It isn’t just a tale of misery but one that makes space for joy and, perhaps even more importantly, ambiguity and ambivalence.

| Apr 25, 2025

Edgar-Jones doesn’t generate much eroticism or chemistry with either of her male counterparts or the Sandra character.

| Original Score: 2/4 | Apr 25, 2025

All atmosphere and no oxygen. A dramatically inert period drama with young, bankable stars.

| Original Score: C+ | Apr 25, 2025

For a movie whose core metaphor is about gambling, On Swift Horses rarely takes risks, sketching superficial characters that are more ideas than real people.

| Apr 25, 2025

The acting is a saving grace, especially Edgar-Jones’ commitment to nuance and Poulter’s refreshingly shaded Lee, whose depth of awareness at a critical moment is a believable surprise, beautifully handled by the actor.

| Apr 25, 2025

The film is too obsessed with surfaces to be particularly deep, but Daisy Edgar-Jones is especially good as a woman longing for something just out of her grasp and Will Poulter is a heartbreaking everyman.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 25, 2025

The film has a satisfying conclusion, which gives away just enough to let the audience walk away with a life lesson.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 25, 2025

“On Swift Horses” stumbles a little bit on its way around what feels like an extremely rushed final lap, but this is still a winner.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2025

Screams "based on a novel" (it is) with some intrigue and decent performances, but never took a theme or premise to its conclusion. The LBGTQ+ in the 1950s, pretty radical, was not folllowed through. To quote Steve Martin, "here's an idea, have a point."

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Apr 25, 2025

“On Swift Horses” is a frustrating film that’s all hot and bothered with nowhere to go.

| Original Score: C- | Apr 25, 2025

An impressively adult look at our collective struggle to find our place and identity in an ever-changing world. On Swift Horses is in many senses a coming-of-age film for the late-twenty sect in an era where one is supposed to already know who they are.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Apr 25, 2025

This dense three hander is operatic and works on the same principal, that nothing in life is certain, especially where the heart is concerned.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Apr 25, 2025

...an exceedingly (and mostly excessively) deliberate endeavor...

| Original Score: 1/4 | Apr 25, 2025

The film, which is an adaptation of Shannon Pufhal’s book of the same name, initially presents itself as a scandalous love triangle only to veer off track into underdeveloped territory as the story progresses.

| Apr 25, 2025

“On Swift Horses” is a beautifully shot and atmospheric production from director Daniel Minahan that is in some ways reminiscent of Old Hollywood, but its disjointed storylines never quite gel into a satisfying whole.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 25, 2025

Minahan's film serves a mighty purpose: to prove that queer people have always fought not to just exist but to love intensely. 

| Apr 25, 2025

An exploration of the bond between a queer man and his sister-in-law in the 1950s, the film evokes classic fifties melodramas with an attractive cast and visuals, though falters on the story line.

| Original Score: B+ | Apr 24, 2025

Tell us something we don’t know and would like to know and not foist half-baked performative junk at us and call it alluring. “On Swift Horses” goes in circles and limps to the finish line with a clumsy ending that doesn’t answer any questions raised.

| Original Score: D+ | Apr 24, 2025

For a movie fueled by repression, social pressure, and awakening desire, it's a bit of a slog.

| Apr 24, 2025

All of this period-accurate taboo melodrama in On Swift Horses happens side-by-side to the risks of gambling as a narrative foil. That blending is haphazard, both emotionally and artistically.

| Original Score: 2/5 | Apr 24, 2025