Blu-ray/DVDebut for Kelly Reichardt's best yet: the quiet, beautifully crafted CERTAIN WOMEN

TrustMovies has run warm, though not hot, on the work of Kelly Reichardt over the past decade -- from Old Joy though Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Crossing, Night Moves and now a work that brings together all this filmmaker's gifts, while doing away with the ungainly combination of outré plotting, bizarre characterization and unnecessary melodrama that marred certain films (like Meek's and Moves). The great strength of Reichardt's most recent movie, CERTAIN WOMEN, lies in its strong, assured characterizations coupled to performances so specific and lived-in that there is not a single untrue moment in the entire movie.

It may be that Reichardt's greatest strength (the filmmaker is shown at left) comes in telling the movie equivalent of short stories, for that is what we have here: three tales joined in the most interesting of ways. This joining is handled not in the typical overly clever manner we've seen so much of over the years, but rather by the relationships of four women, not so much to each other as to other people in or near their same Montana town. Certain Women is a remarkably quiet movie, too -- considering that it deals with subjects as usually inflammatory as hostage-taking, infidelity and unrequited love.

As screenwriter (adapting from stories by Maile Meloy), Reichardt has, as usual, cast her movie extraordinarily well, using Laura Dern (above) as centerpiece in her first tale of a lawyer whose oddball client (a wonderfully goofy, sad and afflicted Jared Harris) goes calmly ballistic;

Michelle Williams (above) in the second story of a wife trying to save her marriage, family and self via a building project that will stay true to its organic community roots, even as her husband (James le Gros) strays and her daughter grows further distant;

and the duo of Kristen Stewart (above) and Lily Gladstone (below) in her final tale, in which a local ranch hand (the glowing-from-within Ms Gladstone) slowly becomes involved with a night-school instructor (Ms Stewart) who visits the town twice weekly to teach the locals "school law."

Each section is filled with the kind of rich, right detail that holds the viewer fast, while deepening story and characterization. So real and so vital is moment after moment that, despite the lack of what we might call normal "drama," the movie remains consistently riveting. In all, Certain Women proves a profound and beautiful experience, involving growth, change and deep disappointment.

Had I seen this film during at the time of its theatrical release, it would certainly have made my last year's "Best List."  As it is, I am grateful to have viewed the new Criterion Collection Blu-ray disc in a lovely transfer that captures equally well the majestic Montana landscape and these actresses' near-perfect performances. The movie hits DVD and Blu-ray tomorrow, Tuesday, September 19 -- for purchase and/or rental.

With NIGHT MOVES, Kelly Reichardt attempts a modern-day version of Crime and Punishment

With her new environmental-activist-or-is-it-eco-terrorist film, NIGHT MOVES, critical darling Kelly Reichardt has also given us a movie that can't help but hark back to the likes of Dostoyevsky and his Crime and Punshment. One of its stars, in fact, the ubiquitous Jesse Eisenberg, would make a great Raskolnikov (except that he's now already played him in this film). Reichardt's latest involves a plot to bomb a local dam (which we learn early on, so it's not much of a spoiler), its execution & aftermath.

Ms Reichardt (shown at right) -- who directs and sometimes, as here, co-writes with Jonathan Raymond -- continues to adhere to her slow-moving, minimalist, slight-on-the-exposition screenplay and direction. This has its merits (few of us seem to love heavy exposition) and its problems (it can lengthen a film, as here, past the point of what its content will bear). We learn only the barest minimum about any of our three bombers -- Eisenberg's character (below, left) is joined by a young woman (Dakota Fanning, center) and older man (Peter Sarsgaard, right).

A dribble of character info appears now and then -- she's maybe from a rich family, the older guy's a veteran -- but almost nothing about our lead character, played by Eisenberg, below, who begins the film glum and ends it even glummer.

Who is actually in charge here? We never learn this, though none of our three seem particularly bright or gifted in the eco-terrorism game. The Sarsgaard character, in particular, is constantly being proved wrong about stuff small and large, while Fanning's girl, below, though believing in crystals and other new-agey blather, seems to be the most direct, capable and action-oriented of the three.

Most surprisingly, no one appears to have considered the possibility of their act's having unintended consequences. Well, they're young and dumb, I suppose. But in terms of character, action and politics (the movie may appear apolitical, but it's all there, woven into the fabric of the story), there is finally so little on offer that you really must suspend your disbelief after awhile to tolerate the plot machinations.

That said, Reichardt does give us a suspenseful build-up to the bombing, even if the film is far too slow to qualify as a thriller. (Her most successful movie so far would be Wendy & Lucy, in which she wraps politics, economics, character, storytelling and our larger society into a moving and believable film.)

