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2 items from 2012

Great Films Directed by Women Pt. 2

26 September 2012 2:07 PM, PDT | SoundOnSight | See recent SoundOnSight news »

(In Alphabetical order)

Meek’s Cutoff

Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Kelly Reichardt had a stellar if hushed 2000s, and then she commenced the current decade with a film that is already beginning to feel like an unsung modern classic. Meek’s Cutoff is one of those exhilarating instances in which a marriage of disparate styles produces something tricky to imagine, but perfect to behold: a period piece set in mid-1800’s Oregon, shot in academy ratio and classically beautiful for it, but with Reichardt’s signature severe naturalism. The result is so stark and understated that it begins to feel graceful, weirdly epic. A small caravan of settlers (featuring Michelle Williams and a once again devout Paul Dano) hires a guide, big-talking Stephen Meek, to help them navigate the Oregon Trail. As the terrain grows less forgiving and water evermore scarce, the settlers begin to wonder if the route Meek »

- Ricky

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Distant Relatives: Walkabout and Meek's Cutoff

13 January 2012 6:30 AM, PST | FilmExperience | See recent FilmExperience news »

Robert here w/ Distant Relatives, exploring the connections between one classic and one contemporary film.

Jenny Agutter in "Walkabout" and Michelle Williams in "Meek's Cutoff"

Western people have something of a parasitic relationship with nature. But that's okay. If Werner Herzog is to believed, nature doesn't much like us either. The two films we look at this week, Nicolas Roeg's Walkabout and Kelly Reichardt's Meek's Cutoff look at the relationship of people trapped within the land and how it compares to their relationship with people of the land or who represent the land in their foreignness and threat to those considered 'civilized.' Along the way issues of trust, understanding, innocence, power, gender and whether one can overcome the attitudes and beliefs into which they're boxed, are encountered along with predictably arrid conditions.

Walkabout starts to roll when a teenaged girl and her younger brother (Jenny Agutter and »

- Robert

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2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009

2 items from 2012

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