Slate Says John Malkovich Is This Year's Best Actor Frontrunner for Wild Horse Nine

John Malkovich has been nominated for Oscars twice and never won. Well, Slate’s critic is ready to end that streak, calling him the current frontrunner for Best Actor for Martin McDonagh’s Wild Horse Nine. The film follows two CIA agents, played by Malkovich and Sam Rockwell, who head to Easter Island in 1973, weeks before the Chilean coup. Rockwell’s character has been ordered to kill Malkovich’s. Malkovich’s character is also dying. So it’s a comedy, technically.

McDonagh, who wrote and directed In Bruges and The Banshees of Inisherin, is back in the darkly funny buddy-movie mode that made him famous. The film mixes an existential Western with satire about American imperialism, and the Rapa Nui setting gives it a visual jolt. The critic notes the colonial history sometimes becomes backdrop, but the centerpiece is Malkovich’s performance as a fragile, guilt-ridden man facing death, which the review calls strong enough to end the Best Actor debate early.

With Steve Buscemi as the CIA boss and Mariana di Girolamo and Ailín Salas playing Chilean activists, the cast is loaded. And if the early Oscar buzz holds, Malkovich’s first win could be one of those moments everyone remembers. Are you already planning to see it in theaters?