Damsel

Damsel (2018) is a deadpan Western comedy you can watch online on iFILM, directed by David and Nathan Zellner. Oregon frontier, around 1870. Wealthy pioneer Samuel Alabaster hauls a miniature horse and a wedding plan across the wilderness to claim his beloved Penelope.

Samuel (Robert Pattinson) drags a reluctant, hard-drinking preacher along to officiate. He pictures Penelope as a captive waiting for rescue. She — played by Mia Wasikowska — has very different ideas. The trek curdles from a quirky road trip into something sharper: a sly takedown of the rescuing-hero myth.

The Zellner brothers flip the genre's old script, so the damsel needs no saving and the gallant suitor is the fool. Robert Forster turns up along the way. Slow, strange and genuinely funny in patches, it rewards viewers who like a Western pulled inside out. Stream Damsel (2018) online on iFILM.