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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zN9PDOoLAfgquote:WIND RIVER is a chilling thriller that follows a rookie FBI agent (Elizabeth Olsen) who teams up with a local game tracker with deep community ties and a haunted past (Jeremy Renner) to investigate the murder of a local girl on a remote Native American Reservation in the hopes of solving her mysterious death. Written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, WIND RIVER also stars Gil Birmingham, Jon Bernthal, Julia Jones, Kelsey Asbille, and James Jordan. Just saw this movie today, I thought it was great. Directed by the writer for Sicario, it feels very similar not only in writing, but cinematography as well. I thought the pacing was excellent (with only one scene that slightly ruins it) and the director did a great job of building up tension. Don't let the trailer fool you, the action scenes are relatively rare and brief. The plot was relatively straight forward. This isn't a "mystery" film, necessarily. While the film revolves around the investigation, the whodunit aspect is relatively downplayed in favor of characterization. The investigation just kind of follows naturally from one clue to the next, with nothing trying to throw the audience off. The acting was also good, I thought Renner gave a fantastic performance. I guess it's a limited run movie, that said I highly recommend it if it's playing near you, especially for fans of modern western style films, such as Sicario or No Country for Old Men. Additional details on my comment about the pacing: The one scene that really threw off the the pacing for me was the flashback towards to end of the film revealing the details of the murders. It just seemed like it went on a little too long, and the story is simple enough to follow that you already know essentially what happened. Including the rape of the girl and the murder of her boyfriend just seemed unnecessary, and kind of jarring in between when the FBI agent is knocking on the door and when the oil company security guys start shooting back. It's not a terrible scene in and of itself, I just would have cut it from the movie personally.
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Aug 26, 2017 00:23
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I thought this film was a bit underwhelming, at least compared to Sicario and Hell or High Water. I understood what they were going for, but it just felt a bit slow IMO. It's undoubtedly well made, but I think the marketing was a bit misdirected (like The Witch) towards more of a thriller in the mold of Sicario. However, the performances are top notch as with the cinematography. It also really drove home the notion that living in Wyoming would loving suck.
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Aug 30, 2017 18:39
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I saw this flick a few days ago and enjoyed it. I just wish the Mountain Lions would have eaten the guy that escaped.
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Aug 31, 2017 16:29
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What the hell was the oil rig guards plan? Just murder the cops and hope no one ever comes to check and see what happened? That no one notices their own bullet wounds? I buy that they're idiots trying to cover up what they did, but the shootout was clearly a premeditated ambush, not a spontaneous attack.
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Sep 4, 2017 10:22
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I think they figured no one would give a poo poo about missing Indian Reservation cops, and anyone who did show up to investigate would get the exact same treatment. It's not a very good plan.
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Sep 4, 2017 13:01
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In the western and neo-western tradition, the only "real" authority is the Feds, and they don't really care about anything other than their own interests.
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Sep 4, 2017 19:07
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HoHW was one of my favorites last year but it did lack some subtelty in its themes. Wind River takes most of what was great in it (characters and scenery, photography, pacing) and does better with its subtext about grief, loss and solitude. Olsen is really kept as an outsider and doesn't do much but her last line is quite powerful and makes sense with her lack of development. Renner gives a low key performance but is really intense throughout. It's an amazing movie and just what I expect in a thriller. There's something old school-y about writer/director Taylor Sheridan that I appreciate very much, I'm probably not going to miss one of his anytime soon.
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Sep 5, 2017 08:13
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themrguy posted:What the hell was the oil rig guards plan? Just murder the cops and hope no one ever comes to check and see what happened? That no one notices their own bullet wounds? I buy that they're idiots trying to cover up what they did, but the shootout was clearly a premeditated ambush, not a spontaneous attack. It makes more sense when you remember that rig workers are very much seasonal and don't always return to the same job sites, so if they could avoid being caught until they were gone they would potentially get away with it. Plus they realized that when a bunch of cops and the FBI showed up the jig was as good as up if any of the authorities found anything so they were very much trapped and screwed already. But yes it's still not a good plan. I had a small nitpick with part of the ending but it's one I have with a lot of movies that try to make it seem cold: the snow on the mountain was the kind of snow that forms when it's been above freezing for a while; it was was slushy and sticky, so it was probably 40ish or so degrees at the top of the mountain and even warmer than that as you go further down. That's cold, and his feet certainly would have had severe frostbite from being barefoot, but it's nowhere near cold enough to pose a danger to breathing and he probably could have walked quite a ways before he collapsed, certainly longer than he did. Snow that's been very cold for a while is usually very powdery, or frozen solid and much icier and 'choppier'. I guess The Revenant spoiled me for having cold conditions actually be cold. Tumble fucked around with this message at 18:42 on Oct 1, 2017 |
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Oct 1, 2017 18:38
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While I enjoyed this, I found the dialogue felt a bit overwritten, especially compared to the relatively naturalistic vibe of the rest of the film. It pulled me out more than it should've.
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Oct 2, 2017 22:46
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Tumble posted:
That whole issue with the cold-weather breathing was shaky as hell. If it really worked like that, skiers and snowboarders would die by the truckload every season.
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Oct 3, 2017 01:35
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SolarFire2 posted:That whole issue with the cold-weather breathing was shaky as hell. If it really worked like that, skiers and snowboarders would die by the truckload every season. Yea, I don't know why the added that false detail. Just freezing to death because your feet stopped working from frostbite or you succumbed to the below-freezing air would have been more than graphic enough for both the victim and the oil rig guy
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Oct 5, 2017 04:20
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They're taking some dramatic license by saying it's the cold that kills you but they're basically describing HAPE (high-altitude pulmonary edema), which is a very real thing and the elevation of the film's setting make it at least plausible, especially in the final scene.
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Oct 5, 2017 05:35
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Sirotan posted:They're taking some dramatic license by saying it's the cold that kills you but they're basically describing HAPE (high-altitude pulmonary edema), which is a very real thing and the elevation of the film's setting make it at least plausible, especially in the final scene. Yea but HAPE wouldn't have happened to the girl and it probably wouldn't have happened to the guy at the end either, he was living at a relatively high altitude for a long time before he got dragged up Gannet. And even with HAPE you don't cough up nearly that much blood
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Oct 5, 2017 18:04
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Tumble posted:Yea but HAPE wouldn't have happened to the girl and it probably wouldn't have happened to the guy at the end either, he was living at a relatively high altitude for a long time before he got dragged up Gannet. And even with HAPE you don't cough up nearly that much blood I don't disagree. It worked fine for me in the context of the movie though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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Oct 5, 2017 18:40
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Sirotan posted:I don't disagree. It worked fine for me in the context of the movie though. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Yea don't get me wrong I enjoyed the movie overall, it was just jarring to see obviously made up symptoms when the idea of freezing to death barefoot while running away from rapists/murderers is awful enough in what is otherwise fairly grounded and realistic movie.
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Oct 5, 2017 19:29
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I am from and live in one of the towns mentioned in the movie's dialog and have this to say: you can't just ride a snowmobile up to Gannet Peak.
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Oct 5, 2017 20:26
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I enjoyed everything up to the end and we find out who the rapist is. The rapist is a TERRIBLE actor.
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Oct 6, 2017 07:47
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I enjoyed the movie, especially Renner's performance, but I thought Elizabeth Olsen's character was just terrible. I get the young, inexperienced fish out of water angle but it didn't work for me. She gets pepper sprayed and can barely see but she thinks it's good idea to go after the perpetrator inside the trailer before she's better recovered? Why? The guy was high and not a threat to run, and even if he ran where's he going to go that he wouldn't be easily found? She guns him down and has no apparent reaction, which doesn't ring true given how many times we've heard her say and watched her demonstrate that she doesn't know what she's doing and this is most likely the first time she's ever killed anyone. It's possible to be inexperienced AND smart. You can convey the same challenges her character was up against in such a foreign world without making her bumble around. She can't manage a simple conversation with a coroner without causing friction. She borrows clothes from the mother of the missing girl and doesn't say a single thing about the girl or how the mother is feeling or how she's going to do everything she can to find the daughter. Prior to the big shootout she waits and waits while everyone's pointing guns at each other and then, with a loud sudden movement, announces that she's FBI.... really?
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Oct 12, 2017 20:26
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i'm really, REALLY looking forward to this. i'm a sucker for rural noir, both in book and movie form.
Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 12:51 on Oct 16, 2017 |
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Oct 16, 2017 12:17
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A decent thriller, but I thought it was a bit odd for a movie "inspired by" the undocumented disappearances of native american women, there aren't really any characters of that description. There's pretty much only the victim (only seen alive in flashback), the dead daughter (only seen in photos), and 2-3 short scenes each for the exwife, the mother, and Graham Greene's wife. They're all just relations to the actual characters who are dudes.
