Slow West‘s finest moments are saved for the “final showdown.”

| Aug 3, 2023

A compelling story set within familiar Western boundaries but strikingly original in the paths it takes.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 25, 2022

Maclean isn’t interested in realizing a Fordian romanticism of the American West; rather, he considers his characters, like Anthony Mann did, as internally conflicted emotional beings who are reflected by their surrounding landscape.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Jun 21, 2022

Michael Fassbender stars in a fresh and distinctive take on the classic western.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 4, 2021

A casual weirdness. A wisened grasp of when to embrace or reject a cliche. A quartet of ripping performances. These are the calling cards of this odd, funny and compelling western.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 30, 2020

A meticulously crafted story with indelible performances from the likes of Kodi Smit-McPhee, Ben Mendelsohn and Caren Pistorius...one is transported back in time, immersed in cinematic beauty and scope, and loving every second of it.

| Dec 8, 2019

It's so obsessed with being a well-constructed, socially conscious film that it forgets to be a good one.

| Original Score: 6/10 | Dec 28, 2018

It shows the rewards of taking the road less traveled, relishing the telling of the tale as much as the tale itself.

| Nov 15, 2018

Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender, both physically and in the way they inhabit their roles, dovetail excellently.

| Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 11, 2018

Slow West harks back to its cowboy roots and its noir inspiration for its strong moral core. Every evil act committed is paid for in a breathtaking final act.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 30, 2018

Neither clever enough to be a good revisionist Western nor entertaining enough to be a satisfying genre exercise.

| Aug 29, 2018

[Jay Cavendish] seeks to move beyond the boundaries of basic survival, a trait that Silas eventually learns in this slick and often heart-warming tale of unlikely paths crossing.

| Aug 24, 2018

There are lessons about love to be learned, bloody shootouts, a sweet fur coat worn by a heartless bounty hunter, and a grim montage of still shots for everyone that meets their demise

| Original Score: 4/5 | Dec 2, 2017

The Scottish director John Maclean makes his feature-film debut here, delivering a beautifully shot picture in which the rapidly rising body count belies the sedate, thoughtful pace.

| Oct 30, 2017

Slow West is not badly paced-not at all-but it does present a challenge to the viewer. It's not slow so much as wandering, and you have to be willing to roll with deeply weird moments interspersed with violence and tragedy.

| Oct 14, 2017

Slow West is the feature debut of writer-director John Maclean. [...] it is also among the more unique modern westerns in the way that it plays around with traditional western tropes and conventions.

| Feb 24, 2017

By turns a beautiful, surprising and haunting work.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Jan 17, 2017

The tone of the film, a darkly absurdist frontier odyssey, recalls both the films of the Coen Brother and the novels of Cormac McCarthy.

| Jun 16, 2016

This is an often ferociously entertaining and substantial debut.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Apr 27, 2016

Slow West derives its strength not only from its multi-layered story but also from its spectacular visuals of a geography, which simultaneously seems subliminally awe-inspiring and menacing.

| Mar 1, 2016