On Swift Horses (2024) review

Korean War vet Julius Walker (Jacob Elordi) returns to Kansas to visit his brother Lee (Will Poulter) and Lee's girlfriend Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones), but when Lee and Muriel pack up months later and head to California to "settle down," Julius journeys to Las Vegas where he works as a member of the pit surveillance team at a casino, meets and becomes romantically involved with co-worker Henry (Diego Calva), and then Henry has the not-so-bright idea of trying to "get rich quick" (and is naturally caught).  While the cast, which includes Sasha Calle as Muriel's next door neighbor (and lover), is relatively young and lively, the story (based on Shannon Pufahl's novel) is achingly underwritten and tends to just mope around, and not even the frequent sweaty sex scenes do much to shake itself out its moody funk.  The platonic bond that forms between birds-of-a-feather Elordi and Edgar-Jones is strong but they're only on-screen together for a few minutes, and at the end I felt bad for Poulter's cuckold, who represents the Last Bastion of Heterosexuality ... but at least he can wipe his "traditional family man" tears with the stack of cash his wife left him that she won betting the ponies.