Kelly Reichardt's Oregon western bromance FIRST COW

Saw this at NYFF the other night, didn't care for it. Out next March.

https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/6619-kelly-reichardt-s-first-cow

First Cow is the deepest (Baby I know)

I quite cared for it; her best film even at twenty minutes longer than necessary.

This was about one week away from opening where I am when, you know.

You can stream it on iTunes, Vudu, Google Play, Amazon and Fandango.

or just rewatch her better films (all of them)

What did you dislike? The relationship's homoerotic element is well-observed, Toby Jones' domestic arrangements fascinating, and the gentle homages to McCabe and Mrs. Miller less bothersome than expected. She's become confident enough to fill shots with background action.

My complaints: twenty minutes too long; the aspect ratio sucks for home viewing.

way too much dullness; the 'plottiness' is followed and dropped; the contemporary prologue is mystifying/pointless.

the aspect ratio rules

make your home viewing as much like a the-a-ter as possible

at last -- IMAX in Westchester, Miami!

Too much dullness was exactly my reaction to Meek's Cutoff--but the dullness level in the other three films of hers I've liked/really liked was just right, I guess.

The present-day framing device works when you consider how, well, conjugal those skeletons so nicely together.

btw John Magaro was the star of David Chase's rock band movie, and will soon be seen in the Sopranos prequel as... Young Silvio.

First shot is astonishing. Movie is good, better and different than Meek's Cutoff (I'm not a fan, I was worried). as always Reichardt knows when to hold back. those cakes look very good. But this is the "new" movie I've most regretted watching at home. Needs a very very dark theater for all those nighttime scenes.

Still I prefer it to Night Moves and Meek's Cutoff, probably Old Joy too. Bummed for KR because I remember when the promo started in March, it was going pretty broad, it was obvious from the first trailer that this wasn't another Straub-Hulliet thing like Meek's Cutoff, really pushing the "inspirational music behind two unlikely friends in an unfriendly past" angle. Who knows how many people she would've won over (not a ton). but this is no Certain Women and it's no Wendy and Lucy.

First time in a theater in five months. (108 seats, 6 people, well spaced out + masked--I did move before the film, though, as this couple moronically decided they had to sit in the row right in front of me, with only 100+ other seats to choose from).

Found myself drifting within half an hour, and also wondering "Who are these people, and who gives a fuck?" It got a little better after that. It's influences (or aspirations) are right in the casting: McCabe (Rene Auberjonois) and Dead Man (Gary Farmer). The highlight for me was probably a quick image of Gene preparing Cinnabons in Better Call Saul that flashed across my mind at one point. The score was nice. After six Reichardt films, four I like/love and two that bored me, a clear pattern: please, stay in the here and now.

very much liked this

Surface level allegories can be read here - sure the cow is capitalism, inasmuch that any business venture in any film is capitalism - but it feels as if Reichardt is, rather, reaching back to something deeper. Touching on primal relationships to nature and landscapes, and then, yes, their enrichment or perversion by social relations; all captured in a history of the small. Finding philosophy in the poetry of little gestures and quiet lives among the pines and ferns.

otm

I enjoyed your review, devvvine, but I don't know, they just seemed like a couple of dunderheads (ditto Toby Jones for not cluing into the obvious) who reminded me of Kael's Tender Mercies review:

"...they haven't actually exchanged much more than a few yups and nopes when, about half an hour into the picture, he says, 'I guess it's no secret how I feel about you. A blind man could see that.' Which is quite a surprise, because nobody could see that."

(Not that I'm not sometimes susceptible to films in that style myself; you could say the same of Melvyn Douglas and Brandon deWilde in Hud, which I love.)

Period itself isn't her problem for me (I liked Meek's Cutoff way more than Wendy and Lucy). Maybe this is:

At their best, Reichardt’s films often allow quiet profundities about the history, myth, and memory of the American West to creep their way into the margins; at their least effective, they strain for those profundities — hard.

https://letterboxd.com/samcmac/film/first-cow/

True enough, but Night Moves and one-third of Certain Women fit the bill more than FC.

A movie's never made me erupt into unexpected weeping quite like the ending of this one. I was so on edge about how it would resolve the opening scene, so the exact manner in which it arrived at its foretold ending was... a relief, followed by crushing sadness. I loved these characters, I guess.

Also had no idea there was gonna be a Malk-cameo, that made me happy.

