Malkovich & Rockwell burn bright amidst the banter, big heads & bleakness.

Despite a distinct character focus to them, the off-kilter sense of place that Martin McDonagh instils in his films is undeniable. Whether it’s Brugge, Inisherin or small-town Missouri, McDonagh’s films consistently play out to an eclectic and oddly stifling geographical backdrop uniquely placed to bottle the isolation, tragedy, melancholy, and darkest of dark humour in his characters.

Of course, it’s incredibly cliché to say a film’s location is a character unto itself, but in the case of a Martin McDonagh movie, it’s hard to argue that it isn’t. From holed-up hit men to estranged best friends via one woman’s violent quest for justice, McDonagh’s characters are intrinsically intertwined with their environment, however remote or obscure they may be. And as he now heads over to Easter Island, McDonagh’s latest effort is as far-flung and as irrevocably, tragically entangled with his broken characters as ever.

Shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup, two cynical CIA agents Chris (John Malkovich) and Lee (Sam Rockwell) are dispatched from Santiago to Easter Island (Rapa Nui) by their bureau chief, MJ (Steve Buscemi). Amongst the Island's iconic statues, and as the longtime partners wrestle with their dark pasts and present conspiracies, Chris' newfound bond with a pair of rebellious students (Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas) threatens to send everyone's trip to this remote paradise sideways.

When the news broke that Martin McDonagh was setting his latest tale of morally ambiguous anguish and darkly witty existential dread on the sparsely populated, isolated Pacific island of Rapa Nui, plenty of eyebrows were raised. Yet, when you consider just how much pain, nihilistic humour, and darkly poetic drama the director wrung from Inisherin’s similarly remote surroundings, plonking the characters of his next film amidst the giant heads and desolate beauty of Easter Island made complete sense.

Picking up where The Banshees of Inisherin left off, Wild Horse Nine takes two broken men and drops them head-first into a wild, isolated island environment, trapping them physically, mentally, and morally. With neither comfortable in these surroundings and clearly at odds with the environment around them, they find themselves stuck with no hope of escape, no one to trust, and no one to lean on but themselves, as a dangerous personal and political reckoning looms ominously over the Pacific’s horizon.

If this all sounds rather nihilistic, that’s because it is. Martin McDonagh has always traded on the inherent nihilism and anarchism of his characters and that’s no different here. For better or worse, Wild Horse Nine plunges us deep into the dark heart of McDonagh’s world and he’s clearly comfortable tormenting his characters within it, and while there’s more than an air of familiarity to it all, the film benefits immensely from a director in his element and with a voice as strong, confident, and consistent as ever.

Crackling with his signature brand of barbed wit and banter-heavy dialogue while delivering a snappy but emotionally resonant plot, McDonagh’s script is rock solid, and while the whole never comes together quite as tremendously as Inisherin or packs the guttural punch of In Brugge (the film’s two spiritual forebearers), it’s undoubtedly some of his finest writing to date. With a frothy, twisty, thriller-tinged narrative that runs adjacent to sobering real-world geopolitical events, Wild Horse Nine balances a surprisingly light-hearted genre approach with the kind of powerful thematic heaviness more typical of your average Martin McDonagh film.

Bolstered by a pair of blistering performances from its two stars, Wild Horse Nine’s delicately balanced blend of tone and genre is an absolute winner, allowing it to ebb and flow with more fluidity than many of McDonagh’s previous films. As it sachets between political thriller, espionage mystery, screwball comedy, morbid drama, and poignant character piece – often within the same scene – the film feels like McDonagh at his most potent, thoughtful, and flexible, and while it’s hard to place it above some of his previous work when viewed in its entirety, there’s no doubt that it’s a more than worthy entry into his already impressive filmography.

Clearly a product of a filmmaker incredibly comfortable with his craft and voice, Wild Horse Nine also benefits hugely from the natural, comforting presence of both John Malkovich and Adam Rockwell. With Malkovich in his grumpy, eloquent, esoteric element and Rockwell putting in one hell of a straight man performance opposite him, the two bounce off one another superbly, as they positively embrace everything McDonagh’s spikey script throws at them.

Delivering McDonagh’s rambling, witty, barbed dialogue like the seasoned pros they are, Malkovich and Rockwell are an absolute dream pairing, one with chemistry and an on-screen connection you just can’t fake. Ably supported by the likes of Steve Buscemi, Parker Posey, and even a cheeky cameo from Tom Waits, Malkovich and Rockwell are classic emotionally, psychologically, and morally stunted Martin McDonagh leads and the perfect embodiment for his acute brand of storytelling.

Taking clear inspiration from his entire back catalogue to date, it’s hard to avoid the fact that Wild Horse Nine often plays out like a Martin McDonagh greatest hits set, however, look beyond the familiarities and there’s so much to appreciate here, as the director takes the confidence and credit accrued from the success of Three Billboards and The Banshees of Inisherin to offer one of his most wholly satisfying efforts yet.

Crackling with quirky, banter-heavy dialogue, burning with deliciously malicious misery, and centring on a pair of emotionally and morally stunted men holed up in a remote location, Wild Horse Nine feels like the oddball love child of In Brugge and The Banshees of Inisherin and makes for the perfect companion piece to both. However, while it may feel very familiar to those au fait with his previous work, Martin McDonagh manages to harness the bristling power of John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell before letting them loose on a blistering script, as the director demonstrates just how much he’s grown as a filmmaker, delivering his most potent and thoughtful – if not his most complete – effort yet.

Wild Horse Nine is in cinemas now.