‘Wild Horse Nine’ review: Brilliant John Malkovich gives his best performance in years

It’s shocking that, up till now, John Malkovich had never appeared in a Martin McDonagh movie before. 

Granted, the Brit has only directed five and the casts are often small. But the two men share such similar sensibilities: total-eclipse-dark humor, a confrontational style, proud peculiarity and a kind of macho intellect. They’d probably match on some terrifying dating app.

And so, it’s not surprising at all that Malkovich is simply impeccable in McDonagh’s “Wild Horse Nine,” which played to loud laughs on Monday at the Toronto International Film Festival.  

Whether his brazenly offensive CIA agent character Chris is giving a speech about what the quality of a country’s cheese means, or is hinting that he was somehow involved in the assassination of John F. Kennedy, Malkovich is mesmeric and livewire unpredictable. 

You have to go back many years to find a performance from the “Of Mice and Men” star that’s so rich and blistering. 

Chris’ ranting and riffing almost comes across as the actor’s own stream-of-consciousness musings, so perfect the pairing of Malkovich and McDonagh is.  

And that’s not the only ideal duo. His CIA colleague is Lee, played by Sam Rockwell, who’s already on his third McDonagh film and also starred in the writer’s Broadway play “A Behanding in Spokane.” Abrasive as ever, Rockwell is Malkovich’s partner in crank.  

It’s 1973, and they’re stationed in Santiago, Chile, which is about to endure a political coup d’état with the help of the US government. 

“How do you like your president? Your new left-wing president?,” Chris says as he casually interrogates two women at the airport as they’re all about to fly to Easter Island.

Young and fond of marching on the street, the ladies naturally like Salvador Allende quite a lot.

“Well, enjoy him while you can.”

The September coup is still months away and merely a backdrop for a story of a very unusual friendship, a frequent McDonagh fixation. Bickering Chris and Lee are on the island for a week for some R&R, and Chris especially wants to go see what he calls “the big heads” — the famous ancient stone statues.   

Of course, despite the pastoral green hills, ocean views and tourist attractions, this isn’t Stanley Tucci making gnocchi in Italy. We soon learn that there is a much grimmer reason for their trip. 

Lee is in regular contact with their boss MJ (Steve Buscemi), who asks him to keep a close eye on loose-lipped Chris. Rockwell’s agent also places some long-distance phone calls to his cheating wife Marge, played by Parker Posey in just a few delightful scenes.

Fans have their favorites, but I reckon “Wild Horse Nine” is McDonagh’s outright funniest movie. That said, I laughed my ass off all the way through “The Banshees of Inisherin,” while a friend’s one-sentence review was: “That was very sad.” This writer-director is polarizing like that.

Much like “Banshees,” which was also about two complicated male friends engaging in a gallows-humor-athon, “Wild Horse Nine” isn’t too plotty or obviously eventful.

Don’t let the synopsis fool you into thinking you need to know much about the 1973 Chilean coup. You don’t. The meat is in the Lee and Chris’ oddball conversations, which seem to be completely random and for our entertainment until we gradually understand that they’re dancing around a life-and-death topic. 

To get there, McDonagh carefully adds clues and twists until the situation finally blows up. That’s his effective style. One hour and 50 minutes of striptease, and 10 minutes of orgy. 

“Wild Horse” is one of the director’s most plainly enjoyable movies, thanks in no small part to the brilliant Malkovich and refreshingly sunny setting. There is an automatic depression — and dramatic weight — to a craggy Irish island and rural Missouri that a Southern Hemisphere paradise can’t claim. Perhaps some will ding this film for a comparative lack of heft. 

But after a few violent and bloody clashes, the movie deepens and ends serenely and meaningfully. Malkovich is stunning in the final moments, and goes places he rarely gets to anymore. Too many filmmakers of late, wanting his well-known persona (i.e. heinous “Opus”), have been much too content with him simply being John Malkovich.

Sorry.  

The audience’s satisfying sadness at the end of “Wild Horse Nine” brings to mind another strong commonality Malkovich and McDonagh share. As in “Three Billboards” and “Dangerous Liaisons,” they have made us once again love a guy who, in real life, we should detest.