I got to see On Swift Horses at an early screening hosted by Letterboxd (if you don’t know Letterboxd, get on it!). This doesn’t mean much except that I watched the movie in a fully packed theater which, for a small indie film like this, would not have been likely otherwise. On Swift Horses is queer period drama based on the book of the same name by Shannon Pufahi. It takes place in the 1950s and follows Muriel (Daisy Edgar Jones) and her brother-in-law Julius (Jacob Elordi). The relationships are all messy and confusing. Muriel marries Lee (Will Poulter) but is in love with his brother, Julius. Julius feels a connection with Muriel but it isn’t necessarily romantic love. Meanwhile, both Muriel and Julius both begin romantic affairs with same-sex lovers. I knew none of this going in. Really I wanted to see it for the all-star cast. The starring performances were good, but I just didn’t connect with the film. I kept wondering where the story was going and what they were trying to say with it.

Muriel is married to Lee but is in love with Julius. Julius loves Muriel but is in love with Henry (Diego Calva), a man even wilder than Julius himself. The two meet while working in a Las Vegas casino and are forced by societal pressures to hide their relationship. Muriel is also having an affair with Sandra (Sasha Calle), her lesbian neighbor living openly in her identity. Sandra seems to have real feelings for Muriel while Muriel is just using Sandra as an escape from her cookie-cutter life. An outlet for her pent up feelings. There’s kind of plot in between all this. Julius and Henry pull card-counting schemes in Vegas. Muriel tries her luck betting on horses. “How much would you gamble for love?” the poster asks. If that’s the central question of the film, it doesn’t do much work to probe at that other than drawing thin lines with the concept of gambling across storylines. You could feel the movie wanting to be deep and emotional. From far away it appears to be. Even the dialogue could pass as insightful and powerful at first glance. But when you look closer, the illusion falls away. None of it ever actually connected for me emotionally. I felt like I should be feeling something, but I just wasn’t. 

Maybe it was the theater experience that held me back. The crowd was invested and vocal with their responses. That’s not always a bad thing. But while there was definitely some unintentional humor in the film (Jacob Elordi riding off into the sunset on a horse at the end of the film was completely goofy), it is by no means a comedy. Yet for some reason the audience was howling at every small, slightly awkward moment. It was bizarre. Maybe that prevented me from taking anything too seriously. There were also two older women who walked out of the theater when they realized it was a gay love story. This also occurred back in January when the film played as a secret screening at the Palm Springs Film Festival where at least half a dozen people walked out. Like the movie or don’t like the movie, that’s your right. But to be opposed to a gay love story on screen in 2025? What are we even doing?

I saw the vision of On Swift Horses, but it just wasn’t hitting the right notes for me. Or more like it was hitting the notes but they were offkey. It looked the part (it looks beautiful actually, to its credit) but just doesn’t quite give a strong enough performance. Jacob Elordi and Daisy Edgar Jones always give it their all and are the anchors the film needs to give it any weight. However, I do think half of Jacob Elordi’s character’s personality is just being hot so that’s not really a stretch for him. But the Diego Calva and Will Poulter performances just did not work for me at all. Their energies felt out of place with the rest of the movie in an uncomfortable way. The film reminded me of Cher’s quote from Clueless, “She’s a full-on Monet. It’s like a painting, see? From far away, it’s okay, but up close, it’s a big old mess.”. No, On Swift Horses isn’t “a big old mess”. But it does start to fall apart the closer you look. It was a fun experience to go to the Letterboxd screening and, hey, it was a free movie so never a waste of time at all. I just hope for the next one I like the movie a little bit more!

2025 Count: 27 movies, 19 seasons of television, 3 specials