Special Screening
Meek’s Cutoff
DIRECTED BY KELLY REICHARDT
USA, 2010, 104 MIN, RATED PG
SOUTHEAST PREMIERE
Where Old Joy, River of Grass (FFF 1994 and featured in this year’s Fabulous Florida Films), and Wendy and Lucy established director Kelly Reichardt as a powerful, poetic, original voice in cinema, MEEK’S CUTOFF catapults her to all new, breathtaking heights. In 1845, three families hire the wild-eyed, bushy-bearded Meek (Bruce Greenwood) to lead them over Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. Trekking through parched lands and running dangerously low on water, the group begins to lose faith in their tall-tale-telling guide, further questioning his instincts when they encounter a Native American wanderer. A beautiful and patient examination of survival, trust, myth, and man’s interaction with nature, this western is unlike any other in its genre. Virtually a thriller rendered with frightening subtlety, this sublime period-piece stars Academy Award®-nominee Michelle Williams (Blue Valentine) in another perfectly controlled performance alongside costars Paul Dano (There Will Be Blood), Bruce Greenwood (Star Trek), and Shirley Henderson (Trainspotting).
