On Swift Horses review – Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar-Jones simmer in glossy drama of sex and identity

Things are not as hetero as they appear in this handsome melodrama framing the postwar period as one of searching for meaning beyond the picket fenceMaking a bid for awards credibility – somewhat tentatively – is this absorbing, detailed melodrama, adapted by screenwriter Bryce Kass from Shannon Pufahl’s 50s-set 2019 novel. Kass begins with a narrative feint: after some dutiful lovemaking with husband Lee (Will Poulter), young bride Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) spies Lee’s studly drifter brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) sprawling shirtless on a station wagon outside, the playing cards in his pocket signifying trouble. Things aren’t as hetero as they appear, however: Muriel is drawn to Julius for what he represents rather than who he is, cueing an atypical love triangle where the protagonists are mostly prised apart, and where the optimal outcome may well be for all concerned to pursue their own paths.Pufahl’s intention, boosted here by longtime Todd Haynes producer Christine Vachon, is to flag that this moment in American life wasn’t entirely as staid as we’ve been led to believe, that identities were shifting beneath the placid surface of postwar reconstruction. Waitress Muriel gambles on racing tips from her regulars, before trysting with a sapphically inclined neighbour (Sasha Calle). Julius sells his body to fellow cardsharps and becomes a professional peeper, prowling a casino’s eaves to spot blackjack cheaters. (Even here, the rising heat obliges him to lose the shirt.) Only Poulter’s Lee, upright in flannel, clings to an older, squarer design for life, installing his wife in a little box on a California hillside – yet he seems as destined for heartbreak as anyone. Continue reading...

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The Paper review – Tim Key dials up the cringe factor and goes full David Brent in Office US spin-off

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