FIRST COW (2019)

After stubbing her toe on an (implied) commercial film (NIGHT MOVES/’13), critics’ darling Kelly Reichardt returns to form dragging her artistic tail between her legs with another small contemplative tale, so dark, so quiet, so slow, so earnest, you hardly react at all . . . unless you’re a Film Fest habitué.  (New York Film Critics 2020 Best Pic, etc.)  Once past a foredooming prologue, we’re cast back to the days of the Oregon Frontier where shy, stranded cook John Magaro and wandering Chinese entrepreneur Orion Lee buddy up to fleece the townsfolk with something new . . . a pastry!  A sweet, naturally flavored biscuit; just the thing if only they could get their hands on some milk.  But with only one cow in the territory, owned by Property-Is-Theft master Toby Jones (and who better to steal from?), they must risk night raids to get at the mooing source.  There’s a fine comedy left unmined in this material; like the old, politically incorrect gag about how to make Hungarian chicken . . . first, steal a chicken!  Alas, Reichardt couldn’t spot a joke in a Catskills Hotel.  Instead, a needlessly extended two-plus hours of whispered dialogue in poorly defined, murky interiors, captured in less than optimum digital photography.*

WATCH THIS, NOT THAT: Reichardt’s determinist style probably worked best in her other Oregon territory tale, the enigmatic MEEK’S CUTOFF/’10, an acquired taste you may not acquire.  OR: Thematically similar Western from Blake Edwards (of all people) in the underrated WILD ROVERS/’71.

LINK: More Reichardt Write Ups here: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/search?q=reichardt OR: For WILD ROVERS: https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2020/06/wild-rovers.html

ATTENTION MUST BE PAID: *And in the old, squarish Academy Ratio in case we missed the artistic self-restraint.  Perhaps Reichardt’s real gift lies in writing up grant proposals.