The New West
2013 · 15m · USA
Directed by Peter Edlund
Genres: drama, thriller, western
Tones: contemplative, dark, tense
A revenge narrative set in an American high school, written and directed by Peter Edlund, that deliberately maps Western genre conventions — the stoic outsider, the code of honor, the confrontation — onto the contemporary schoolyard.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Edlund works in a recognizable American tradition — the genre film as cultural diagnosis — and The New West is disciplined enough in its execution that the Western conceit reads as argument rather than decoration.
Western grammar onto a high school revenge plot, unironically. Elephant via True Grit. Fifteen minutes. The premise either works or collapses immediately under its own conceit — there is no middle ground for a film like this.
Peter Edlund transposing Western grammar — showdown, frontier, code of silence — onto a contemporary high school without irony. HollyShorts world premiere, multiple festival run. The genre-mapping is the argument.
Reviews
The resulting story is taut, well-performed, and entertaining.