We begin in true Kelly Reichardt style with a long slow shot that lets us take in the slow movement of a river and the sounds of a forest. We are in present day and watch as a woman (Alia Shawkat) unearths a bone, then uncovers two skeletons lying side by side.
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Image via letterboxd.com
A recent Kelly Reichardt retrospective gave me the chance to catch two of her earlier films – Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy. I really loved Certain Women at MIFF last year (I recommend you try and see it) and the same delicate, languid style can be seen in her two films from ten years ago. Wendy (Michelle Williams) is travelling across country with her dog Lucy in an old car, heading for Alaska. She has heard that work is easy to get there and she sleeps in her car and counts her pennies to make them last until she gets there. Continue reading
Image via http://www.zekefilms.org
In her films, Kelly Reichardt (Certain Women, Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy) immerses you in the life of a handful of people over a day or two. In Certain Women, it was four women in rural America, in Meek’s Cutoff it was settler women in the 1840s Oregon desert. In Old Joy we follow old friends Kurt (Will Oldham) and Mark (Daniel London) as they reunite for an overnight camping trip in search of some hot springs. Continue reading
A lovely film, beautifully told, this triptych of stories directed by Kelly Reichardt (Meek’s Cutoff) immerses us in the lives of three women, played by Laura Dern, Michelle Williams and a luminous Lily Gladstone (above). Each of the three stories has a small interconnection with the others but stands alone as a meditation on loneliness and the sad reality of our inability sometimes to help others. Continue reading