Don't feel like her films strain for profundities, they are so modest. I like her view of the American west. Looking forward to seeing this

RE: the "who gives a fuck"-ness of the premise, I don't know when I'll be back in a movie theater but I wonder how many premises can sustain my interest in the face of anxiety over everything that's going on.

Would rank this somewhere in the middle of her work I've seen, below Certain Women and W&L, but above Old Joy and Meek's Cutoff.

Almost exactly the same, although--in large part because of Yo La Tengo's soundtrack--I did like Old Joy.

Just realized a couple of days ago I can watch her first film, River of Grass, on Prime.

people don't talk about Night Moves a lot but I really like that one

it's not her fault, it's Eisenberg that kills it for me. Dude can only play one character

clem, River of Grass is good, but the best thing about it is the local Pavement ripoff band song playing over the end credits. I think it's called "Evergladed" by the band Sammy

Wendy & Lucy aka Boo Hoo I Lost My Dog didnt do much for me

By some distance her best movie, and I HATE lost dog movies!

She is at her best when communicating unspoken and intense desires and decisions--as when Wendy finds Lucy and realizes she's better off, or when Lily Gladstone drives all night to ambush Kristen Stewart at her office.

Part of a whole series of great films: Boo Hoo I Lost My Sled, Boo Hoo I Lost My Bike, Boo Hoo I Lost My Way Back to Kansas.

Boo Hoo I Lost Ringo

Boo Hoo I Lost Lea Massari

lol

clem, all 3 of those are better executed, and one has better songs

clang clang clang goes the...wagon

The Wizard of Oz has better songs than Wendy & Lucy? Now I've heard everything.

finally watched this and my hot take is that it is good not bad. i was worried it was going to be a lot more didactic about CAPITALISM DO U SEE than it turned out to be, which was a big relief.

the purpose of the modern framing device seems pretty clear to me, establishing that the story isnt going to be about what happened to these two but what their relationship was when it happened, seems like the key to the whole movie tbh

watched some interviews with KR this morning where she talked about Ugetsu being a big influence on this, which I never would have thought of on my own but the connections are pretty interesting to think about now that Ive heard that

The opening shot is one of the best things in all of her films

The framing device is totally necessary and makes the movie 100x better imo. Definitely one of her better movies.

These days I don't mind didactic art, especially when I agree.

Wendy & Lucy aka Boo Hoo I Lost My Dog didnt do much for me

― brooklyn suicide cult (Dr Morbius), Thursday, August 6, 2020 3:25 PM (four months ago) bookmarkflaglink

one of his best

Haven't seen this but I've been listening to the soundtrack

I quite enjoyed Boo Hoo I Lost My Milk.

Wendy and Lucy was good. I also liked First Cow a lot. Was surprised to see Stephen Malkmus playing the fiddle. My favorite of hers is still Meek's Cutoff

Didn't get much more out of this second time around (rewatched it for a movie Zoom I do with a couple of friends). Hey, wait, I got a new complaint: I find John Magaro's resemblance to John Cusack quite distracting.

We did a Zoomcast on First Cow and Wendy and Lucy. (We now have a name for this, which we hope to do once a month: What They Said: Steven, Scott, and Phil Stay Home and Watch Movies. Post-COVID, we'll adjust that.)

www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNT2xPQuLOI

This is now streaming on European MUBI. I'm watching on a big iMac and all the night time scenes are impossible to decipher - just long sequences of near total darkness with the odd bit of mumbled dialogue (I've got subtitles on, and its picking up lots of exchanges that would otherwise be inaudible.) I can't tell if this is all deliberate, and the scenes would be no more visible on a cinema screen, or if it's a problem specific to the MUBI stream, but it is an extremely frustrating viewing experience.

specific to MUBI I'm afraid; that wasn't my at home viewing experience

Thanks forks, I suspected as much. Gave up around the 50 minute mark, something I very rarely do.

I was watching it on a TV through the mubi app for samsung TVs and it was fine.

Watched in my iPad via the Crave TV app (it’s Canadian) and didn’t have any problems.

Amazon’s The Underground Railroad on the other hand, looks like mud.

Finally saw this, on a plane (of all places). The free earbuds were so shitty I probably caught only half of what little dialogue there is, so had to fill in a few details for myself after the fact. Still, I enjoyed it. It was lighter than I expected, especially for something that plays like a Biblical parable, with perhaps a distant echo of Chaucer.

Her new one's her best yet.

it has a good vibe

I won't spoil it, but it ends with a POV that should've appalled me with its cuteness but didn't.

New one’s good, but not a patch on First Cow.