Hey Everyone! I recently watched Thoroughbreds, starring Olivia Cooke, Anya Taylor-Joy and Anton Yelchin. And... I really loved it! But there was one shot in particular that really stood out! (Big old spoilers ahead of you care about that sort of thing!)

The shot itself is super simple, but actually kinda bold. It's about 3 and a half minutes as Olivia Cooke's character sleeps on the sofa, whilst Anya Taylor Joy goes off screen to commit a murder, which she is then going to frame on her sleeping friend.

So first of all, I love the balance between foreground and background, and how, even though the shot is trained on the character of Amanda, we can still see Lily preparing to do the deed in the corners and background of the shot. I also love the fact that we never actually see her do anything. The shot doesn’t show us the act itself, but it gives us a good sense of before and after. What is cinematic storytelling other than showing change overtime, anyway? I we can infer the middle from the beginning and end pretty easily.

The fact the shot is constantly pushing in adds a lot of tension, too but like... that kind of goes without saying!

The thing about it that I like the most, though, is how it pays off stuff from earlier in the film. For example, earlier in the film Lily talked about her stepfather’s rowing machine, which we hear the sound of, (like a beating heart. Also love that) when it's first introduced. We can hear it being used off screen in this scene too, and we know what it means without anyone having to say anything. This also ties back in to Lily's hatred of her stepfather. The fact it sounds like a heartbeat is also kind of payed off too, as when Lily commits the murder, we hear a clatter and... the rowing machine stops.

Finally, there’s a call back to an earlier scene which takes some explaining.

Lily’s real father died a few years ago. Amanda was her best friend at the time. Amanda cannot cry like normal people do (involuntarily, when overwhelmed with emotion). Early on in the film, Amanda admits that she has a ‘technique’ that helps her to pretend. This results in a moment where Amanda confesses that she used the technique to help her cry whilst cuddling Lily in the car after her father's funeral.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that Amanda doesn’t care, however. She offers to hug or hold Lily when she’s in pain twice in the film. But it meant that she wasn't necessarily 'feeling' anything when Lily was crying and she was holding her in the car. That's payed off when she holds onto a crying Lily at the end of the shot, even though she's asleep.

This shot is also used to hammer home the question of 'who is really more human?'. Lily shows all the 'right emotions', whilst Amanda is a blank canvas, ready to be used as a prop to cover up for Lily.

However, find that Lily is more than willing to throw Amanda under the bust to get away with Murder, and we find that Amanda is more than willing to be a part of it, either out of self-hatred, or out of love for Lily. That part is a little ambiguous...

And in one of my favourite moments from the film, in this shot, we, and Lily are reminded of just how human Amanda is when she gives out a tiny little snore. It grabs Lily’s attention, and all the guilt comes rushing in.

I think this is the point where both Lily and the audience really realise just how human Amanda is, in spite of her lack of emotions, and just how cruel Lily is for framing her.

What do you think? I really liked this shot and this scene, and found it to have so much nuance for something that, in the surface, seemed so simple!

Anyone have any thoughts on Thoroughbreds? Any other examples of seemingly super simple oners that actually accomplish a lot?

​

If you want to heart me talk about it a bit more, my video is here

If you want to hear me talk more about shots and scenes I love, there's a playlist here

​

Thanks for having a read! I hope it was interesting.