FIRST COW

 Kelly Reichardt doesn't make movies that move or if they do, they move very, very slowly and "First Cow" is no exception, (it has just won the New York Film Critic's Best Picture of 2020). It begins in the present day before moving back in time to the Oregon of the Old West where a cook to a bunch of trappers and a Chinese immigrant he meets hiding in the forest strike up an unlikely friendship before going into business together making cakes with milk which they steal from the cow of the title.

This is an art-house western and no mistake, moving at a pace that makes Terrence Malick seem like an action director, (did we really think it would be otherwise?). Of course, you could say that Reichardt, who shoots the film in Academy Ratio, gives us the truest picture of life in the West since Altman's "McCabe and Mrs. Miller", though Reichardt doesn't go in for 'star' names, (the nearest we get to 'stars' here are Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd and Rene Auberjonois in his last film role). The cook is John Magaro and the Chinese man is Orion Lee and you will be forgiven if you haven't heard of either of them. and yet for all it realist trappings it often feels like 21st Century people playing at being cowboys. That said, and despite its funereal pace, this is a western like no other, (it's certainly the most original since Jim Jarmusch's "Dead Man"). Of course, you might also be surprised that a movie like this is being tipped for Oscar glory but then, 2020 has been a year unlike any other and it's independent movies like this that are stealing the limelight. It's also Reichardt's most accessible film to date.