THE SCHOOL CHANTAL AKERMAN: PART 13 *UPDATED*

Jeanne Dielman / 
Evolution 

 We're back with another installment!

In this entry we look  at Chantal Akerman's influence on everyone from Greta Gerwig (Lady Bird) & Kelly Reichardt (Wendy & Lucy) to newcomers like Kyle Edward Ball (Skinamarink) & Charlotte Wells Aftersun).

Enjoy...

A Chantal Akerman film is a real inspiration because it's so restrained and restraint. What you see in it in real time is what every other movie would cut out - Todd Haynes, Bomb Magazine

Jeanne Dielman / Dark Waters

Chantal Akerman's JEANNE DIELMAN was a big touchstone for me. I love that movie and I also love the time she takes with tasks - Greta Gerwig, Vanity Fair

Jeanne Dielman / 
Lady Bird

Jeanne Dielman / 
Lady Bird

Jeanne Dielman / 
Lady Bird

The above comparisons make me wonder if part of the inspiration for Gerwig's Barbie film came from Akerman's Golden Eighties...

The Golden Eighties /
Barbie

Nobody else makes a movie like Akerman. They just have that extraordinary strength of vision. To see and be near that as a 20-year-old made me see how deep and committed an artist could be - Andrew Bujalski, The Film Stage

Saute Ma Ville / Mutual Appreciation

Chantal Akerman's work definitely influenced it - Kyle Edward Ball, Fangoria

Hotel Monterey / 
Skinamarink

Hotel Monterey / 
Skinamarink

Hotel Monterey / 
Skinamarink

Hotel Monterey / 
Skinamarink

Hotel Monterey / 
Skinamarink

La Chambre / 
Skinamarink

One for the primary references I was looking at was JE TU IL ELLE by Chantal Akerman, especially the beginning of that movie - Jane Schoenbrun, ebert voices

Je Tu Il Elle / 
We're All Going To The World's Fair

The comparison & quote above makes me wonder if this was also intentional...

Saute Ma Ville / 
We're All Going To The World's Fair

One was JEANNE DIELMAN (1975), the Chantal Akerman film, because of all these ordinary actions that Delphine Seyrig carries out in the film and that our protagonist, Albert, also carries out - Lucile Hadžihalilović, BFI

Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig

Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig

Jeanne Dielman... / Earwig

I have a Chantal Akerman book with me now that I’ll just mention [Chantal Akerman: Moving Through Time and Space]. I had the book on me when I was shooting. It’s just stills from some of her movies - Chantal Akerman, reclaim the frame

Jeanne Dielman / 
Night Moves

News From Home / 
Wendy and Lucy

The Day When / 
Night Moves

La Chambre / 
Night Moves

There is [also] a tracking shot in down a hotel corridor that is very directly inspired by Hotel Monterey - Chantal Akerman, Criterion

Hotel Monterey / 

Aftersun

La Chambre is a short that she made in New York in 1972; it was the inspiration for the last shot of my film, which is kind of a 360-degree pan - Chantal Akerman, Criterion

La Chambre / 

Aftersun

Akerman's influence on Wells started well before he feature film debut. One of her short films is almost a loose remake of News From Home...

Chantal Akerman I adore, especially News From Home - Charlotte Wells, The Guardian

News From Home / 

Laps

News From Home / 

Laps

News From Home / 

Laps

The comparisons above makes me wonder if Wells was inspired by other similar shots from Akerman's films...

News From Home / 
Aftersun

The Day When / 

Aftersun

Hotel Monterey / Aftersun

D'est / Aftersun

Je Tu Il Elle / 
Aftersun

The Day When / 
Aftersun

Les Rendezvous D'anna / Aftersun

The Day When / 

Aftersun

Je Tu Il Elle / 

Aftersun

RIVER OF GRASS

There isn’t much to say about Kelly Reichardt’s feature debut that hasn’t already been said about Terrence Malick’s Badlands. They’re practically the same story - A dangerous drifter (“Lee”) goes on the run with a young naive woman (“Cozy”) after a somewhat(?) accidental violent crime is committed. Both films utilize the same style of dreamy voiceover, Larry Fessenden’s performance as Lee borrows heavily from Martin Sheen in Bandlands, and the relationship between “Cozy” and her husband mirror that of Sissy Spacek & Warren Oates in Badlands.

Reichardt herself has admitted to the Malick influence many times. Not only are the plots to both films eerily similar but they also look alike…

I was clearly watching Terrence Malick - Kelly Reichardt, aintitcool.com

Badlands / River Of Grass

Badlands / River Of Grass

Badlands /
River Of Grass

Badlands /
River Of Grass

Badlands /
River Of Grass

What makes the connection to Badlands even stronger is that both films, which also happen to be feature debuts, are loosely based on real events. Badlands is loosely based on a real murder whereas River Of Grass is loosely based on Reichardt’s observations of her mother’s work as a police officer in southern Florida…

I grew up in Miami in the 1970s. My father used to come home early in the mornings after a long night of overtime, unclip the holster from his belt, pour himself a tall glass of milk and say, “Ah crime pays.” My mom carried her holster in her purse and in a pinch was as likely to pull out a ratty hairbrush as a 38. My dad worked the midnight shift. His car had Dade Country Crime Scene painted on the sides. My mom was an undercover narcotics agent and always had a different car – ones that were non-descript and which apparently you were not supposed to transport children in. I know this because my sister and I did a lot of crouching on the floor when we would enter certain parking lots - Kelly Reichardt, this Long century

The further we stray from Reichardt’s debut the further we stray from her southern roots. Because there was a 12 year gap between River Of Grass and her sophomore feature (Old Joy), it often gets left out of the conversation or is brushed aside as just a Malick ripoff because it doesn’t fit the mold of her other films. Once she returned with Old Joy, her style was slightly reinvented. No longer was the Florida-based Reichardt a student of 70’s-era Malick. She returned as a Charles Benning/Chantal Akerman influenced filmmaker based out of Oregon. There was no more dreamy voiceover narration. Reichardt’s style, which has pretty much stayed in the same lane post-Old Joy, is more rooted in nature with straightforward storytelling. Some critics even billed her as being from Portland. But Reichardt has never been ashamed of her southern roots. Only a southerner could make something like River Of Grass. Instead of palm trees and the strip, Reichardt shows us the dirt roads, mobile homes & dirty used records that most outsiders don’t usually associate with Miami/southern Florida. It’s often said that while geographically Miami is the south, it still doesn’t feel like the south. Kelly Reichardt dispels that myth with River Of Grass.

What I used to consider a complete rip-off (River Of Grass) is now something I consider to be a small personal masterpiece with subconscious connections to other films I love ranging from Ms. 45 to Morvern Callar…

Another coincidental similarity with Morvern Callar...

River Of Grass /
Morvern Callar

And to be clear - the Akerman/Benning influence has always been there…

 

News From Home / One Way Boogie, 27 Years Later / River Of Grass

In fairness, River Of Grass wasn’t always the easiest to come by but it’s now available on blu-ray & various streaming platforms. I high recommend this film because the more Reichardt masters her earthy-crunchy nature-based post-Old Joy style that we’re all used to, the more River Of Grass remains a standalone gem. I’d honestly love for  Reichardt to return to this style of filmmaking at least one more time just to add some variety to her filmography.

NOMADLAND: TIFF 2020 HIGHLIGHT #3

While watching Chloe Zhao’s excellent Nomadland I was immediately reminded of Kelly Reichardt’s Wendy & Lucy. I imagine Frances Mcdormand’s “Fern” is where Michelle William’s “Wendy” will be in 30 years after the events of Wendy & Lucy. But then realism set in. The realism that Zhao portrays in that even if you want to be a nomad/gypsy/transient, you still have to have some sort of steady/regular-ish income in order to live/exist in the specific way both Wendy & Fern want to live. There has to be some kind of a “trail”...

You can’t get an address without an address. You get a job without a job. It’s all fixed - Security Guard (Wendy & Lucy)

I like Wendy & Lucy very much but there is a bit of fantasy to it. The plans & goals set in the film don't seem realistic. Unlike Wendy, Fern has her shit together a bit more (she's also older and more experienced). Fern isn’t exactly homeless. To use her own words; I’m not homeless. I am without a house. She lives in a camper/RV. She also has a bit of money saved and would be eligible for retirement benefits (although not enough to live off of at this point in her life). She’s part of a community of people who live in campers/RVs/cars/vans/etc. This (real) community exists because they are the remnants of the small town of Empire, Nevada that essentially went extinct (Empire was kept alive by a local mine which employed a lot of the town. When the mine closed the town slowly died). Midway in to Wendy & Lucy there is some brief talk about how a mill closed in town leaving a lot of people jobless, making the bond between the two films even stronger.
Fern and her small community get by working various part time & seasonal jobs in order to live and maintain their nomadic lifestyle. At Nomadland feels like a mix between a documentary on day to day living and a handy instructional video on nomadic life. We’re shown how to maintain a camper, how to fix flat tires, how to barter for the right stuff and how to live in tight/small spaces. This makes a lot of sense as Zhao’s first films are just as much fiction as they are non-fiction (her previous films use real people/non-professional actors from the actual communities that Zhao documents in her work).


Nomadland is an obvious comment on the idea of work and what it actually means to have a job (along with the struggles of being unemployed). If I were to compare it to other films, I’d say it was kind of a continuation of Ken Loach’s Sorry We Missed You. If anything, some of the characters in Sorry We Missed You will eventually be forced to live like Fern and her friends down the road as the cost of living continues to go up everywhere. Nomadland is also a close 2nd cousin to Boots Riley’s Sorry To Bother You (definitely not in tone but in terms of major companies literally using poor people to keep the machine going). The way Zhao uses amazon in her latest film is similar to how Boots Riley portrays google in his.

Actually, I'm kind of confused/surprised as to how Amazon allowed their factories and logos to be used all throughout a movie that's about poor people working for them and not being able to make a living wage.

Vagabond /

Nomadland

And I imagine at some point down the road some film programmer will pair Nomadland with Agnes Varda’s Vagabond as part of some themed double feature. The basic skeletal stories have much in common and they’re shot similarly (one thing I did notice is that unlike the other aforementioned movies in this review, Chloe Zhao doesn’t really play up the added layer/danger of a woman living on the road on her own. Perhaps Fern has been in dangerous situations in the past and now knows how to avoid all of that).

Nomadland is also a character study. When Fern is offered help she gets both standoffish and aggressive at the same time. When she’s offered friendship she accepts it but still keeps everyone at a distance. There are various reasons why she lives they way she does (and the film gives little tiny hints and clues as to maybe why that might be), but I think a major reason why is that she’s just wired a certain way that can’t really be described or nailed down. Yes, she’s realistically eccentric, but she’s not “off” or weird or crazy (something I imagine the average person would call her). Just mildly eccentric (although not in a distracting way). This aspect of the story is interesting as Mcdormand really nails the little tiny mannerisms and shows a side of her acting we really haven’t seen before. And while she gives an excellent performance and the cinematography is beautiful, this is an incredibly dreary & depressing movie at the end of the day (besides poverty, cancer is another element that plays a major part in this movie in many little small ways).


Chloe Zhao has found her lane as a filmmaker which is why I’m a little perplexed that she’s directing The Eternals for marvel next. I know this sounds like the typical "cinephile" getting snooty but this is a legitimate concern. I’ve seen all but five marvel films in the theater so I don’t want this to be seen as an anti-marvel rant, but after watching this (excellent) film I really don’t get what she can contribute to the marvel machine at this point. I’m glad she’s getting marvel money and I understand she is a fan of the comic, but Marvel isn’t exactly a director friendly system. Zhao directs, produces, write and sometimes edits all of her work. Seems like an odd transition to make. Marvel has their mold/cookie cutter system at this point. 

I guess what I’m trying to say is I’d really like for her to stay in the lane she’s in right now because she’s so good at what she does (I really don’t want this to come off like I’m being critical of Zhao or that she can’t tackle the world of marvel). And who am I to tell an artist to stay in their lane?
Either way, I’m fine with a great/promising filmmaker getting a lot of money as well as consistent work.

FIRST COW

Kelly Reichardt has made one of the better buddy crime dramedies in recent years (the film hasn’t really been marketed as such but I assure you that First Cow is absolutely a partners-in-crime story that’s also about class, chance encounters and the importance of friendship). Anyone familiar with me, my taste & this blog should know that I am pretty biased towards Reichardt's filmography. So in order to show that my enjoyment of this movie was genuine, let me start this review by saying that – in my personal opinion – First Cow takes a while to get to something. 30 minutes to be exact (I'm pointing out some of the mildly negative qualities to show I'm not completely  biased). Normally I don’t mind movies taking their time (especially in the case of Kelly Reichardt). But unlike Old Joy, Certain Women, Wendy & Lucy and the rest of her work, I found myself drifting off and losing my patience in the beginning of First Cow. But the thing is - we need those first 30 minutes in order to establish some important seeds that grow and show up later in the movie.

