Direction: Kelly Reichardt
Country: USA
The illustrious helmer Kelly Reichardt drew inspiration from Jonathan Raymond’s novel The Half Life, to deliver a multi-ethnic rural ballad titled First Cow. This is not the first time Reichardt works with Raymond. The Oregon-based writer is her regular collaborator, also credited for the screenplays of Old Joy (2006), Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek’s Cutoff (2010) and Night Moves (2013).
Here, Reichardt's slow-burning style is loaded with lush, impeccably framed images where the magnificent use of light creates beautiful tonal contrasts.
With John Magaro and Orion Lee in the leading roles, the film, set in the 1820’s Oregon, centers in the friendship and artful practices of two men, Cookie Figowitz (Magaro), a quiet traveler and excellent cook, and King-Lu (Lee), a sympathetic Chinese immigrant on the run. Both men have dreams of their own and seek opportunities to thrive in the Oregon Territory, which seems to have been the right choice when they start improving their finances by selling daily batches of homemade oily biscuits. The problem is that their secret ingredient, cow milk, is stolen from Chief Factor (Toby Jones), a wealthy Englishman who has a property in the settlement and owns the only cow milk in the whole region.
Evoking the old Western style, this is subtle, intimate cinema devised with pinpoint accuracy, disarming minimalism and arthouse proneness. A wisely crafted ode to friendship that is also an engrossing survival tale. It’s possible that the finale, abrupt as it is, may frustrate some viewers, but Reichardt’s sharp lens hypnotizes all the way through, influencing the mood and defining the surroundings with a legitimate purpose.
