Kelly Reichardt’s triptych depicts the vastness of the American West from a close-up perspective. It’s about a lawyer (Laura Dern) who has to deal with a troubled client (Michelle Williams) and a wife and mother (Kristen Stewart) who has to deal with her marriage’s growing strains as she builds her dream home (Lily Gladstone) and a night-school teacher (Kristen Stewart) who forms a tenuous connection with a lonely ranch hand (Lily Gladstone) whose longing for connection is revealed in the film (Theresa Rebeck By capturing the intimate moments between rural Montanan women, Reichardt captures the rhythms of everyday life in a tiny community.
It’s no secret that Kelly Reichardt is a critical darling right now for her quiet but ambitious explorations of American life’s murkier corners, both in the past and in the present. For me, I’m a little more on the fence (which is, I guess, true for me with many contemporary filmmakers). In my opinion, her anti-Western Meek’s Cut-Off (2011) failed to live up to the acclaim it got.
While Night Moves (2013) may have seemed to be a study in idealism against reality, I found it to be an unflinching portrayal of sociopathy and sexism instead. I thought her follow-up to be even more intelligent in how it blended noir thriller with indie cinema sparseness. Instead of telling us what it was, it was appropriately enigmatic, subtle, and disturbing. That’s why I was a bit let down when her newest film, Certain Women, returns to the dowdy, ephemeral character portraiture of Maile Meloy’s short tales instead of straying beyond it.
Rockies tower in the distance, but here is a land of grey scrub and black ice, where trains trundle through with their totemic whistles blasting out every now and again. When it comes to relationships, this is a place where couples can’t be bothered to talk to one another because their houses are still unfinished and plaster is all over the walls. Teens ignore their moms because they’re too busy texting, and husbands are going crazy from being screwed over by the world, even if they’re not cheating.