Surrounded

This movie is more John Ford and Sergio Leone in that the characters talk too much. If it had been a little more Sergio and a little less John, it would've been an even better movie.

Wright and Bell have a powerful dynamic, with her playing Mo as quietly ferocious and him playing Tommy as brashly theatrical.

A stark and unsuspecting Western.

Director Anthony Mandler’s survival-of-the-fittest Western dusts off old-school tropes and reinvigorates them rather than reinvents them.

Alas, the commonplace writing, along with performers whose idea of playing “western” seems to derive from some pretty bad movies, renders the proceedings less than compelling.

An exceptionally well-crafted Western that spins a gripping, racially charged tale of suspicion, deception and survival in post-Civil War New Mexico.

Mandler’s brilliant “Surrounded” is everything dedicated fans of Westerns could possibly want. It is a throwback in every sense of the word and could have been produced at any point in the last 70 or so years by the likes of Ford, Hawks, or Eastwood.

Mandler shines the spotlight on the thorny relationship that develops between Mo and Tommy. Wright and Bell both deliver outstanding performances in their roles, though the script shortchanges both characters in terms of their development.

Talky but thoughtful and beautifully composed, this post-Civil War-era Western addresses complex nuances of race, gender, discrimination.

I was enthralled throughout by the effectiveness of the plotting, but also Wright's performance. Bell is fantastic, but it's Wright who carries the drama