Calm With Horses- A Promising Debut that Doesn't Reinvent the Wheel
Film Number 5 from Leeds International Film Festival
I am not a fan of the Social Realist genre at all, I can very much respect and see its purpose but I find them exhausting to watch and often increasingly repetitive and uninspired. Filmmakers like Ken Loach, Andrea Arnold and Mike Leigh have created a lot of films that feel inseparable and just not my thing or what I really am interested in. Nick Rowland's 'Calm With Horses' feels a bit like a breath of fresh air in this genre, it uses the setting of these films but creates a focus on creating a character and story rather than only creating a half-hearted political message. The Irish film revolves around Douglas 'Arm' Armstrong (Cosmo Jarvis) and his dual life as a struggling father and a puppet to the viscous Devers family. It is a miserable, dark and tense film that is almost too difficult to watch but Rowland's ambition and dedication shine through the whole film.
The opening scene to 'Calm With Horses' is one of the best examples of establishing everything we need to know about the film almost purely through Jarvis' performance which is nothing short of extraordinary. The film is ultimately all about his character, he is the focal point through and through and Jarvis really carries every scene he's in. Whether it be scenes where he brutally commits acts of violence under the obedience and manipulation of the Devers or the gentle scenes where he tries to connect with his son, there is a lot of effort put into this character. Admittedly, he is a bit of a cliche character, this is a dynamic we have all seen several times before but here, Jarvis adds a level of complexity by making Douglas this gentle giant with intelligence and heart. He plays opposite a brilliant performance from Barry Keoghan who just seems to be perfect in everything he does, this character is an infuriating character to watch. He manipulates and strongarms our protagonist repeatedly and Keoghan makes him feel viscously unlikable, yet there are still glimpses of humanity and genuine care occasionally.
The biggest flaw and toughest hill for this film to get over is how predictable and familiar its plot is, most of the essential plot points I must have seen countless times before so it never really stands out as a narrative success. I just kept waiting for something to take me by surprise but that never really comes, the speculation of what the next event might be is usually correct which underscores a lot of the more emotional scenes. It feels like much more of a well talked about TV Drama akin to 'Line of Duty' or 'Luther' but not really inventive enough to engage film festival audiences. That's not to say Rowland does evoke a lot in the spectator, I am unashamed to say I cried at the ending and several scenes throughout were so tense, emotional and cruel that my heart was racing. It doesnt nessercarily do anything crazy new or unique, but it does do a lot of what we have seen before really well.
Instead, Rowland adds a lot of interesting 'how' to the 'what', setting the film in this bleak Irish rural landscape that feels grey and disgusting composes an interesting dynamic. I've no idea if it was colour grading or that is just how Ireland looks but a lot of the shots feel like the colour has been drained out of them, the constant grey sky and drab production design create this fantastic atmosphere. The film is shot with a surprising amount of care, this genre has a horrible habit of gimmicky film making, Arnold's obnoxious handheld work or Loach's documentary-style feel restrictive for these filmmakers in my opinion. Piers McGrail shoots the film with a lot of unique attention to detail, he frames scenes to a give a completely objective perspective and then edited in are split moments of subjectivity playing you right into a character's thought and feelings. The final act is by far the stand-out from a technical perspective and a storytelling perspective, there are moments of action that feel naturalistic and hit hard as well as ridiculously tense confrontations that don't let the audience breathe at all.
Rowland doesn't exactly revolutionise the genre narratively, but i think all the little details make his predictable narrative evoke such a broad range of emotion. Tense, gripping and overwhelming at times, 'Calm With Horses' is worth checking out.
Thanks for reading!