2020’s First Cow, directed by Kelly Reichardt.
Starring John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd, Todd A. Robinson, Kevin Michael Moore, Eric Martin Reid, Ted Rooney, Phelan Davis, Mike Wood, Gary Farmer, Sabrina Morrison, and Lily Gladstone.
What is it about?
In early 19th century Oregon
County, a cook and a criminal team up to sell baked goods, with their crucial
ingredient of milk being from the region’s most valuable import- a cow, owned
by neighbouring British captain. During a time of colonial upheaval and great
change, the 2 of them make hay while the sun shines until it doesn’t.
Why is it worth seeing?
Director/Co-writer Kelly Reichardt has
described her films about being about, “just glimpses of people passing
through.” First Cow, one of the very first theatrical victims of the
Covid-19 pandemic, is certainly that. Its 2 protagonists’ dreams of (somewhat)
upward mobility, practically uses a microscope to peek through the larger and more
traditional plot elements latent in the film’s frontier America setting.
Deftly stepping aside other tales’ grand ambitions of showcasing the historical
conflicts and dramas that beset the founding of modern day America, or even a pot
boiler about someone facing great odds to return to their loved ones- this isn’t
The Revenant. Told in her trademark patient pace, Reichardt is in no
hurry to show the 2 characters of Cookie, and King-Lu, navigating through the practically
Paleozoic formation of the American dream. It’s no coincidence that the film
opens with a freighter slowly crossing a river- if history’s not in a hurry to
arrive, then why should we be?
Like most characters in Reichardt’s films, there is a sweet decency to Cookie
and King-Lu’s relationship, based off of trust and respect. Nestled amongst rude
fur trappers, sometimes hostile Natives, and genteel Englishmen eager to settle
scores, their trusting relationship is a balm amidst the ugly reality that was
the founding of civilized America. They grow to like each other, and take
comfort in their mutual reciprocity of the platonic. The time period of America’s
founding is not a pretty one- entrenched in deceit and genocide, of brutal men
imposing their will upon others. Here’s a film about 2 people whose quiet acts
of kindness are practically revolutionary- as long as you can stomach their
means of securing ingredients for baked goods…
While the history of colonial WASPS introduction to America isn’t pretty, Reichardt’s
showing off a painterly eye for composition, framing her 2 protagonists as connected
elements of the setting- is. Her lenses’ occasional modest glimpses of beauty,
complement the film’s more than occasional feelings of brilliance. Even when
some honest-to-goodness conflict breaks out in the film’s final third, this is
a film devoid of exclamation marks- but packed with poetic ellipses. Regardless
of where one sees it, Cow is one of the year’s best films.
