Slow West Review

Maclean has made a Western of such confident ease that it’s hard to believe this is the director’s first feature film. Riding over well-worn genre ground, featuring a lovelorn kid (Smit-McPhee) crossing the Old West looking for his girl with the help of a quiet bounty hunter (Fassbender), he salutes but never copies, playing with a tone that will casually mix fairy-tale visuals, sudden violence and Bugs Bunny-esque comedy all in the same scene. The final dazzling, bonkers shoot-out is a true masterclass in how to tell story without once pausing for exposition.