Movie Review: 'On Swift Horses' is a fumbled queer tale set against atomic blasts

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Movie Review: 'On Swift Horses' is a fumbled queer tale set against atomic blasts

2025-04-24 00:16 Last Updated At：00:32

Muriel, a waitress in 1950s America, seems to be the quintessential June Cleaver. She's got a loving husband, a suburban house with a white picket fence in California and nice outfits. But not everything is as it seems, like her secret gambling. And her eye for a neighbor.

“On Swift Horses,” based on Shannon Pufahl’s novel of the same name and adapted by Bryce Kass, is all about how a dominant culture can suppress natural impulses. More specifically, it's a queer tale set against the post-Korean War status quo.

“We are all just a hair’s breadth from losing everything, all the time,” Muriel is told by a woman also hiding her truth in plain sight.

But despite a brilliant performance by Daisy Edgar-Jones, “On Swift Horses” gets lost in a meandering plot and clunky symbols, including olives, atomic bomb tests, a tiny gun and a horse, the universal sign of the unbridled self that is just sort of dumped here. The execution is often slack and then veers into melodrama in the last 15 minutes. And there's a weird noir vibe that doesn't really work.

That's a shame because a film dealing with hidden homosexuality is very relevant as some forces seem to seek to return America to the '50s — two genders, no queer accommodation, definitely nothing trans.

The neat and tidy world of Edgar-Jones' Muriel becomes unmoored by the emergence of Julius, her husband's brother. Julius — played by a forever-smoldering Jacob Elordi with an ever-present cigarette, which goes from acting prop to crutch — brings an anarchic energy. He's a cad, but a lovable one.

He recognizes something in Muriel — a wistfulness, a restlessness. “I think you see all through all of it,” he tells her. She soon overhears horse racing tips at work and uses them to earn thousands, hiding the winnings from her husband. She also seems to connect in a flirtatious way with neighbor Sandra (Sasha Calle, excellent).

Meanwhile, Julius has ended up in Las Vegas, falling in love with a co-worker, played by a soulful Diego Calva. They're employed by a casino to watch over gamblers and make sure there's no cheating. They are basically pairs of eyes removed from the world, watching from a perch above the action.

The Julius storyline — the push and pull of whether these two closeted men should be outlaws or live in the system — yanks focus from Muriel's storyline. Gambling is used as a metaphor for being queer at a time when it was dangerous, but it rarely lands.

Director Daniel Minahan and the cast concentrate on small coded gestures — a glance, a lingering touch, a matchbook passed along — to indicate desires, but they are undone by massive symbols, like that silly horse.

One moment sticks out that has no dialogue at all: a powerful scene where Muriel's husband unexpectedly finds his wife outside the neighbor's house and they share a silent ride home. His mind is turning just as the wheels do.

Edgar-Jones shows equal parts vulnerability and steeliness, superb at communicating what her slippery character is really feeling even as she blends in on the outside. Heartbreakingly, she turns to her husband (Will Poulter, underwritten) at one point and asks: “Did you ever want this?”

“On Swift Horses” belongs in the same category as other hushed ’50s-set same-sex romances, like Todd Haynes’ “Carol” or Luca Guadagnino’s “Queer.” But this adaptation hasn't made the leap to the screen very well. Sometimes swift horses stumble.

“On Swift Horses,” a Sony Pictures Classic release, is rated R for sexual content, nudity and some language. Running time: 119 minutes. Two stars out of four.

2 men convicted of cutting down beloved Sycamore Gap tree in northern England in 2023

2025-05-09 18:09 Last Updated At：18:10

LONDON (AP) — Two men were convicted Friday of cutting down the beloved Sycamore Gap tree in northern England in 2023 in an unexplained act of vandalism that caused widespread outrage.

A Newcastle Crown Court jury found Daniel Graham and Adam Carruthers guilty of two counts each of criminal damage for felling the tree and toppling it onto the ancient Hadrian’s Wall.

The tree was not Britain’s biggest or oldest, but it was prized for its picturesque setting along the ancient wall built by Emperor Hadrian in A.D. 122 to protect the northwest frontier of the Roman Empire and had attracted generations of followers.

The tree was known to locals but became received international attention in Kevin Costner’s 1991 film “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.” It sat symmetrically between two hills along the wall and was a draw for tourists, landscape photographers and people snapping selfies for social media.

“For over a century, Sycamore Gap has been an iconic natural landmark in the northeast of England, bringing immeasurable joy to those visiting the area," Gale Gilchrist, chief prosecutor for the region, said in a statement after the verdict. “In just under three minutes, Graham and Carruthers ended its historic legacy in a deliberate and mindless act of destruction.”

Jurors deliberated about four hours on Thursday and reached a verdict after meeting less than 30 minutes Friday morning.

Neither defendant showed any visible reaction as the verdicts were read. Sentencing was scheduled for July 15.

The defendants, once close friends, both testified that they had nothing to do with cutting down the tree. Graham pointed the finger at Carruthers.

But prosecutors played video from Graham’s phone of the tree being cut down and showed that his Range Rover had traveled toward the tree the night it was cut down in September 2023.

Text and voice messages were shown to the jury of the two men boasting of the act the next day as news of the tree’s demise spread around the world.

Prosecutor Richard Wright told jurors in his closing argument that the men cut the tree down for “a bit of a laugh” in the dark of night during a blustery storm on Sept. 28, 2023, but had failed to realize the anger they would spark in the “arboreal equivalent of mindless thuggery.”

Prosecutors said the tree was valued at more than 620,000 pounds (around $830,000) and damage to the wall was estimated at 1,100 pounds (nearly $1,500).