I was also a little pessimistic because Reichardt's latest kind of travels down the same lane as Meek’s Cuttoff which is my least favorite Reichardt film (I know I’m in the minority on that one because most folks seem to think that's her best film).
Once the movie picks up speed it becomes an excellent story that mixes comedy, drama and elements concerning the "haves" versus the "have-nots" (First Cow fits right alongside recent films like Parasite & Slack Bay). The story concerns two former gold prospectors ("Cookie" & "King") who come up with a somewhat risky hustle to make some quick cash. Like most stories concerning criminals – things go great at first but after they get too comfortable with their minor criminal exploits, they get sloppy and things eventually fall apart...


Kelly Reichardt (a woman) understands men to a certain degree in a way some other filmmakers don't. I know that may sound like a basic compliment/requirement but some filmmakers don’t really get the opposite sex they're exploring. It goes without saying – and there are tons of examples – but quite a few male filmmakers don’t understand women (history has shown us this). And it works both ways. Not all women understand men. Any rational person would/should agree with that. While we are equal at the end of the day, men and women are still different. Especially when it comes to same same-sex friendships. I find it fascinating how well Kelly Reichardt gets & understands male friendships (this is her second mostly all-male film after Old Joy which shares some of the same basic skeletal similarities as it pertains to male bonding & male closeness). Kelly Reichardt’s female-driven exploration of male bonding is kind of reminiscent of Claire Denis’s male driven work like Beau Travail or 35 Shots Of Rum.

First Cow isn’t the typical male bonding story between “tough guys” or alpha males trying to establish dominance between each other. Neither Cookie or King are tough alpha males (in fact, Cookie is quite passive & submissive while King is a sneaky and a little secretive). They're both kind of wimpy (and a little cowardly). But they're likeable wimps.
They're also smart (until they aren’t). At the end of the day their joint hustle is meant to make as much money as possible so they can have a better life, but they’re also fully aware of the dynamics and the social structure around them. They’re poor and the person they are stealing from in order to run/fund their business/hustle is rich. Midway in to the movie there are lines of dialogue that seem to suggest they’re taking a little bit of pleasure in stealing from the rich establishment that has its foot on their neck.
This angle is another reason why I appreciate First Cow so much. I almost hate what I’m about to sat but - now more than ever, most films seem to be a response to the current climate surrounding us (Donald Trump, race, the imbalance of wealth, etc). And even when they aren’t – a lot of critics force movies to represent something that they don’t (everything isn't a response to Donald Trump or #MeToo). Instead of being completely on the nose and obvious with her politics & beliefs, Kelly Reichardt relies on her ability to convey subtlety. Certain elements within First Cow relate to today but that’s not the point of the movie. 

Obviously First Cow wont get the same kind of release as other bigger studio films but if it opens near you I encourage you all to seek this out as it could easily get swallowed up and forgotten about in the early part of the year. It also doesn't hurt to support a sometimes unsung veteran female filmmaker who helped to carve a path for others to follow after her. I’ve come to the conclusion that when audiences complain about the lack of female-driven films, they really just want carbon copies of Patty Jenkins, Ava Duvernay & Greta Gerwig and nothing outside of those wheelhouses. Reichardt has been making films for close to three decades and her 2016 film, Certain Women, broke a personal box-office best for her and I saw little to no celebration for that.
I don't mean to dismiss the Wonder Womans & Captain Marvels but there has to be room The Certain Womens & First Cows as well.

WRONG REEL EPISODE(S): 195 & 196 (THE CINEMA OF KELLY REICHARDT & Z CHANNEL)

Hey all! Check me out (along with Mikhail Kardimov & filmmaker Bill Teck, respectively) on the latest two episodes of Wrong Reel to discuss the work of Kelly Reichardt & Xan Cassavetes' Z Channel documentary.

Enjoy...

And don't forget to check out Bill Teck's excellent documentary One Day Since Yesterday currently streaming on Netflix...

