Starring: Anya Taylor-Joy, Olivia Cooke, Anton Yelchin, Paul Sparks, Francie Swift
OUR RATING: ★★★½
Story:
Drama-thriller directed and written by Cory Finley in his directorial debut. The story centers on childhood friends Lily and Amanda (Anya Taylor-Joy and Olivia Cooke) who reconnect in suburban Connecticut after years of growing apart. Lily has turned into an upper-class teenager, with a fancy boarding school on her transcript and a coveted internship on her resume; Amanda has developed a sharp wit and her own particular attitude, but all in the process of becoming a social outcast.
Though they initially seem completely at odds, the pair bond over Lily’s contempt for her oppressive stepfather, Mark (Paul Sparks), and as their friendship grows, they begin to bring out one another’s most destructive tendencies. Their ambitions lead them to hire a local hustler, Tim (Anton Yelchin), and take matters into their own hands to set their lives straight.
Our Favorite Quote:
'The only thing worse than being incompetent or being unkind or being evil is being indecisive.' - Amanda (Thoroughbreds) Click To Tweet
Best Quotes (Total Quotes: 23)
Amanda: I think my best option at this point would be to skip college and just to sort of Steve Jobs my way through life.
Lily: I guess you’re feeling a lot of feelings, uh, right now. It’s fresh.
Amanda: Well, that’s the funny thing, actually. I really don’t.
Lily: Don’t what?
Amanda: Feel anything.
Lily: Like, you’re numb? Like you don’t have any negative feelings…
Amanda: Like I don’t have any feelings, ever.
Lily: Sure, you do.
Amanda: I mean sometimes I feel hungry or tired. But, like, joy, guilt? I really don’t have any of those.
Lily: I don’t understand.
Amanda: Yeah, it’s hard to explain. It’s really only recently that I’ve been able to admit it to myself. Because I’ve gotten so good at watching and imitating other people’s emotions that I sort of tricked myself into believing I have them, but I don’t.
Lily: So that’s a, um…
Amanda: A what?
Lily: A disorder or something?
Amanda: Oh. Well, the shrink would sure like it to be. First it was borderline personality, then severe depression, yesterday, she said it was antisocial with schizoid tendency. She’s basically just flipping to random pages of the DSM-5 and throwing medications at me. But I have a perfectly healthy brain. It just doesn’t contain feelings. And that doesn’t necessarily make me a bad person. It just means I have to work a little harder than everyone else to be good.
Amanda: I just think you should be honest about your feelings. Otherwise it starts coming out in passive-aggressive ways.
Amanda: That’s the first honest thing you’ve said to me since the sixth grade.
Lily: Have you showered?
Amanda: Only every couple of days, lately. But no one said anything so I thought I was getting away with it.
Lily: You’re not.
Amanda: Not sorry I tried.
Amanda: I think most of this country’s moral norms comes from weird old Puritan bullshit. A human life isn’t some sacred thing. There’s nothing holy about a dick and a vaj getting together and spitting out a little dude. If that dude causes more bad than good, then he’s like a, you know, a piece of malfunctioning machinery. A lame horse. Right. Should be taken out back and put down.
[referring to the movie they’re watching]
Amanda: That’s the worst fake crying I’ve ever seen. She’s just using the technique.
Lily: What?
[Amanda starts to cry to prove her point]
Amanda: The technique.
Lily: Holy…
[they’re interrupted by Mark]
Lily: Uh, Amanda, this is my stepdad, Mark.
Mark: How long are you here, Amanda?
Amanda: My mom’s going to pick me up around midnight.
Mark: Midnight’s late for us. I’ll call your mom, she can come pick you up now.
Amanda: She’s busy.
Mark: Doing what?
Amanda: Chemotherapy.
Mark: [to Lily] I’m sending you to boarding school. After that you’re off my payroll, princess.
[referring to Mark; to Lily]
Amanda: You hate him. You despise him.
Lily’s Mom: Honey, you can’t go in looking like that.
Mark: I’m fine.
