--- title: "Slow West" year: 2015 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/slow-west" fi1m_score: 77 critics_score: 70 critics_reviews: 27 published: "2026-09-17T12:35:14.681955+00:00" updated: "2026-09-17T12:35:28.790762+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Slow West (2015) Directed by John Maclean · 1h 24m · MPA R · Western, Drama, Adventure, Romance, Thriller **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 70 from 27 reviews *In a sentence:* A lovesick Scottish boy wanders Colorado while every gun in the territory quietly follows him > John Maclean’s first western is short, dry, oddly coloured and cruel exactly when it needs to be. The middle sags and the flashbacks are thin, but Fassbender and Smit-McPhee make a pair worth following, and the finale earns the wait. ## Synopsis Colorado, 1870. Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a Scottish boy of good family, is riding west alone to find Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius), the girl he loves, who fled Scotland with her father John (Rory McCann) after trouble at home. In a burnt forest he is held up by a soldier and rescued by Silas (Michael Fassbender), a bounty hunter who offers, for a fee, to see him safely across the territory. Silas has read a wanted poster that Jay has not. Behind them ride Payne (Ben Mendelsohn), in a fur coat, and his gang, who want the same reward; ahead lie a trading post, drifters, campfires and a great deal of empty grass. ## Review John Maclean’s first film is a western that runs 84 minutes and does not waste many of them. Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a Scottish boy of good family, is riding across Colorado in 1870 to find Rose Ross (Caren Pistorius), the girl he loves. He does not know that she and her father John (Rory McCann) have a price on their heads, or that Silas (Michael Fassbender), the bounty hunter who has offered to see him across the territory for a fee, has read the poster. It is small, dry, odd and suddenly violent, and it is better than the word whimsical, which admirers and detractors have both hung on it, would lead you to expect. Maclean’s West is full of people from somewhere else. Jay is Scottish, the couple who run the trading post are not American either, three Congolese men (one of them Tawanda Manyimo) sing at a fire in a clearing, and a wandering writer takes notes on the native peoples he expects to be gone within the century. Jay has crossed an ocean for love. Everyone else has come for money or to get away from something, and the film is clear, without saying so, about which reason the country rewards. Smit-McPhee plays Jay thin and upright, in a soft city suit and a hat too small for the sun, certain of his direction and wrong about everything else. Fassbender’s Silas has a cigar, a beard and perhaps forty lines, and he makes each one do work. He teaches the boy to load a gun, tells him the girl will not remember him, and is put out to find that he minds. Their scenes have the rhythm of a father and son who have only just met, which is roughly what they are. Ben Mendelsohn turns up midway as Payne, in a fur coat the size of a small bear, and Kirsty Cameron’s costume is the best joke in the film. He brings absinthe and a smile that does not stay put. Madeleine Sami’s Marimacho and the rest of his gang look like people who have been sleeping outdoors for a decade and stopped noticing. Robbie Ryan shoots New Zealand for Colorado and does not pretend the grass is dusty. The greens are wet, the wheat is yellow, the sky is the blue of a child’s painting, and the killing happens in daylight in the middle of it. Roland Gallois and Jon Gregory cut hard, so that scenes stop a beat before you expect and several of the best jokes are edits: a man raises a gun, cut, morning. The score, credited to Jed Kurzel and Bryan Michael Mills, is plucked strings and a small waltz, used sparingly enough that you notice when it comes in. Kim Sinclair’s trading post is one wooden room with the goods hung from the ceiling, and it is where the film first shows what it is. That trading post scene is where the film got us. A robbery begins badly, Jay tries to help, and in about three seconds it is over and two children are standing outside in the sun. We laughed at how badly everyone had managed it, and then we felt ill, and Maclean meant both, because he holds on the children for exactly as long as it takes the laugh to die. The finale, in a field of wheat, we will not describe. It is the most carefully staged sequence in the film, a gunfight in which every shot has a consequence and nobody gets to be a hero, and it made the slower stretch before it look like preparation. What does not work is Scotland. The flashbacks to Rose are green and misty and tell us nothing about her we had not guessed, and Silas’s narration keeps explaining what the pictures have already shown. The writer’s speech about the