Chris delivers about handling government operatives. The portrait feels whole, but it breaks me to know how much life the country robs from us.
Sam Rockwell and John Malkovich make one hell of an odd couple.
John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell in WILD HORSE NINE. Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures. © 2026 Searchlight Pictures. All Rights Reserved.
Chris and Lee’s rapport is the film’s beating heart. It feels pointless to say, “Rockwell is great in a McDonagh movie.” But shit, he’s so charming. This movie doesn’t work without Lee’s unbothered, disgruntled straight‑man persona clashing with Chris’ wild-card carelessness. Part of the heartbreak, and the core of their relationship, is that he’s the only person Chris has. Lee is his best friend, his keeper, and his brother all in one.
One exchange exemplified best is a beat where Chris sits on a windowsill in his hotel room, Lee pretends to choke him, Chris plays along and fake‑gags, and then Lee grazes his cheek and lovingly claws him on the head before leaving. Nobody has the strength these days — especially in a manosphere‑led society — to depict intimate, loving friendship like this. These longtime pals exist and support each other for who they are, making you buy into their friendship and understand why Chris trusted Lee to do an insane act of love the whole film inevitably builds up to.
The supporting cast makes Wild Horse Nine shine as well. That said, there’s not enough Parker Posey as Lee’s wife, who made me laugh my ass off. Also, Mariana di Girolamo, who had magnetic fierceness in Kill the Jockey and [squeals] Ema (the most underrated Pablo Larraín movie of the decade), embodies an authentic groundedness as the only anchor point for the Chilean coup backdrop. I have slight gripes with pulling from the Chilean government as a point of reference for this anti‑militant messaging, but she makes the fear and threat feel so real.
Wild Horse Nine shares key ingredients with McDonagh’s past meals but is still delicious. This time there’s more sincerity that will hit his core audience closer to his age. If this can get to me at 28, I can only imagine how it feels for viewers of McDonagh’s age. Ultimately, Wild Horse Nine is a blazing speedy steed stand-out in the brand of other quality McDonagh films. It’s one of those movies where it’ll make you want to stop and smell the roses, or, say, “Pet the horses.”
