The Mustang 2019

      This movie is based on Laure de Clermont-Tonnerres short film Rabbit 2014.  In the short, a female prisoner is entrusted with an animal as part of a correctional facility’s ‘pet partnership' program.  This is the story of Roman Coleman.  He is in prison because he’s committed a violent crime.  He’s given the chance to participate in a rehabilitation therapy program.  The inmates that would like to work with wild mustangs can have this opportunity if they are chosen to work by Myles.  He’s heading up the program with the wild mustangs in this area.  A helicopter goes to the locations where the mustangs congregate and guides them to a paddock.  Some of them can handle the sudden confinement but others become agitated.  Roman has never worked with any horses but he’s drawn to one that’s confined to a separate enclosure and kicking the building.

     The character Tom is played by Thomas Smittle and he participated in the actual program while he was in prison.  He was in the program from 2019-2011.  His horse was the top selling horse in the history of the program.  The red roan gelding he worked with sold for $8500.00 at the auction held at the end of the program.  There is tension in this film about how the inmates will do in training the horses and how will the horses react.  These horses have not had close contact with humans and the inmates have to learn how to handle them.  There is an intense thunderstorm that causes the need for special handling of the horses because of their intense fear.  Working with any animal requires internal calmness and a lot of patience.  4* (I really liked this movie)

96 min, Drama directed by Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre with Mattias Schoenaerts, Jason Mitchell, Bruce Dern, Gideon Adlon, Connie Britton, Josh Stewart, Thomas Smittle, Keith Johnson, Noel Gugliemi, James McFarland, Sean Patrick Bridges, George Schroeder, Gregory Williams, Joseph Bartlett.

Note:  Imdb 6.9 out of 10, Rotten Tomatoes 93% critic 76% audience, Roger Ebert 3 1/2* out of 4*, RollingStone 4* out of 5* Peter Travers, Common Sense Media age 15+ 4* out of 5* (3* positive, 2* role, 4* violence, 1* sex, 4* language, 3* drinking, drugs & smoking), Amazon 4.1* out of 5* with 103 reviews, IndieWire.com Grade B, SeattleTimes.com 3 ½* Soren Anderson.

Special Note:  This is the feature film directorial debut of Laure de Clermont-Tonnerre’s.  Laure developed The Mustang through the Sundance Labs and received the Sundance Institute/NHK Award for the project in 2015.  Also, this is a co-operative film between France and Belgium with the release in France.