Kelly Reichardt makes the work of getting through a day worth watching. We rate her patient attention to people with little to spare, though the routines sometimes last longer than what they have to tell us.
Fi1m perspective
Kelly Reichardt makes us attend to what the pioneers wear, carry and eat in Meek's Cutoff (2011). Getting through another day is enough to sustain this quietly gripping western, without a constant supply of new dangers. We felt worn down by the journey because her editing lets the routines continue long enough to become uncomfortable. Michelle Williams gives that uncertainty a firm human centre. Reichardt keeps the women central to the journey and gives their practical concerns time that a busier western might begrudge them.
Her feature debut, the Florida-set noir River of Grass (1994), began an interest in people on the margins that runs through the later films. A twelve-year gap preceded Old Joy (2006), written with Jon Raymond, who became a regular collaborator. Wendy and Lucy (2008) brought wider attention to her small-scale accounts of living with little money. Her first period film was Meek's Cutoff, which carried that attention to practical survival into a western. Cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt is another recurring colleague; across her films, long-held compositions give small actions time to tell us about the people performing them.
In Meek's Cutoff, production designer David Doernberg makes the wagons and provisions look as cumbersome as they are essential. Vicki Farrell's costumes add to the physical inconvenience, helping make the hardship convincing through the ordinary business of what people wear and carry. Reichardt's own cutting works with the detailed sound to keep the effort of travelling present, while Jeff Grace's music sustains the unease. There are limits to what this can achieve: some routines continue after they have told us all they can, and some supporting characters remain thin despite the time available to develop them.
The later films take her interest in daily work into different settings. First Cow (2019) concerns friendship and survival in period Oregon, while Showing Up (2022) follows the daily business of making art in contemporary Portland. We value her willingness to let ordinary tasks occupy the screen, while occasionally wishing she would cut sooner. Start with Meek's Cutoff, but leave it for an evening when there is no hurry.
Biography
Kelly Reichardt is an American film director, screenwriter and editor. She was born on 3 March 1964 in Miami, Florida, and studied at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University.
She made her feature debut with River of Grass (1994). Reichardt has since directed a series of minimalist films, many set in the Pacific Northwest and written in collaboration with Jonathan Raymond, including Old Joy (2006), Wendy and Lucy (2008), Meek's Cutoff (2010), Night Moves (2013), Certain Women (2016), First Cow (2019) and Showing Up (2022). She frequently edits her own work and has taught at Bard College since 2006.
