Streaming Quick Picks: Kelly Reichardt
Unlike previous installments of our Artist of the Week feature, all of which have had more than 10 films available for streaming, this week’s spotlight is on a filmmaker far less prolific. When it comes to Kelly Reichardt, though, the quality far outweighs the quantity. As with last week’s post on Alec Guinness, each poster below links to a specific streaming source for the film. We prioritize Netflix and Hulu Plus as common streaming services with no additional charge for their rentals, and we also have links for local video sources via the Four-Star Video Co-Op and the Madison Public Library catalogs.
UW Cinematheque has chosen Reichardt’s latest feature, Night Moves, to kick off its amazing Fall lineup. Her previous film, Meek’s Cutoff, completely blindsided me when I saw it at the 2011 Wisconsin Film Festival. Even in an era of revisionist westerns, Meek’s easily stands out from the pack. Reichardt provides the viewer with the stark beauty of the open frontier, all the while supplanting the more stereotypical explorer’s delight with a more realistic despair, providing a visually poetic take on survival horror. While many audience members reacted aloud once the movie ended, Reichardt is clearly far less interested in the destination and far more fascinated with the journey that leads to it. What truly struck me in Meek’s was the fact that this was a film that felt lived in more than played — a film with definite style and a degree of manner, but almost no artifice (save, perhaps, for Bruce Greenwood’s astounding beard).
When asked about her more austere sense of exposition, Reichardt deftly and hearteningly said the following of her characters: “You know, you pick up with them and enter their lives for such a small moment. Things are already in the works. The characters live in the world that they live in, so they don’t really have a need to tell each other who they are or what they’re thinking, any more than you would with your friends, your community. There are lots of clues here and there, and then there’s room for the viewer, like how, when you get on a subway, you make certain calculations about someone’s life based on their shoes or their briefcase, whether they look like they’re running late or not, whether they look like they have money or they don’t, if they’re putting makeup on.” As someone who welcomes the opportunity to deflect screenwriting spoon-feeding whenever possible, I am drawn by this kind of respect for the viewer’s intelligence and process of engaging with a film.
If you are looking for a distinctly independent cinematic vision that is replete with impressive cinematography and genuine humanity, give Kelly Reichardt’s work a look, particularly in advance of this Friday’s screening of Night Moves, which UW Cinematheque is screening at 7:00PM in the newly renovated 4070 VIlas Hall. (And read James Kreul’s review of Night Moves here at Madison Film Forum.) Be sure to leave comments below and let us know what you think of Night Moves or any of her films below.
