Rating: R | Runtime: 117 minutes
Release Date: April 25th, 2025 (USA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director(s): Daniel Minahan
Writer(s): Bryce Kass / Shannon Pufahl (novel)

It’s just the world getting in the way.

Lee (Will Poulter) knows exactly what he wants: Everything he didn’t have growing up. A quaint little home full of love and family. To give his own children what he always yearned to experience himself. It’s the dream he’s strived to achieve since before leaving for the Korean War. One he hatched alongside his younger brother Julius (Jacob Elordi) despite knowing his participation was more poetic than guaranteed. It was simply nice to think about and to keep that hope alive. So, when Lee meets Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones), he thinks the fantasy might finally become real. Get married, move to San Diego, and gaze upon a future filtered through glasses tinted by a nostalgia he never truly knew.

Daniel Minahan’s film, and, presumably Shannon Pufahl’s novel (adapted by Bryce Kass) isn’t about Lee, though. No, On Swift Horses instead focuses on the two wilder souls he has hitched his dream upon. Muriel is a Kansas girl at heart, but an adventurous risk-taker in spirit. Julius is a charismatic spirit with a romantic heart. She joins in Lee’s quest in the belief that Julius will be by their side to instill a bit of excitement. He pretends to still be on-board so he doesn’t disappoint them. But neither really wants to put down roots behind the cage of a picket fence. Lee’s dream is one steeped in security while their minds wander towards much higher stakes.

Superficially, those stakes come from gambling. Muriel secretly begins playing the horses via eavesdropped tips at the diner where she works. Julius brashly hits the card tables to grift and cheat his way into as many windfalls as beat downs. It’s an outlet from their otherwise slow attempts at living the capitalist American dream, but also a placeholder for the risk they’re desperate to take in love too. She thinks her gamble is with Julius, but he’s less her literal target than its expressionistic mold. It’s Gail (Kat Cunning) and Sandra (Sasha Calle) who catch her eye. Just as it’s Henry (Diego Calva) who catches his. The question is therefore whether their longing is real or another means of rolling the dice. Because, as Gail soon admits, they’re all a hair’s breadth away from losing everything.

I enjoyed this complex romantic drama in large part because it didn’t rely on Lee for its theatrics. Lesser works would have him try and beat sense into his brother or seek vengeance upon his wife. Here, however, he’s the most empathetic and clear-headed character on-screen. Sure, he is hurt by what eventually transpires, but he would never begrudge another human being from the happiness they need to survive. Lee never uses the word “gay” or “homosexual” when speaking about his brother, but we know he knows. We know he loves Julius anyway and merely hopes his brother stays in touch. Because Lee does truly want to cultivate that familial connection he missed. To know his brother will always be there no matter what.

There’s compassion and maturity in this reaction even if the era and moment still prevent him from openly accepting Julius as a person rather than a symbol. It’s why we worry about Lee’s feelings more than his actions when Muriel’s extramarital affair escalates. He is the rock and, perhaps, the victim. The one destined to be abandoned because his idealism is too pure to concede that his dream neglects the nuances of a modern world. And it’s through his consistency that Edgar-Jones and Elordi are really able to bring the mess and emotionality to characters that are too quick to let themselves down by conforming to the society Lee holds so dear. Because making him happy means sacrificing their own joy. And making themselves happy means risking their freedom.

In the end, all three ultimately choose themselves. It might seem convenient that this decision brings with it understanding and a genuine desire for the others to find what they’re looking for even if they can no longer come along for the journey, but I’d argue this outcome is the surprising outlier. Rather than rely on the fireworks of self-pity or lashing out (both Muriel and Julius have their fair share of torment from their secret lives to not need extra from their public ones), Pufahl and Minahan deliver an impressively adult look at our collective struggle to find our place and identity in an ever-changing world. On Swift Horses is in many senses a coming-of-age film for the late-twenty sect in an era where one is supposed to already know who they are.

I won’t deny that it moves quickly in some regards, but you must only believe in the love shared to get past the lack of foreplay, per se. I think it speaks to the vulnerability and confusion driving Muriel and Julius that they’re able to fall so hard and so fast for others. That sense of home and peace that Lee finds in buying a plot of land to start a family is what those two see in each other and in Sandra and Henry respectively. They’re the dream Muriel and Julius aren’t sure will come true. Lee is the solid, safe figure in the rearview mirror they’ve been able to rely upon and, to some extent, use as a crutch to not pursue their own destiny. These are three inextricably bonded souls approaching the realization that their way forward demands they sever that bond first.

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Will Poulter, Daisy Edgar-Jones, and Jacob Elordi in ON SWIFT HORSES; courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics.