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The convergence of Matchbox the Movie, Ben Affleck’s Animals, Other Mommy, and The Social Reckoning this weekend seems to indicate that October has become the new February with dumping critically excoriated films. Universal apparently wouldn’t even lift their critic embargo on Other Mommy until the day of its release.

Wild Horse Nine is, finally, a film from Martin McDonagh that doesn't feel overwritten while retaining the best parts of his sense of humor. This is also his least-plotted hangout movie, and handily his best work since In Bruges, if not his best film period. But it's not really his film, is it? Because 95% of the reason this thing works at all is John Malkovich, delivering what must be the richest, most lived-in comic performance I've seen, that's somehow a career-best in a body of work full of gems. I don't know if the role was tailor-made for him, but it doesn't matter because Malkovich makes this character his own, using all his unique attributes to serve as a perfect vehicle for McDonagh's acidic wit while elevating the character into someone wholly original and wonderful, even if at a cost and too late. Rockwell and Buscemi do their jobs, but this movie is completely carried on Malkovich's back and he deserves the Oscar for all of these reasons and more