  

CERTAIN WOMEN (NYFF 2016)

When Kelly Reichardt introduced her latest film to the audience at the 54th annual New York Film Festival she cited Chantal Akerman as a constant source of inspiration. After having watched Certain Women that makes perfect sense. While Reichardt's latest film is much louder than anything Chantal Akerman could ever make (in terms of ambient sounds & background noise), the dialogue is sometimes sparse and there's a lingering focus on banalities like chores & teeth brushing which is a strong characteristic of Akerman's work. I enjoyed Certain Women very much but if someone were to call it "boring" I don't know if I'd argue that. I just happen to like (well-crafted) "boring" movies sometimes. And if you're a fan of Reichardt's films then you'll more than likely enjoy this.

One of the best things about Kelly Reichardt's Certain Women is that even though it's an anthology film composed of three (separate) stories, they aren't really connected like so many of these kinds of films tend to be (sure there is one character that is constant throughout each story in a Steve Buschemi in Mystery Train kind of way but it's a minor-yet-major-yet-minor thing that's never really resolved and is only casually addressed).
I think we all know that "making everything connect" was a common plot device that many directors utilized between the late 80's (Mystery Train), throughout all of the 90's (Slacker, 71 Fragments..., Pulp Fiction, 2 Days In The Valley, etc), and in to the early 2000's (Code Unknown). Some directors were (and still are) good and/or great at making connections between they're ensemble players & multi-layered storylines (Linklater, Jarmusch, Haneke) but this plot device got a little old after almost two decades. Certain Women is the first anthology film to grab my attention in a long time because Reichardt kind of took the basic format (three stories concerning women at different stages in life) and stripped away all the "coolness" (Mystery Train), pop references (Pulp Fiction) and spurts of explosive violence (71 Fragments, Pulp Fiction, 2 Days In The Valley) and put her own unique touch on things.
The first story concerns a lawyer (Laura Dern) who's called in to defuse a hostage situation that one of her clients is responsible for.
The second story is about the rising marital issues/tension between a wife (Michelle Williams) & husband (James Legros) who are on the eve of building their dream home.
The final story focuses on the shy awkward (one-sided) attraction between a ranch-hand (Lily Gladstone) and a young lawyer (Kristen Stewart).

Besides the one character that loosely ties the three stories together, there are other (subconscious) connections - both Dern & Stewart are lawyers and every major female character is exhausted for one reason or another. But each story still stands on its own.

James Legros

This is Kelly Reichardt's first film utilizing the anthology/multiple storyline format so it's cool to see a 20+ year veteran try something new (what may be old to us may still be new for her). Certain Women also deals with new subject matter for Reichardt like romantic feelings under the umbrella of insecurity and/or uncertainty (Gladstone) and visible cracks in a marriage (Williams & Legros). James Legros & Michelle Williams have good chemistry and do a wonderful job at conveying the growing tension that can sometimes happen between two people in a marriage (although their circumstances are different than your "standard" marriage, their story still shows that no matter how "unconventional" a marriage may be, there's always going to be tension & resentment at some point). In my personal opinion, Kelly Reichardt & Michelle Williams make a great team (this is their third collaboration) and between Drugstore Cowboy & Safe to Living In Oblivion & Night Moves, James Legros should be considered an icon of modern American indie film at this point.

Lily Gladstone

Now...I don't mean to dismiss the majority of Certain Women because it really is just fine and serves its purpose but the final story concerning Lilly Gladstone & Kristen Stewart is the whole movie for me. Gladstone wears every insecure, anxious & scared emotion on her face like a seasoned veteran actor would yet she's a newcomer. Her performances as "Jamie" makes me wish there was a Netflix series about her character just doing chores and working up the courage to tell her crush how she really feels but never gets the opportunity to do so.


I'm still very much a "fixed" person. I like when personal favorite filmmakers of mine stick to what they're good/great at. Certain Women is still very much a standard Reichardt film no matter how much new/new-ish territory is explored (that's meant to be a complement rather than a criticism) - natural surroundings, fall season color palettes, minimalist/sparse guitar-based music score, female leads, etc.

Whether Kelly Reichardt realizes this or not - she is a cinematic voice for women in America. Would it have been nice to see a little more "diversity" in the cast? Absolutely. But I'm not gonna dwell on that too much (and it's not my movie). Certain Women's casting choices felt natural. And what makes Reichardt's exploration of womanhood & "femininity" so natural is that not all of her movies focus on women (both Old Joy & Night Moves are very male-driven). So when she does decide to focus on female characters it feels special.

