River of Grass (1994)

Cozy, a dissatisfied housewife, meets Lee at a bar. A drink turns into a home break-in, and a gun shot sends them on the run together, thinking they've committed murder.

Director:

Kelly Reichardt

Writers:

Jesse Hartman (story), Kelly Reichardt (screenplay)

Stars:

Lisa Donaldson, Larry Fessenden, Dick Russell

6 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Larry Fessenden	...	Lee Ray Harold
Dick Russell	...	Jimmy Ryder
Stan Kaplan	...	J.C.
Michael Buscemi	...	Doug
Lisa Robb	...	Young Cozy
Tom Laverack	...	Cozy's Lover in Tub
Bert Yaeger	...	Dead Husband
Mary Glenn	...	Woman with Hatchet
Carol Flakes	...	Lee's Grandmother
Frances Reichardt	...	Lee's Mom
George Moore	...	Detective Kirby
Mannie Mack	...	Mr. Humphery
Kyle Hawkins	...	Cozy's Kid
Heather Florio	...	Cozy's Kid
Joseph Florio	...	Cozy's Kid

Storyline

Near the Everglades, the "river of grass," lives Cozy (named for her father's favorite drummer), lonely, in a loveless marriage, ignoring her kids. She fantasizes being a dancer, an acrobat, and a gymnast. One night at a bar she meets Lee. He's jobless, homeless, and unbeknownst to Cozy, is in possession of her father's handgun. Dad's a cop and lost the gun chasing a robber. Cozy and Lee climb a fence to swim in a pool. Playing around with the gun, they think they kill the pool's owner, so they go on the lam. An odd partnership develops even though they're short on ideas. But how can they escape their barren lot if they don't even have a quarter for the road toll?

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Plot Keywords:

f rated | title directed by female | directorial debut | independent film | title spoken by character | 

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Genres:

Drama

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Certificate:

Not Rated

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

13 October 1995 (USA)

Also Known As:

Болотистая река

Filming Locations:

Florida, USA

Box Office

Opening Weekend USA:

$2,942, 13 March 2016, Limited Release

Gross USA:

$8,534, 10 April 2016

Company Credits

Production Co:

Good Machine

Technical Specs

Runtime:

76 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Trivia

Directorial debut of Kelly Reichardt.

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Connections

Referenced in Landline (2017)

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Soundtracks

Youville
Written and Arranged by Alexander McCabe
Performed by The Alexander McCabe Quartet

User Reviews

a sign of things to come, if less than the sum of its parts

River of Grass is a 'first-movie' (practically in quotes to make the distinction) not just in the fact that it is for Kelly Reichardt, but in tone too: the film is a loose, vaguely noir-ish tale with a more low-key beat and looking forward for when the director really takes a hold of that "mumblecore" thing years later as it's about a mother of two and a 2nd-tier Jack Nicholson character think they've accidentally killed someone and they go on the run... not really(?)

It's like the American remake of Breathless I might've wanted instead of the weak one with Richard Gere. It's a little too short to be more than a little festival experiment, but it has some good jazz, some good acting, a few genuinely weird and funny moments (some with a quirky Orthodox Jew who laughs a lot), and a final twist that seems needlessly pessimistic. I want to emphasize if you're a Reichardt fan and come to this in retrospect that it's not a bad debut, and not a great one either, though it does speak to her as having more of a sense of humor than her other films might lead one to believe.