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Oct 16, 2017 19:47
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Powaqoatse posted:A decent thriller, but I thought it was a bit odd for a movie "inspired by" the undocumented disappearances of native american women, there aren't really any characters of that description. they didn't find them dude, they disappeared
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Oct 16, 2017 21:24
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This movie just proves that Taylor Sheridan needs his stories and themes filtered through another director. Villeneuve and Mackenzie were able to take his tough guy of a bygone era shtick and couch it in other themes and make it interesting. Wind River is way too literal and almost comically male. The fact that every experience is filtered through a man's POV seems like it has to have some kind of meaning, but there doesn't seem to be a point to it. Instead of a turn or a comment on it, we're left with a scene that reinforces it.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:29
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LesterGroans posted:This movie just proves that Taylor Sheridan needs his stories and themes filtered through another director. Villeneuve and Mackenzie were able to take his tough guy of a bygone era shtick and couch it in other themes and make it interesting. Wind River is way too literal and almost comically male. The fact that every experience is filtered through a man's POV seems like it has to have some kind of meaning, but there doesn't seem to be a point to it. Instead of a turn or a comment on it, we're left with a scene that reinforces it. i don't know if you're familiar with, say, the works of jim thompson but i'd say the bygone manly man's world is more of a genre thing. i mean sicario was from a female perspective? sure, it's a "manly" world she lives in but i think she was a fully fleshed and realistic character. i mean, would heat have been a better movie had it followed the lives of the female side characters more? unlikely.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:33
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Dyna Soar posted:i don't know if you're familiar with, say, the works of jim thompson but i'd say the bygone manly man's world is more of a genre thing. i mean sicario was from a female perspective? sure, it's a "manly" world she lives in but i think she was a fully fleshed and realistic character. I have no problem with explorations of masculinity or A Man's World, I just don't think this movie does any actual exploring. I think Sicario is an amazing movie and I think Emily Blunt's character is a great, interesting lead. But after watching Wind River I wouldn't be surprised if that was something Blunt and Villeneuve helped bring to the table and the script itself was more worried about Alejandro. Not that I'm trying to denigrate Sheridan's work on that movie. Sicario is one of my favourite films ever and Hell or High Water is great. But this was a big miss. It was competently made (except for some odd editing choices) but it has the subtlety of a mallet to the head. Maybe I missed something that could have brought it all together for me, but it seemed like any commentary about overbearing male authority was missing and it was just straight forward reinforcing it without any irony.
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Oct 16, 2017 21:47
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Dyna Soar posted:they didn't find them dude, they disappeared  Of course!
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Oct 16, 2017 22:41
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LesterGroans posted:...this was a big miss. It was competently made (except for some odd editing choices) but it has the subtlety of a mallet to the head. poo poo, i'll get back to this discussion once i've actually seen the movie.
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Oct 17, 2017 11:09
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LesterGroans posted:...this was a big miss. It was competently made (except for some odd editing choices) but it has the subtlety of a mallet to the head. poo poo, i'll get back to this discussion once i've actually seen the movie. then again this whole nihilistic rural noir thing is p. much one of my favourite movies genres, so no doubt i'll like this one even if it's a bit one dimensional.
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Oct 17, 2017 11:10
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Rural noir. Jesus loving Christ.
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Oct 17, 2017 11:44
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Star Man posted:Rural noir. Jesus loving Christ. it would be stupid if there wasn't so many things in common with the works put under it. there are enough "rural noir" tropes to form a cohesive genre. Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 12:26 on Oct 17, 2017 |
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Oct 17, 2017 12:12
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Overall I enjoyed this movie, but less for the plot and more due to the cinematography and Renner's performance. My main problem is with the ending where the oil company guys really just dive right into rape/murder at the drop of a hat. The tonal switch was jarring anyhow, but it seems kind of crazy to me that these dudes are all just flat out sociopaths willing to commit horrible crimes on a whim and engage in a firefight with the police and an FBI agent. I think it might have worked better if they had reduced the amount of people in both groups, maybe make it three oil dudes and three cops or something? I dunno, it was just too far-fetched for me considering the movie had been at least somewhat realistic till then
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Oct 19, 2017 07:18
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LesterGroans posted:This movie just proves that Taylor Sheridan needs his stories and themes filtered through another director. Villeneuve and Mackenzie were able to take his tough guy of a bygone era shtick and couch it in other themes and make it interesting. Wind River is way too literal and almost comically male. The fact that every experience is filtered through a man's POV seems like it has to have some kind of meaning, but there doesn't seem to be a point to it. Instead of a turn or a comment on it, we're left with a scene that reinforces it. You articulated my feelings perfectly.