The scenes of "communal life" also seem a little deadening, unless that's the point the filmmaker hopes to bring home about folk who live outside the mainstream (I wouldn't imagine this to be her goal). But then, literally everyone/thing in this movie -- including the scenery -- seems inordinately glum.

The title of Night Moves -- not to be confused with the 1975 Arthur Penn film starring Gene Hackman --does double duty as a description of the goings-on and the name of the boat used to bomb the dam, arrives in New York City this Friday, May 30, from Cinedigm, where it will play the Angelika Film Center. In Los Angeles, look for it on June 6th at Laemmle's Noho 7.

Kelly Reichardt is back: Michelle Williams & Bruce Greenwood star in MEEK'S CUTOFF

I've only seen three of Kelly Reichardt's five full-length films, but it seems to me that, with each of these last three, her canvas has expan-ded noticeably, while her approach remains decidedly minimalist. This is interesting. From two guys shootin' the shit in Old Joy, to a girl and her dog confronting life and hard times in Wendy and Lucy, and now, in her new film MEEK'S CUTOFF, a small set of pioneers (and their minimal wagon train), some hundred and seventy-three years ago, crossing a parched land, trying to find their way to civilization and water. Yes, this is history -- in the "Western" genre, complete with Cowboy, Indian and Settlers. At this rate, I'll expect to see Ms Reichardt's universe expanding soon to the point where she'll doing the latest Star Trek movie, in a minimal manner, of course.

Meek's Cutoff, however, is unlike most westerns you'll have seen. The filmmaker, shown at left, insists on holding back the camera from many close-ups (if I didn't already know that one of my favorite actors, Bruce Greenwood, played the titular Meek, I'd have remained clueless). She refuses to allow melodrama or even real confrontation (except in one particular moment, which the poster above captures nicely), eschews exposition so that we only slowly piece together the story, and finally offers us just about zero closure. In place of all of the above, Reichardt -- together with her writer/collaborator over these last three movies, Jonathan Raymond --  inserts some interesting ideas, some of which you might call political/philosophical: the misguided trust we place in our leaders, when and how we must finally take our "stand" against them, the power we give to the "other" to both frighten and seduce us, and finally the simple "unknowability" of life ahead.

The movie has a strong feminist slant, though one thankfully not rammed down our throats. Its women characters -- above: Shirley Henderson, left; Zoe Kazan, center; and Michelle Williams, right) are simply more interesting and more seen than its men, who are weak and indecisive followers of Mr. Meek, the only male, other than the boy Jimmy (whose got the energy of youth) to even register. I suppose I ought to include our Indian (Rod Rondeaux, below), but he's clearly more "other" than anything else.

The fellows -- including Paul Dano (below, foreground) who is young and weak; Will Patton, old and weak; and Neal Huff (below, background) sick-unto-death weak -- have a but a single characteristic to distinguish them (this is actually true of the women, as well).

This leaves Meek (anything but weak) to hold the fort, characterization-wise. And Mr. Greenwood, always first-rate, does this -- despite that lack of close-ups and the addition of a large, scruffy beard that conceals him all too well. (The shot below is about as close as the movie gets to his face.)

Between them Reichardt and Raymond, while packing in the ideas, have -- perhaps necessarily, in order to stay true to their minimalist, no-more-exposition-than-would-be-believable framework -- skimped on characterization and the incident that might help create this characterization. Without much detail or even much dialog, the ensemble cast in generally stymied. Meek's Cutoff is a very dry movie, as emotionally remote as Wendy and Lucy was engaging.

In the film's leading role, Ms Williams (above) again proves herself an immensely capable young actress. She is also the film's moral voice, which helps pulls us to her side and keep us as focused on the film as we are.
 
By now you'll have realized that I am not a huge fan of Meek's Cutoff. Artful (to a fault), it offers a number of wonderfully economic shots of the travelers' travails. The opening -- women fording a river, carrying birdcage and baskets above the water -- is one of the more memorable of these. The movie is also as "real" as any western I've seen; it's just not as interesting. I often had to force my mind back into the movie, which, at 104 minutes, is extremely slow-moving.

On the other hand, a month after viewing, the film is still with me, strongly -- in terms of both the negatives and the positives I felt immediately upon seeing it. Which probably means I should take another look in a few years -- if, that is (hello earthquakes, tsunamis, nuclear energy and traveling radiation!), we're still here. Meanwhile, Meek's Cutoff opens this Friday April 8, in New York City at Lincoln Plaza Cinema and Film Forum. Click here for the complete list of the many cities -- with dates and theaters -- where you can find the film in the weeks to come.