The Mustang

The prison movie. A staple of cinema since cinema began. I Am A Fugitive From A Chain Gang. Brute Force. The Great Escape. The Hill. The Big Doll House. Papillon. Escape From Alcatraz. Midnight Express. Scum. Barbed Wire Dolls. Lock Up. In The Name Of The Father. A little known movie called The Shawshank something or other and so on and so forth. There's been 100's of them. You always know what to expect. Terror, claustrophobia, the spectre of sexual assault, drugs, tattoos, VI-O-LENCE. What we rarely see in a prison film is redemption. Hope is a rare thing. Hence....The Mustang.

Roman Coleman has been locked up in a Nevada jail for years. Unlike so many other prison movie inmates he's guilty and he knows it and he wants to do his time because he knows he's no good for people. His rage is building and with no outlet it's only a matter of time before he explodes. His prison psychologist gets him into a program that tames wild mustang horses so they can be sold at auction. Roman is skeptical at first and lashes out in the only way he knows but soon enough things start to fall into place. Prison life though, prison life is shitty...

That's art 

I thought this was excellent. Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre's second feature is a touching and in places quite beautiful look at a man with no place in the world who finally makes the connection he's craved all his life in the last place he ever expected. The scenes between man and beast offer a warmth rarely if ever seen in this genre and.......wait a minute.....Touching? Beautiful?? Warmth??? In a prison movie???? Yup. Now i wouldn't call this a feelgood movie by any stretch of the imagination but there's a positivity here and an optimism that just feels refreshing as hell. It's rare to watch a prison film that treats it's cast like genuine people and not caged, prowling animals waiting to strike. It's prisoners are (mostly) people who made silly, split second decisions and who want to be better but circumstances rarely let them achieve this.

It's these circumstances that take some bit of the shine off The Mustang. A subplot about drug dealing and gangs facing off over racial lines is one that's been done to death and here it feels almost shoehorned in to please the people who'll watch this expecting violent shenanigans. Annoyingly this subplot doesn't even get played out to it's conclusion and is left hanging but thankfully there's enough goodness going on elsewhere that we can overlook it. Plus Josh Stewart always does well in a bad bastard role so I won't complain much.

Belgian actor Matthias Schoenaerts puts in a massive shift as Roman. Both menacing and robotic at first and it's a joy watching his new interest chip away at the protective coating he's built around himself. Friendship, intimacy and even bonds are built until a startling moment near the end sees all his walls crumble. It's troubling, heartbreaking stuff that will no doubt be overlooked during award season. Jason Mitchell as a fellow inmate called Henry is likable as always and it is great seeing Bruce Dern back in the cowboy setting where his career started all those years ago.

The Mustang is well worth going to see in the cinema if you can. It's a lot different to what it's trailers are making it out to be and it's nice to leave the cinema feeling uplifted for a change.