Thoroughbreds (Cory Finley, 2017): USA

Reviewed by Ish Malik at AFI Film Festival 2017, Los Angeles

Thoroughbreds is all about the exclusive upperclass lifestyle. Similar to ‘Great Gatsby’, Cory Finley main focus of the movie is to portray the-rich-life and the corrupted minds of these wealthy folks. In addition to the classy outfits, perfect hair, red lips, royal houses and sophisticated living, Cory does an excellent job at to show how these almost psychotic teenage girls think. The intense and suspenseful music adds to the thrill of the movie and enhances the dramatic aspects of it.

The acting by the two young girls, Lily and Amanda, played by Anya and Olivia respectively is honestly exceptional. Amanda is portrayed as this stone cold teenage girl with no feelings what so ever. In the opening scene, we see Amanda killing a horse. This is what makes her ‘experienced’. On the other hand, Lily is a girl very similar to Amanda but she hasn’t truly accepted herself for it yet. In the beginning of the film, Lily is sweet, chirpy, happy and joyful. She even shows emotions of fear around Amanda as Amanda shows her true self to Lily. But Amanda’s influence brings out the best of Lily. Amanda’s experience in the bloody work encourages Lily to ask her for help to make the master plan of killing her step-dad. She plans the perfect murder and ends up putting it on Amanda. It turns out that Lily is more extreme than Amanda can ever be. Amanda, the bold and strong character happily accepts her fate of imprisonment as she realizes she doesn’t really have anything to strive for in her life. The characters of the movie can be described as bold and daring. They are fearless and brave but also very clever and slick. The crazy, intense and severe personalities in this film is what gives this movie it’s spark. The purpose of this piece other than to entertain audience with its extremely intriguing story-line is to inform people of the corruption that goes on in the upper-class families. This corruption can lead to fatal consequences, and the killer can be out and about, free of guilt and free of negative results of their doings.

The bigger picture is that despite of their apparent ‘neat’ and ‘clean’ lifestyle, there is more dirty work involved within rich people than an average household. My hypothesis after watching Thoroughbreds is that the less the world sees, the more that there is going on. Thoroughbreds opens your mind to a whole new a world of wealthy, well-to-do people that you weren’t aware of. A world that can be considered dangerous and treacherous.