Coming in at only 84 minutes long, Slow West in lean film with a simple drive. It's well shot, brilliantly edited and moves at such a pace that its semi-episodic nature is hardly noticeable. Not bad from a first-time feature. Michael Fassbender plays Silas, who is pretty much an embodiment of the end of the Old West. He is cold, violent and uncompromising, a man who puts his vague morality aside in favour of money. But, in coming into contact with the idealistic Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee), he gradually eventually breaks down his personality, winding up a typically civilised man in the process. Many modern takes on the oft-ignored Western genre have toyed with the end of days, but few have it running so firmly through the entire film as John Maclean's impressive directorial debut. The people who populate the desolate landscape are all too self-aware of the shifting times and how the ruthlessness they surround themselves with isn't going to survive. It's almost sad. Maclean has a particular skill when it comes to crafting story and dream sequences, letting audio bleed over and allowing the camera to linger on increasingly purposeful details. Like several rising directors on this list, it'll be very interesting to see what he does next. At the very least, Tarantino's The Hateful Eight has some serious competition.