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Oct 20, 2017 06:41
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LesterGroans posted:This movie just proves that Taylor Sheridan needs his stories and themes filtered through another director. Villeneuve and Mackenzie were able to take his tough guy of a bygone era shtick and couch it in other themes and make it interesting. Wind River is way too literal and almost comically male. The fact that every experience is filtered through a man's POV seems like it has to have some kind of meaning, but there doesn't seem to be a point to it. Instead of a turn or a comment on it, we're left with a scene that reinforces it. Seems like Olsen's character could have provided a bit of balance in this regard. Instead we get the helpless female that needs looking after. Ugh.
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Oct 20, 2017 17:47
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Born_to_Lose posted:Overall I enjoyed this movie, but less for the plot and more due to the cinematography and Renner's performance. My main problem is with the ending where the oil company guys really just dive right into rape/murder at the drop of a hat. The tonal switch was jarring anyhow, but it seems kind of crazy to me that these dudes are all just flat out sociopaths willing to commit horrible crimes on a whim and engage in a firefight with the police and an FBI agent. I think it might have worked better if they had reduced the amount of people in both groups, maybe make it three oil dudes and three cops or something? I dunno, it was just too far-fetched for me considering the movie had been at least somewhat realistic till then lmao if you dont shotgun everyone who asks where your friends are
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Oct 21, 2017 04:19
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socketwrencher posted:Seems like Olsen's character could have provided a bit of balance in this regard. Instead we get the helpless female that needs looking after. Ugh. Yeah, her arc could have been excellent. Like she arrived completely clueless, unable to drive in the blizzard & having to borrow snowclothes (great scene, imo), but later she (if only temporarily) defuses the standoff by sheer authority. I second LesterGroans. The movie is alright, but with another director to filter the script, it could have been great.
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Oct 21, 2017 12:59
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I want to like this more than I did but the "hurr hurr look at the dumb Florida girl not understanding our harsh Wyoming snows" juxtaposed with the film itself portraying cold weather and the terrain of the area in ways that are laughable to anyone actually familiar with them was distracting. It reminded me a bit of the horrible Spanish accents in Breaking Bad. And it's not even like they just introduced this as some bit of artistic license like the similarly unrealistic bodies-rocketing-backwards when shot trope; I have to sit through detailed and cringeworthy exposition about the biomechanics of Exploding Lung Syndrome twice. It's like the very same naive sunny-state person they are making fun of has also written the script and is oh so proud of this stupid plot device they have invented and needs to keep bringing it up. Morbus fucked around with this message at 04:17 on Oct 28, 2017 |
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Oct 28, 2017 04:14
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There's a wonderful article on High Country News about white writers setting their movies in Indian country. http://www.hcn.org/issues/49.18/tribes-why-do-white-writers-keep-making-films-about-indian-country
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Oct 29, 2017 08:26
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fantastic article. this one bit in the final paragraph stood out to mequote:Does a positive message redeem poor narrative?
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Oct 29, 2017 10:35
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Finally got to see this and I thought it was a good movie. The pacing was kinda off, but since its his first movie i can look past it. I kinda think most of the criticism in this thread is a bit exaggerated tho. I mean, the movie was better than most thrillers. Sure it could have been more realistic, have more female perspective, explore the native community and the missing girls more etc. but all this in a single movie? And a crime thriller at that? That said I'd watch the hell out of a tv show based around the same premise. Longmire and The Red Road kinda skirt around it, but in the end neither is really about the rez in the same way as this movie was. Also neither were really realistic, Longmire is like Matlock as a cop show and The Red Road was just kinda bad. Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 08:49 on Nov 6, 2017 |
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Nov 6, 2017 08:32
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Dyna Soar posted:Finally got to see this and I thought it was a good movie. The pacing was kinda off, but since its his first movie i can look past it. it's a valid criticism though, to be taken out of a movie due to something that's obviously made up for dramatic effect. Just describe how somebody freezes to death, that's more than horrific enough, especially when they froze to death because they were escaping something as demeaning and brutal as what she was running from. It's not something that needed to be exaggerated.
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Nov 7, 2017 04:10
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I guess, but then at the same time it was such a minor thing. I guess there's something about this movie that evokes a pretty strong negative reaction here on SA, which is kinda weird since it's 93% fresh on rotten tomatoes and despite it's minor shortcomings I thought it was a very good debut and overall an 8/10 thriller.
Dyna Soar fucked around with this message at 10:01 on Nov 7, 2017 |
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Nov 7, 2017 09:55
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