Calm with Horses

Cosmo Jarvis (Lady Macbeth) gives a visceral performance as the hired muscle for a crime family in rural Ireland.

Bulky, witty and loyal, Douglas (Jarvis) has his limits with violence, but the local family business he works for has some nasty ideas about justice and he needs money to support his ex and their child. A manipulative mate and heir to the crime throne (Barry Keoghan) keeps shovelling coke up Douglas’ nose. And there’s a psychopath in their midst, in the form of the ever-menacing, red-eyed Paudi (Ned Dennehy). As Douglas becomes embroiled in a violent pageant of retribution, the time soon comes to choose sides.

Nick Rowland’s feature debut is a gripping thriller that builds towards an emotionally shattering finale. And Jarvis enters the contemporary canon (alongside the likes of Tom Hardy, Matthias Schoenaerts and Calm with Horses exec-producer Michael Fassbender) of actors playing men whose bruised, quiet exteriors belie great inner depths.