First Cow

The movie begins with a modern day scene, we know the period only because we see a modern ship on the river. Then soon a skull is discovered and then two adult skeletons laying side by side in either a shallow grave, or maybe just covered by debris over the past 150+ years.

Most of the story is in the 1800s as explorers travel west to build a new life and perhaps find some of that gold. Gradually two men become friends, one a Chinaman the other a man from Maryland trained as a cook after being orphaned. When the first cow shows up, owned by a wealthy man, the two hatch a plan to form a business.

It is a nice story of friendship and cooperation to overcome obstacles, but as the period would dictate the men are dirty, the scenes are unattractive, and the story often moves quite slowly. It is almost 2 hours and I found myself wishing it had been 80 to 90 minutes.

The user reviews are quite polarized, many love it while many hate it. I can understand both extremes, I am somewhere in the middle.

My wife and I watched it at home on BluRay from my local library.

It may be because of how I watched this - First Cow and Reichardt's films in general call for seeing it in a cinema if at all possible, she simply has that eye and ear for the minutest details and for the time she takes with every shot and many scenes to draw out the feeling of a place as well as for the actors to settle in, that you want to sink in to this film as a sensory experience, and instead I saw it at home where (I don't know about you but) I have too many distractions, not least of which the phone on a busy weekday - but it took me about fifteen to twenty minutes or so to get into the mood of this film. I wasn't sure if it might go anywhere really, as it follows the Cookie character as he is part of this fur trapping outfit (or almost on the outside, just barely with it, but enough to be in it without, say, getting into scraps/fights like the others), and it was frankly slow-going.

But then the story, as much as it is, kicks in and it becomes this very simple tale of a friendship and what may be a fairly minor crime in the grand scheme of things - taking milk from a cow that isn't there's so they can make oily cakes, basically the 1820's rural Oregon equivalent of what I assume is Krispy Kreme - and how it gets tested and firms as they become more successful and gain the employ of the wealthiest man in the area (Toby Jones), who... also happens to own the cow that they've been milking. It's so engrossing because of its simplicity, the delicacy and yet the immediacy of the world that Reichardt has recreated for us. Like all the best period filmmakers, she and her collaborators bring this part of America/the Pacific North-west to life in almost a humble sort of way: it isn't ostentatious, it's just... what it was, and that makes it special.

Aside from the performances themselves from these two, I have to wonder if the power of this film comes from something that maybe Reichardt was conscious of or maybe she wasn't, but this story makes me think about filmmaking itself, especially of the independent kind (or art creation in general). You have to assemble the right ingredients, and it most often takes some tenacity for it to all come together like it should (and how many times have you heard of someone on an indie movie shoot "going guerilla" or "stealing a shot" from some such and such a location they didn't have a permit for, etc). It feels like a story that Reichardt has lived at some point in her life, and she gets to deepen on the themes she worked in on Old Joy, also about a male friendship that gets tested by cirumstance.

And what's fascinating is how because of the slow-burn-ness of the pacing, by the time it gets to the last half hour or final quarter, it has some real suspense as we wonder how our two great lawbreakers will get out of this as they get hunted down. It's not quite to the same level of poetic grungy-frontier depiction heights as a McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but it has that same looseness and understanding about humanity, and if anything is less pessimistic about equality between people of different backgrounds and races. What happens after the end credits start to roll? I don't know, and I don't need to is the point - they've gotten through some s***, and they're together.

Thanks to constant mental stimulation due to social media, cell phones, and online content always being available, the majority of people now have an extremely short attention span. If that sounds like you, then don't watch this.

I personally consider myself to be a very patient person, and if you are willing to just be patient and actively appreciate the film you will find this film to be a rich cinematic treat. The cinematography is exquisite, meticulously framed in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The performances are extremely watchable - these characters could easily have been rather dull or boring but the brilliant actors elevate them to near-mythological status. The plot, while cliched, is supported so well by the aforementioned elements that it feels like a completely new experience to the other films that have similar plots.

If you only watch films for a quick dopamine hit, this is not the film for you. In order to get anything out of this film, you must put in some of your own thought. Under the surface, the film is rich with ideas about capitalism, the American Dream, and especially male friendship. It's left up to the viewer to interpret the work for themselves, which is what I appreciate most about Kelly Reichardt - she doesn't try to force a message down your throat, she just lets you interpret her films however you want to. But you need to be patient if you want to get a good experience, which many people, especially on this website, don't quite seem to understand.

The film's visual style is impressive but it's story and pacing is what really drags this film down for me. The cinematography is the one aspect I found to be excellent. The framing is on point and impressive and it adds a lot to the film's style. The production design and costumes are also really good here too. These characters look and feel as if they in the 1820s. The performances are also great too. Each character feels believable and works to help tell the story of the film. Although I like all that, the pacing is not very good. It feels incredibly long and tedious without any real majorly satisfying payoff. It's a 2 hour movie that feels like it goes on for 2 and a half hours. If they had cut down some of the scenes, this issue wouldn't be as major as it is. There were some elements of the story I enjoyed and some I found to be pointless. If you like A24 then check it out but don't have your hopes incredibly high for it.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Director Kelly Reichardt doesn't do plot driven movies. Still, FIRST COW is a feature where one has to be observant from the very first shot to the final one.

Reichardt's method of expression is to create a setting and fully immerse the viewer in it. Even though it's based on a novel by Jonathan Raymond (who also co-wrote the screenplay with the Director), FIRST COW isn't concerned with telling a tight knit tale, indeed the characters themselves seem to be exploring and creating their own "plot". They're own history. It's 1820s Oregon and two drifters, Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) end up in a small town with little at their disposal but some vague hope to keep on moving until they find themselves. The title animal comes to town and the pair find some short-term opportunity to use it's precious milk. Toby Jones is the owner of the Cow - and the richest man in the hamlet.

As is Reichardt's manner, the pacing is deliberate, her camera mostly steady (the movie is framed in the old fashioned 1:37 ratio) and the editing stately. She seems averse to making even the most intense situation palpable to the audience (her previous film, CERTAIN WOMEN, probably had cinema's least dramatic hostage sequences). Reichardt depicts the situation, and the viewer must create their own drama. It doesn't always work (WENDY AND LUCY), but, here as in OLD JOY, there is a vividness in the depiction that makes it worthwhile, if still not entirely satisfying.

Reichardt is an interesting talent and FIRST COW is an immersive dive into the old frontier (there is talk of going south towards the promised land of California and its emerging cities) even if it never quite strikes deep enough.