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CALM WITH HORSES (THE SHADOW OF VIOLENCE) (2020)

1/23/21 - Calm with Horses (2020) - 6/10 

An understated menacing feature of family, chosen, indebted, and forsaken. This is a soft crime thriller that swirls around the forlorn bruising hulk protagonist; caught between the servitude of the Irish crime family he has entangled himself with and the broken bonds of blood which he keeps at arm’s length. It’s sorrowful and languid, the rolling hills of the island blending into the furrowed emptiness at home in both the hearts of the characters and the heft of their actions.

Cosmo Jarvis grounds this film with isolated depth and humane purity. His bulky and bereft lug lets his eyes and physicality to bring us into the rift inside we ease & pain. His twisty compatriot Bary Keoghan keeps his innate shiftiness and Niamh Algar really shines, with her passion and hope on her sleeve.

Such a simplistic story, as Arm (Jarvis) endeavors to reconcile with and connect to his autistic son, and in doing so, find his own righteous path to absolution through & without violence. Its touching and poignant, with a  sheer and true aesthetic. A gem that rewarded the watch and shared whispered promise for the future.