Although I'd prefer a "Reichardt novice" start with something like Old Joy or Wendy & Lucy, I wouldn't be opposed to this being someone's introduction to her filmography (this is her most recognizable cast to date so it's bound to get a bigger audience in comparison to her previous work).

MY RECENT APPEARANCE ON SYNDROMES AND A CINEMA...

The guys at the Syndromes & A Cinema podcast had me back on to discuss the work of PINNLAND EMPIRE favorite Kelly Reichardt. 

Great times. Enjoy...

EPISODE 11: KELLY REICHARDT

NIGHT MOVES

Because nature flows throughout almost all of Kelly Reichardt’s films in an organic way (Old Joy, Wendy & Lucy & Meek’s Cutoff) and a lot of her characters seem rather earth-conscious (specifically the characters in Old Joy), I thought Night Moves would be quietly “pro-eco-terrorist”, but that’s not the case here. This story was certainly birthed from someone who does love the earth more than the average human being, but the film really shows the ugly side of extreme environmental activism/eco-terrorism (it should be noted that Reichardt makes numerous attempts to show alternative ways to be a radical environmentalist rather than take to a form of terrorism like our main characters do in Night Moves). It was the label; “eco-terrorism” or ”eco-terrorist” that really bugged me. I’ve never been a fan of the term; “eco-terrorist” (a term that’s been used a lot in most reviews for this film since it premiered at Toronto last year). If you use violence, specifically explosives (like our main characters in this film do) in an effort to get your points or beliefs across - you’re a terrorist. I know I may sound like some conservative jerk, but that's just how I feel. Obviously eco-terrorists aren’t in the same tier/lane as Al-Qaeda or Jim crow-era white supremacists, but they're still terrorists by my definition. There’s no need to hyphenate a term in an effort to soften the negativity behind it.

But it was my fault for putting a lil' too much weight on other critics' reviews and making pre-conceived notions before actually seeing the film myself. Kelly Reichardt didn't soften anything or try to make her characters out to be heroes in Night Moves...

If you’re familiar with the content on this site then you know it is sometimes difficult for me to separate my personal experiences from some films, and this is another one of those write-ups. Although Night Moves takes place in Portland, a place I've never been to and know nothing about, I feel like I know some of the characters in this film. I grew up in the old hippy town of Amherst, Massachusetts where I’m sure a few hardcore environmentalists were brewing while studying _______ at Hampshire College. Growing up, I was used to the tie-dye & sandals earth-conscious folk who handcuffed themselves to trees so they wouldn’t be cut down. Those types of environmentalists aren’t a myth. They exist. Some of ‘em were my counselors at summer camp when I was a kid. The crying, unintimidating hippie handcuffed to a tree is the general stereotype that average movie-goers have about environmentalists when it comes to their portrayal on film. Some people have no clue of the more serious “eco-terrorism” that has been around for decades. I say this because I almost never hear people in my circle talking about it, and I rarely see the news covering it. In fact, Night Moves seems to draw a lot of inspiration from Edward Abbey's The Monkey wrench Gang (a book from the mid-70's about a group of radical environmentalists who use the same violent tactics as our characters in Night Moves). This is another recent film, along with the earth liberation front documentary; If A Tree Falls, that dispells the cinematic myth/portrayal of environmental activists.

Night Moves is the story of “Josh” (Jesse Eisenberg) & “Dena” (Dakota Fanning) – two passionate environmentalists that are fed up with just talking about saving the planet. With the help of a like-minded ex-marine; "Harmon" (Peter Sarsgaard), they set out to blow up a local hydroelectric dam (one dam in a series of dams) that they feel is a harmful entity. Of course things don't all go according to plan and a huge rift grows between our three main characters and the story takes a dark turn in the second half...

