Wild Horse Nine — Montclair Film Festival Review

I’ve seen more than 100 new releases in 2026 so far, and Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine is easily the funniest film I’ve seen all year. By the time I walked out of the theater, my face genuinely hurt from laughing so much. Normally, a second viewing can’t quite recapture the laughs of the first, but after catching it again as the opening-night selection at the Montclair Film Festival, I found myself laughing just as hard. McDonagh has mastered the art of the black-comedy crime thriller, crafting stories that are as bleak as they are hysterical, often anchored by complicated male friendships. From his feature-length debut, In Bruges, to 2022’s The Banshees of Inisherin, he excels at finding humor in humanity’s darkest moments. With Wild Horse Nine, the award-winning writer-director crafts one of his finest screenplays yet, resulting in a film that’s riveting, consistently hilarious, and deeply heartbreaking.