vanishing of the native peoples sits in the film like a footnote nobody asked for. The middle third is riding and campfires, and the three reviews we read that dismissed the whole thing as a trifle were, we suspect, written from that stretch. We think they gave up too soon. It carries a 15 certificate and is done in under an hour and a half. Watch it in a dark room, because the colours want one, and with somebody else, because the jokes land harder when there is a second person to be appalled with. *Fi1m score 77, published 17 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics like Slow West, and they like it for the same things. John Maclean’s debut is praised as lean and economical, a Western told with dry humour and sudden violence, and the praise settles on Robbie Ryan’s cinematography and the pairing of Michael Fassbender and Kodi Smit-McPhee. Several reviews single out the climactic shootout as the film’s strongest passage, and many describe it as a fable, with its outsider’s view of the frontier counted as a virtue. The reservations are about pace and substance. Even admirers note a meandering, episodic structure and a whimsy that does not always land, with the flashbacks and narration mentioned as weak points. The spread is narrow: a broad band of approval and three outright dissenters. Slant Magazine calls it a photogenic trifle without moral depth, the Financial Times says the early scenes crawl before conflict is added late, and IndieWire finds its makeover of the genre unsatisfying. ### Reviews we read (27) - **Evening Standard**, David Sexton (90/100, inferred): Slow West is a work of rare purity, directness and concision that easily stands comparison with recent great Westerns; every word, picture and action matters in this tremendous film. Its lyric quality and strong performances, especially from Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender, are singled out. [Read](https://www.standard.co.uk/culture/film/slow-west-film-review-a-work-of-rare-purity-directness-and-concision-10347048.html) - **Film Comment**, Jonathan Romney (85/100, inferred): The critic highlights the film's clipped, economical neo-Western style as a meta take on genre conventions, powered by non-sequiturs, dry comic sensibility and terse execution. Standout praise goes to the lush, strange visuals from DP Robbie Ryan and the editors' distinctive abrupt rhythm. [Read](https://www.filmcomment.com/film-of-the-week-slow-west/) - **The Independent** (85/100, inferred): John Maclean's debut is a revelation, a beautifully written mini-epic combining lyricism, dry humour and violence with real tenderness. The idiosyncratic treatment of familiar Western elements and offbeat perspectives stand out. [Read](https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/slow-west-film-review-john-maclean-s-miniepic-combines-lyricism-humour-and-violence-10346338.html) - **Little White Lies**, Adam Woodward (3/4/4): Maclean's debut is a gratifyingly economical neo-western that wears its influences lightly while feeling original. It benefits from strong performances, especially Fassbender, and assured technical craft in its landscapes and violence. [Read](https://lwlies.com/reviews/slow-west) - **Screen Daily** (80/100, inferred): Maclean's lean, lyrical debut is an impressive coming-of-age western set in the bloody American frontier, distinguished by its New Zealand locations and Fassbender's grizzled gun-for-hire. It blends violence and immigrant perspectives in a stylish narrative. [Read](https://www.screendaily.com/slow-west/5082242.article) - **Time Out**, David Ehrlich (4/5): This contemplative, whimsical western builds to a spectacularly violent finale and treats the frontier as a mythic space filtered through a naive hero's romantic delusions. Robbie Ryan's cinematography stands out for its dreamy quality. [Read](https://www.timeout.com/movies/slow-west) - **Los Angeles Times**, Gary Goldstein (70/100, inferred): The review calls it a surprisingly sly tale of passion, greed and survival with an often dreamlike vibe and impressive debut by writer-director John Maclean. It praises the stunning cinematography by Robbie Ryan amid the rough-and-tumble episodes on the frontier. [Read](https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-slow-west-review-20150515-story.html) - **RogerEbert.com**, Brian Tallerico (70/100, inferred): The critic finds 'Slow West' a unique Western that lives up to its title with a glacial pace but delivers gorgeous visuals and a standout set piece. It features strong performances from Kodi Smit-McPhee and Michael Fassbender in an odd, genre-referential film with lyrical and black comic elements. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/sundance/sundance-2015-nasty-baby-slow-west-strangerland-ten-thousand-saints) - **The AV Club**, Mike D'Angelo (B-): The critic praises the director's ability to tell a terrific yarn and the climactic shootout's balance of critique and action, but faults the meandering structure and failure to find a compelling context for its ideas about the West. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/michael-fassbender-is-a-bounty-hunter-on-a-mission-in-t-1798183788) - **The Guardian**, Mark Kermode (70/100, inferred): Maclean strikes gold with a haunting mix of genres in this blackly comic oddity that balances the western and the musical. The performances are terrific and the gallows humour swerves from slapstick to situation comedy. [Read](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/jun/28/slow-west-review-mark-kermode) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, THR Staff (70/100, inferred): The critic finds it a wholly enjoyable buddy Western punctuated by black humor, praising Fassbender's reliable charisma and the screenplay's keen observations on the naive youth and the West. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-news/slow-west-sundance-review-766737/) - **The New Yorker**, Anthony Lane (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the lean fable quality of the short film and its two tremendous set pieces, while noting the director's debut struggles somewhat with whimsy. It singles out the reckoning of the dead in the aftermath of the shoot-out as a strong element. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2015/05/18/distant-emotions) - **The New York Times**, Stephen Holden (70/100, inferred): The review describes the film as a surreal frontier fable and absurdist deconstruction of classic Hollywood westerns with a sardonic 21st-century view of frontier mythology. It highlights the unlikely traveling companions and the dreamlike perspective embodied by a lone researcher character. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/15/movies/review-slow-west-a-wry-twist-on-classic-frontier-fables.html) - **Variety** (70/100, inferred): The critic notes a dark river of fatalism beneath the beautifully photographed vistas in this off-center Western with Coen-esque flavor in its sly intelligence, bleak humor and unsettling violence. It highlights the surreal sense of dislocation matched to the protagonist's journey. [Read](https://variety.com/2015/film/festivals/film-review-slow-west-1201433922/) - **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a kind of mess but with too much good stuff to ignore, praising the performances of Fassbender and Smit-McPhee, the cinematography, and the unpredictable climactic gunfight while noting its absurdist, episodic qualities. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/2015/01/sundance-fassbender-does-eastwood-in-slow-west.html) - **Financial Times**, Nigel Andrews (30/100, inferred): The film takes time to warm to its themes with early scenes where grass can almost literally be watched growing, but the cinematography is ravishing. Maclean’s vision starts to look like a PC Peaceable Kingdom into which late token conflicts are pitched. [Read](https://www.ft.com/content/ca5a2ec8-1b28-11e5-a130-2e7db721f996) - **IndieWire**, Anisha Jhaveri (30/100, inferred): The critic calls the film an unsatisfying makeover of the American Western, finding its approach to the genre and characters lacking in satisfaction. [Read](https://www.indiewire.com/criticism/culture/sundance-review-michael-fassbender-vehicle-slow-west-gives-the-american-western-an-unsatisfying-makeover-65632/) - **Slant Magazine**, Ed Gonzalez (30/100, inferred): The critic calls it a photogenic trifle and a self-consciously cool reorientation of the western as silly symphony, criticizing its fussy artifice, programmatic structure, and lack of genuine substance or moral depth. [Read](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/slow-west/) - **The Playlist**, The Playlist Staff (B+): The critic calls the film a terrific little parable and strong debut worth treasuring, praising its unconventional European perspective, sharp wit, absurdist violence, and fairy-tale qualities. It singles out the solid cast performances and the memorable, playful score alongside the gorgeous visuals. [Read](https://theplaylist.net/review-slow-west-starring-michael-fassbender-kodi-smit-mcphee-ben-mendelsohn-is-worth-treasuring-20150514/) - **Eye for Film**, Amber Wilkinson (80/100, inferred): The critic describes the film as a distinctive Western yarn that is part boy's own adventure, part fable, and part buddy comedy, noting its mythic landscapes and black humour that underscores the brutality of the wilderness. It singles out the contrasts in the narrative and the way comedy is coated in tragedy. [Read](https://www.eyeforfilm.co.uk/review/slow-west-2015-film-review-by-amber-wilkinson) - **HeyUGuys**, Stefan Pape (4/5): The critic praises the film as a compelling and emotionally rich debut with remarkable pacing, highlighting the screenplay's poetic quality and fairy-tale elements blended with realism. It singles out the strong cast, particularly Fassbender and Mendelsohn, for elevating the unconventional Western. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/slow-west-review/) - **NME**, Nick Levine (4/5): The critic calls it an impressive debut that offers a fresh and distinctive take on the western genre. Praise centers on the gripping depiction of a brutally beautiful Colorado populated by bounty hunters, along with flashes of surreal humour. [Read](https://www.nme.com/reviews/reviews-various-artists-16136-313818) - **The Skinny**, Jamie Dunn (4/5): The review praises the steely confidence of Maclean’s debut as a lyrical fairytale with a bracing outsider’s view that strips away pioneering myths. It singles out the inventive imagery from cinematographer Robbie Ryan and poetic dialogue for particular praise. [Read](https://www.theskinny.co.uk/film/new-releases/slow-west) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B): The critic finds it a smart, meta-western that appreciates the wonderful and terrible aspects of the Old West, though the narrative drags at times. Praises the dark comedy and visual style. [Read](https://collider.com/slow-west-review-sundance-2015/) - **Consequence** (70/100, inferred): The critic praises the film's concise storytelling, gorgeous visuals, strong performances especially Fassbender, and humor, but notes issues with flashbacks, narration, and plot structure. Overall positive but with flaws. [Read](https://consequence.net/2015/05/sundance-film-review-slow-west/) - **The Wrap** (70/100, inferred): The critic finds this understated, minor-key Western an offbeat and droll oater that simultaneously mythologizes and de-mythologizes the American West through its minimal narrative and gorgeous cinematography. Fassbender and Smit-McPhee are singled out for their well-matched performances amid the film's surprising moments of beauty and violence. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/slow-west-review-michael-fassbender-kodi-smit-mcphee-ben-mendelsohn/) - **Digital Spy**, Stella Papamichael (3/5): The review finds the Old West rendered as an ethereal dreamland with exotic visuals and a strong Fassbender performance, but notes that substance falls short of the high style. The journey feels almost static, with idealism providing heart yet frustrating progress. [Read](https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a653957/slow-west-review-michael-fassbender-leads-an-ethereal-western/) ## Details - **Director:** John Maclean - **Director:** John Maclean - **Writer:** John Maclean - **Cinematography:** Robbie Ryan - **Editor:** Jon Gregory, Roland Gallois - **Music:** Jed Kurzel, Bryan Michael Mills - **Production design:** Kim Sinclair - **Costume design:** Kirsty Cameron - **Producer:** Rachel Gardner, Conor McCaughan, Iain Canning - **Cast:** Michael Fassbender as Silas; Kodi Smit-McPhee as Jay Cavendish; Ben Mendelsohn as Payne; Caren Pistorius as Rose Ross; Rory McCann as John Ross; Eddie Campbell as Skelly; Brooke Williams as Maria; Alex Macqueen as Rupert Cavendish - **Runtime:** 1h 24m - **Certificate (MPA):** R - **Release (the US):** 15 May 2015 - **Genres:** Western, Drama, Adventure, Romance, Thriller - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $2 million - **Trailer:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8oAs_t_Z260 ## Where to watch in the US - Netflix: streaming - Tubi: free - Amazon Prime Video: rent $2.99, sd - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $9.99, sd - Apple TV: buy $9.99, sd *Checked 2026-09-17.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, CA, CH, CL, CO, DE, DK, ES, FI, FR, GB, IE, IT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, SE, US. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## Awards - European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year 2015: European Film Award for European Discovery of the Year (nominated) - Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize 2015: Sundance Film Festival World Cinema Dramatic Grand Jury Prize (won) ## If you liked this - *Dead Man* (1995), Fi1m 84: Jarmusch’s black-and-white West, another innocent drifting towards a death he cannot see coming — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/dead-man-walking.md) - *The Proposition* (2005): The Australian outback as frontier, all flies and murder, from a Nick Cave script - *Meek's Cutoff* (2010), Fi1m 82: Kelly Reichardt’s wagon train goes slowly and honestly nowhere; the landscape does the talking — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/meeks-cutoff.md) - *McCabe & Mrs. Miller* (1971), Fi1m 90: Altman’s muddy, mumbling frontier town, where money arrives well before the law does — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/mccabe-and-mrs-miller.md) - *The Sisters Brothers* (2018): Jacques Audiard’s French-made western: two brothers, one chemist and a great deal of talk --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/slow-west