In Josh & Dena's defense, hydroelectric dams are pretty disruptive to the earth. But where does it stop? First a hydroelectric dam (which is a pretty ambitious start), and the next thing you know, environmentalists/eco-terrorists are bombing anything they feel is harmful to the earth when they don't get their way. I understand that a lot of people are doing some serious damage to the planet but who decides that we should start blowing shit up to send a message? Like Michael Moore or Morgan Spurlock, you could say I have the same basic beliefs as an environmentalist/eco-terrorists (probably due to my "green" Amherst, Mass upbringing) but I don’t really want to be associated with them and I definitely wouldn’t go to the lengths that some of them do. I get genuinely ticked off when I see someone blatantly littering (sometimes I’ll even say something or at least scowl); I appreciate people choosing bicycles over cars more these days; I really don’t understand the point of making/wearing a fur coat; I feel there’s very few things that are as unforgivable as animal abuse; and with so much food offered in grocery stores, I don’t see the need to hunt for sport, especially with machine guns (I’m sure I pissed someone off with that statement). But at the same time, I’m very much a carnivore, I wear a leather belt, I’d much rather drive somewhere than take a bike (that’s just me being lazy) and I think that splashing red paint on someone to make a statement (like some environmentalists have in fact done in the past) is absolutely stupid.

Speaking of stupid, I don’t know how much Josh & Dena actually thought out their plan - setting off a massive explosion would not only destroy more land (in addition to the land already disrupted by the dam) but I’m pretty sure a lot of innocent animals & humans would be killed or at least put in danger. Didn’t they think that was a lil' hypocritical to their cause? But this isn’t the first example of blaring hypocrisy to come out of this kind of activism – for those that don’t know, former PeTA vice president; Marybeth Sweetland is an insulin-dependent diabetic, yet was the VP of an organization that terrorized medical facilities that tested insulin (...you know - the medicine she uses to stay alive) on animals. This is the kind of bullshit that brings out my cynicism and makes me not care about certain causes. 

But I feel that's part of what this movie brings up. Perhaps Josh & Dena were young & irrational with unchecked anger and didn't really know what they were doing from the get-go. At no point in Night Moves do we get an actual antagonist/villain who acts as the human "face" for this harmful dam (this is a good thing). It's like Josh, Dena & Harmon are fighting a giant faceless "thing" that's way bigger than them and they don't see that or see how pointless their mission is. It won't really make any kind of a dent in the grand scheme of things. It's almost like Wendy's somewhat hopeless plan in Wendy & Lucy (Reichardt's 2008 film) to move to Alaska to try and find work. The intentions in both films are noble but ultimately hopeless (in my opinion).

Personally, I don't have any real sympathy for the characters in Night Moves but I know for a fact that others do. At the Q&A after the screening I was at, with Kelly Reichardt in attendance, the person leading the Q&A asked the audience members to raise their hands if they felt some kind of sympathy or understanding for what Josh, Dena & Harmon did, and surprisingly quite a few people raised their hands.

I don't know how I feel about that...

Much like how Kelly Reichardt challenged the western genre with her last film (Meek’s Cutoff), Night Moves challenges the thriller genre. She showed realistic tension & action instead bullshit sensationalism. We see more about the planning & perperation of the bombing than the actual explosion itself. 

The subject matter in Night Moves is pretty different from everything else Reichardt has done but it still doesn’t stick out that much from the rest of her filmography. Night Moves definitely takes place in the same cinematic world as Old Joy & Wendy & Lucy (it should be noted that both of those films are connected by the same dog “Lucy”). I definitely see a character like Kurt (Old Joy) or Wendy (Wendy & Lucy) crossing paths with people like Josh & Dena.

But that's not to say Kelly Reichardt didn't stretch as a filmmaker or step outside of the comfort zone that I, and others, sometimes put her in. Besides things like explosions & violent deaths, she really utilizes her score unlike any of her other movies and the cinematography just adds an extra layer of tension & creepiness. 

This is definitely Reichardt’s darkest film (there's technically a "body count") and she draws some influence from her debut; River Of Grass. Both films are minimalist stories (with minimal dialogue) that deal with "couples" who take to violence by the end of the film. The difference between the two is that the main characters in River Of Grass are motivated by boredom whereas the characters in Night Moves are motivated by what they feel is an important cause.

There's also strands of Meek (Meek's Cutoff)'s DNA in the Harmon character as they're both the defacto leaders in each movie yet they are both, as Reichardt put it at the Q&A, "full of shit".
I’m going to need some time to mull this film over (I’ll probably see it again), but I definitely recommend you all check this out. It's just as contemplative & frustrating (in a good way) as it is rewarding.

If you’re able to see Night Moves, please check it out then tune in to my next appearance on the Syndromes And A Cinema podcast where we’ll be discussing Reichardt’s filmography.