Movies Like ‘Wild Horse Nine’ That Pair Dark Humor With Political Intrigue
Movies like ‘Wild Horse Nine’ tend to combine gallows humor, a political backdrop and two flawed men at the center. Martin McDonagh’s film is a black comedy spy action thriller that opens in the United Kingdom and the United States on 6 November. Viewers searching for something similar have a clear set of ingredients to follow.
The story follows CIA agents Chris and Lee, played by John Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, who are sent from Santiago to Easter Island shortly before the 1973 Chilean coup by their bureau chief, played by Steve Buscemi. One review notes that the humor between two hitman pals is straight out of McDonagh’s earlier work. The films below cover that lineage along with political thrillers and satires that share the same mood.
‘In Bruges’
McDonagh’s feature debut stars Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two London based Irish hitmen hiding in Bruges, with Ralph Fiennes as their boss. It remains the clearest match for the partnership at the center of the newer film. It earned $34.5 million against a $15 million budget, and the Writers Guild of America later ranked its screenplay 40th among the greatest of the 21st century.
‘Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri’
Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell won Oscars for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor for this 2017 McDonagh drama. Rockwell’s presence makes it a natural companion piece. One critic observed that characters who seem disagreeable on paper become sympathetic in both this film and the newer one.
‘The Banshees of Inisherin’
Farrell and Gleeson play lifelong friends at an impasse when one abruptly ends the friendship, which reunites them after ‘In Bruges’. It is set in 1923, while Ireland’s civil war affects the mainland. The film received nine nominations at the 95th Academy Awards. Its politically charged landscape is one reason a reviewer compared it with ‘Wild Horse Nine’.
‘Seven Psychopaths’
Colin Farrell plays a boozy writer named Marty who has a title for his screenplay but no story, while his friends Hans and Billy, played by Christopher Walken and Sam Rockwell, make a living kidnapping dogs and collecting rewards. Tom Waits is also in the supporting cast. Waits appears in ‘Wild Horse Nine’ as well, which adds another thread between the two films.
‘Argo’
Ben Affleck’s film dramatizes the 1980 joint CIA and Canadian operation to extract six American diplomatic personnel from revolutionary Iran. It won Best Picture, Best Adapted Screenplay and Best Film Editing. A reviewer also named it among the films that follow Americans abroad during a revolution.
‘The Death of Stalin’
Armando Iannucci directed this political satire and black comedy about the power struggle that followed the death of Joseph Stalin in 1953. Steve Buscemi stars alongside Simon Russell Beale and Jeffrey Tambor. Buscemi also plays the bureau chief in the newer film. The film was banned in Russia and Kyrgyzstan.
‘The Quiet American’
Phillip Noyce directed this 2002 adaptation of Graham Greene’s 1955 novel set in Vietnam, with Michael Caine and Brendan Fraser in the leads. Fraser plays Alden Pyle, a CIA operative sent to steer the war according to American interests. Caine received an Oscar nomination for Best Actor.
‘Blood Diamond’
Edward Zwick directed this 2006 war drama starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Connelly and Djimon Hounsou. It grossed $171.7 million worldwide against a $100 million budget and received five Oscar nominations. One reviewer placed it in the same familiar formula as the McDonagh film, since it centers on a mercenary amid a civil war.
‘Tetris’
Taron Egerton plays Henk Rogers, who discovers the game in 1988 and risks everything by traveling to the Soviet Union. Apple describes it as a Cold War thriller built on betrayal and a race to the finish. If a trade negotiation like that can sit beside a McDonagh story about two CIA agents on Easter Island, which of these films would you pair with ‘Wild Horse Nine’ on a double bill?
