The Mustang (2019)

Director: Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre
Stars: Matthias Schoenaerts, Jason Mitchell, Bruce Dern
Runtime: 96 minutes

Synopsis: The story of Roman Coleman, a violent convict, who is given the chance to participate in a rehabilitation therapy program involving the training of wild mustangs.

Performances: 4/5
Screenplay: 3/5
Editing: 4/5
Cinematography: 4/5
Score/Soundtrack: 4/5

Verdict: I've never been a fan of movies revolving around horses. And Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's directorial debut "The Mustang", while being impressive on a technical level, didn't really change my opinion on them.

About a convict's integration in a rehabilitation program in which he has to train wild mustangs, the film features a great performance by Bruce Dern and another good one by Matthias Schoenaerts, who despite lacking a bit of emotion in certain scenes, still managed to show the softer side of the large, violent convict he was cast to play. Ruben Impens' cinematography did the job of grounding the story pretty well, and the film's editing despite being rough in some places, did an equally effective job at pacing the movie's narrative. The score also added emotion to the scenes it was featured in, and the prison's morose atmosphere was more than convincing.

My issue with "The Mustang" rather lies in its script which, despite tackling an interesting and very real story, never grabbed me as much as it should've. It's also not exactly free of cheesy lines of dialogue, as well as unnecessarily overdramatic scenes I couldn't take seriously at all. I personally found the narrative to be a very average one not on par with the film's execution.

Despite that, I'm still excited to see what the French filmmaker's next project will turn out to be. I didn't fall in love with her first, but she certainly proved that she's a talented director with a bright future ahead of her.  

FINAL GRADE: 6/10