Slow West is a new, post-modern western from first time director and one time member of the Beta Band, John Maclean. It’s a stylish and well-written take on a classic, much-beloved genre.

It stars Australian actor Kodi Smit-McPhee as 16 year old Scottish aristocrat, Jay Cavendish, who has come to the frontier country of 19^th century America in search of his love, Rose, who was banished from Scotland, along with her father, under circumstances that become clearer as the film goes on.

Early on, he meets Silas, played by Michael Fassbender, a lone bounty hunter who saves Jay from a precarious situation and agrees to escort him to Rose for a fee. What Jay doesn’t realise is that Silas also has an ulterior motive. Rose and her father are both have a bounty of $2000 on their heads “dead or alive” and Jay is, unknowingly, taking Silas straight to them.

It’s a beautiful film with a timeless feel to it. We really connect to Jay’s character as the hopelessly in love teenager that we’ve all probably been at one point; too blinded by his own romantic nature to see the dangers and perils of his surroundings. We want him to succeed, we really do. We want him to find Rose and for the two of them to find happiness.

The Silas character, on the other hand, represents the cold reality and not the romance. It’s clear that he’s survived up until this point by being fearless, calculated and allowing no concessions. He’s the image of flawed adulthood that’s complimented perfectly by Jay’s romance fuelled immaturity.

The pair are trailed throughout the film by a gang of bounty hunter’s which Silas was once a member of, run by the snarling, bearskin jacketed Payne, played by Ben Mendelsohn, an Australian actor who has had a considerable revival recently with roles in The Dark Knight Rises and The Place Beyond the Pines, to name just two films.

I’m personally really proud to see two Australian actors playing main roles in this movie, and playing them so well. Both Kodi Smit-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn are brilliant.

And It’s not the only Australian contingent to Slow West. It also features a beautiful, minimalistic score from Jed Kurzel, who has previously done the soundtrack to his brother Justin’s film Snowtown as well as more recent ones like The Badadook and Son of a Gun. He’s done a fantastic job of mirroring the landscape of the setting with the string based pieces he’s composed for the film. The music is an absolutely central part of Slow West.

Another crew member who should really be getting their props is cinematographer, Robbie Ryan. I mean, films that are primarily landscapes really have to be beautiful or what’s the point? And this is a very picturesque version of the American west.

Interestingly enough, it was shot in the South Island of New Zealand rather than the US and uses 1:66:1 aspect ratio rather than the widescope of spaghetti westerns that we as an audience have grown accustomed to. It makes for a film that’s instantly recognizable but definitely it’s own beast.

All in all, it’s a really assured debut feature from John Maclean and fans of modern westerns like Dead Man or The Proposition will really get a lot out of it.

- Nathan Kearney