Meek's Cutoff (Kelly Reichardt, 2011)
Those in the nearly empty theatre howled and laughed and snorted at the ending (nearly empty because most people were at Inside Out) but I thought it was fine. All weekend I told people I saw a film in which not a heck of a lot happens. Nothing? they ask. Then I describe it and they say, 'that sounds pretty good actually.' The intro is realism at its best: rushing water, long take, and no music. The three women from each of the families carry their things on their heads through waist-deep water. There's a pace set by the rhythm of movements. So when shots are punctuated in certain scenes, the "Indian" looking down the short cliff or the wonderful short-reverse shot through the tree at the end, it's all the more noticeable.
As a frontier myth it doesn't get nostalgic or romantic. It doesn't actively subvert in any obvious way either. Everything just hangs in the air: greed, deception, racism. Like laundry in the sun.
As a frontier myth it doesn't get nostalgic or romantic. It doesn't actively subvert in any obvious way either. Everything just hangs in the air: greed, deception, racism. Like laundry in the sun.