Lily’s Mom: Let me just…
Mark: Am I going to have stand here all day like a robot repeating myself, “I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine. I’m fine?”
[referring to Mark]
Amanda: Ever think about just killing him?
Lily: How would you?
Lilly: I think we should do it.
Amanda: Really?
Lilly: Really.
Partygoer: What the hell is he even doing here?
Tim: I am providing you all with early drug experience you will forever cherish. Who the hell are you?
[Tim gets punched in the face]
Tim: How did you find me?
Lily: I asked around.
Tim: That is so fucking unprofessional.
Amanda: You got a gun?
Tim: None of your fucking business.
Amanda: Multiple guns?
Tim: Multiple gun, no! What am I, fucking Rambo?! Yes, I have a gun.
Amanda: Good.
Tim: Why good?
Amanda: Because then Lily has a business proposition for you.
[to Lily; referring to Amanda]
Tim: You got a creepy friend.
Lily: I know.
Amanda: We have a business proposition for you. You have a gun?
Tim: Yes, I have a gun. You don’t know where I come from.
Amanda: Westchester. Admit it.
Tim: You have no idea.
Tim: You’re going to blackmail me into killing your stepdad?
Lilly: Totally.
Amanda: [to Tim] I believe in you.
[Tim shakes his head in disdain]
Amanda: [to Lily] If we were going to do this we both need to be far away with airtight alibies.
[referring to the gun he’s pointing at Amanda]
Lily: I didn’t think you’d bring it here.
[Tim then points at Lily]
Tim: You want to hold it?
Lily: No, thanks.
[he offers the gun to Lily]
Amanda: Anyway.
Amanda: You cannot hesitate. The only thing worse than being incompetent or being unkind or being evil is being indecisive.
Lily: Okay. Shall we?
[referring to his wounded head]
Tim: What am I going to tell my dad?
Amanda: Wear a hat.
[referring to the gun]
Amanda: We’re keeping this, by the way.
Amanda: How does that feel?
Lilly: Really good.
[last lines; referring to Amanda]
Lily: I wanted her to forget all about it, but she felt differently.
Tim: Did you, uh, talk to her after that?
Lily: She did write me a letter, though. About a week ago.
Tim: What did it say?
Amanda: [voice over] Things actually aren’t bad here. Food’s okay, staff are generally nice people. The therapists have been working with me to fill in my memories of those missing hours. And it’s kind of a fun exercise. I can tell them fucking anything and they’ll just write it down and nod. In other news, the ol’ medication-of-the-month club is back in full swing, and the latest ones are making me sleep fourteen hours a day and dream constantly. You’re in a lot of them. In one of the recurring ones, we’re in your living room, and I’ve just drank your drugged screwdriver and you’re screaming, asking me why I did it. Asking me why I have a horse’s head instead of my face. And I want to tell you that I don’t, but I turn to you and I open my mouth and all that comes out is…
[we hear a horse neighing]
Amanda: [voice over] And then there’s this other recurring dream that doesn’t involve you at all. And it goes like this: I’m Honeymooner, and I’m dying. And I rise out of my body, and I’m staring down at our whole suburb, and time is speeding up. And I see generations of people coming, and going, and building bigger houses. And then eventually the people start spending more and more of their time staring at their smartphones. And soon enough, they’re forgetting to clean their houses, or mow their lawns, or eat, and eventually, all the houses rot and collapse, and the people disappear, vanishing completely into the Internet. And then, and this is the really beautiful part, the horses take over. And the whole suburb is just beautiful thoroughbred stallions with no owners and no memory of owners and no way of knowing how expensive they are, just mating and galloping through the ruins.
Tim: What did it say?
Lily: I don’t know. I just threw it away.
Total Quotes: 23
What do you think of Thoroughbreds quotes from the movie? Let us know in the comments below as we’d love to know.
Trailer:
I pity the father, a successful upper class man, stuck with a monstrous, spoiled, self centered step daughter. She and her equally despicable friend end up murdering him while he’s exercising. And they seem to get away with it! These two deserve a lifetime in prison!