At the end of the nineteenth century, 16-year-old Jay Cavendish journeys across the American frontier to search for the woman he loves. He is accompanied by Silas, a mysterious traveler, and hotly pursued by an outlaw along the way.
29 December 1959, Naenae, Wellington, New Zealand
3 April 1969, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
1974, Epsom, Surrey, England, UK
10 May 1980, Auckland, New Zealand
13 June 1996, Adelaide, South Australia, Australia
3 January 1984, Christchurch, New Zealand
February 24, 2017
Slow West is the feature debut of writer-director John Maclean. [...] it is also among the more unique modern westerns in the way that it plays around with traditional western tropes and conventions.
June 11, 2015
There's more to the story than meets the bull's eye in Slow West, a brainy and genre-defying western by newcomer John Maclean.
May 28, 2015
It's all of 84 minutes. But when it's done, you know you've seen something.
October 14, 2015
Slow West crescendos into a bravura shootout between all the involved parties, and it's as gorgeous, nihilistic, and brutally sad as the rest of the film.
May 21, 2015
Writer-director John Maclean insists at every opportunity that the American west teemed with brutality and that every positive myth about the region was built on a lie, yet he doesn't deliver this familiar revisionist history with much force.
April 27, 2016
This is an often ferociously entertaining and substantial debut.
March 01, 2016
Slow West derives its strength not only from its multi-layered story but also from its spectacular visuals of a geography, which simultaneously seems subliminally awe-inspiring and menacing.
June 16, 2016
The tone of the film, a darkly absurdist frontier odyssey, recalls both the films of the Coen Brother and the novels of Cormac McCarthy.
January 17, 2017
By turns a beautiful, surprising and haunting work.
February 26, 2016
This quirky, confident Western belies the fact it is the director's first feature, and marks him out as one to watch.
June 11, 2015
Essentially an old-school Western with some interesting tweaks, Slow West -- the debut feature from musician-turned-filmmaker John Maclean -- is a simple story told, yes, slowly. But it offers a bang-up finish.
May 21, 2015
Maclean's film is a wonderfully dreamy, if meandering, take on the western. Like all movies that use their fantastic surroundings, Slow West is best seen on a big screen.
