Martin McDonagh's "Wild Horse Nine" had its world premiere in competition at the Venice Film Festival on Thursday, a dark CIA comedy that pairs John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell as American intelligence officers whose mission to Easter Island collides with the run-up to Chile's 1973 military coup.
Two agents, a coup and Easter Island
The film follows veteran agent Chris (Malkovich) and his protégé Lee (Rockwell), dispatched from Santiago to the remote Pacific island by their bureau chief, played by Steve Buscemi, in the weeks before General Augusto Pinochet's forces overthrew President Salvador Allende. Parker Posey and Mariana Di Girolamo round out a cast McDonagh built around brief, pointed appearances rather than a sprawling ensemble. Reporting on an early cut, World of Reel relayed that podcast host Erik Anderson called Rockwell's performance "massive" and Malkovich's "fantastic," and floated Buscemi as a possible first-time Oscar nominee.
It is competing for the Golden Lion in a jury slate led by Maggie Gyllenhaal, alongside titles including Danny Boyle's "Ink" and Florian Zeller's "Bunker." Searchlight Pictures will release "Wild Horse Nine" in theaters on November 6, after further festival stops at Telluride and Toronto.
A director with a Venice track record
McDonagh's last two features both premiered on the Lido and went on to dominate awards season: "Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri" won two Academy Awards, and "The Banshees of Inisherin" collected nine Oscar nominations, including best picture and best director. That history has made "Wild Horse Nine" one of the festival's more closely watched competition entries, even against a crowded field. Ahead of Venice, Deadline published an early clip from the film showing Malkovich's character talking his way into trouble, a scene the outlet described as showcasing the actor at his driest.
Full reviews from Venice's traditionally fast-moving critics corps had not yet posted as of Thursday evening, with the first embargo lifting alongside or shortly after the premiere screening. Early trade reaction has focused on tone: a script that moves between comic set pieces and the historical weight of the Pinochet coup, in which thousands of Chileans were killed or disappeared under the dictatorship that followed.
The Golden Lion and other competition prizes will be announced at the festival's closing ceremony on September 12. "Wild Horse Nine" now joins the small group of films this Venice cycle carrying serious awards-season expectations before a single public review has run, a position McDonagh's two prior Lido premieres also occupied on their way to the Oscars.
