Night Moves.

Far from perfect and not the directors best film, Night Moves (2013) is the story of three miss matched environmental warriors who set out the blow up a hydroelectric dam by purchasing a boat, from which the film gets its name, and packing it with fertiliser. The three protagonists are the dour environmentalist Josh played by an equally dour Jesse Eisenberg an actor that does not have ‘smile’ in his repertoire and tends to be typecast as the ‘defeated human being’, Dakota Fanning is the little rich girl who has dropped out of college, and the brains behind the project is ex marine Harmon a role that really suits actor Peter Sarsgaard. In the first half of the story we witness them planning the action, moving the boat up to the dam and attaching a timer device to carry out their act of sabotage. In the second part we observe how each of them deals with the aftermath of their environmental activism and what effects it has on their fundamentalist mind sets.

 

Peter Sarsgaard provides the brains behind the operation. 

I’m sure director Kelly Reichardt, who co wrote the movie with her regular writer Jon Raymond; set out to make what she deemed to be an important cinematic statement in which she poses a morale question ‘would we be capable of carrying out acts of terrorism to coincide with our own personnel beliefs’?  Admittedly we can all sit at home and become cyber worriers but have we got the bottle to carry out a direct action that could endanger your own life and possible others in the collateral damage that normally follow’s such an action? Reichardt’s movie is telling us what we already know, our world is deemed to be in danger, in peril, and would we act, how do we value human life, most of us will value it highly but others may be of the opinion that the end justifies the means! Radicalism[1] is the description that the media would give this group of three people who join forces to carry out the political act demonstrated in the film. The films narrative, as I have opined, involves the affect that this type of act has on the people involved, who admittedly start out with an enthusiastic zeal that may or may not last after the incident. The director admits that film does not deliberately set out to mimic any other political group of the present or in fact of the past and is deliberately set in a post 9/11 world where the penalties are very high for acts of terrorism, - environmental or otherwise.  

 

Dakota Fanning provides the finance.

and Jesse Eisenberg  never smiles!

I did not have a great deal of time for Reichardt’s Old Joy (2006), but both Wendy and Lucy (2008), a road movie without a car and Meeks Cutoff (2010), a western without a cowboy, are fine examples of Independent American film making. But this latest movie, although thought provoking, did not grip me, which I believe is partly down to the non-charismatic portrayal of the characters.  A better movie that cover’s similar territory, and one I would urge you to see, is Zal Batmanglij’s The East (2012).

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[1] Politics advocating major changes.

Wendy and Lucy.

Screenwriter and American indie film maker Kelly Reichardt was responsible for an intelligent western Meeks Cutoff (2010) and the road movie Old Joy (2006) a story of friendship, loss and alienation. The movie that followed this was had a similar ambiance with a minimalist style favoured by Reichardt and writer Jon Raymond, on whose short story Train Choir, the screenplay for Wendy and Lucy (2008) was based.

Wendy Carroll is driving to Ketchikan Alaska to find a new life with her dog Lucy. Travelling with little money she hopes to find work at the Northwestern Fish cannery. It’s when her car breaks down in Oregon that she realises the abnormity of her task. She is apprehended for shoplifting at the local supermarket and while she is in police custody her dog disappears. The only friendly face turns out to be a security guard who takes pity on our young waif.

A deep, quite film that says a lot without raising its voice, it’s sad but rather lovely, a movie where you really pray that everything will work out for this resourceful young traveller, or will it? Michelle Williams is faultless as the disenfranchised Wendy, and as in all her roles completely nails the part. A wee gem that successfully illustrates the underbelly of middle class America. Unfortunately another example of a movie that will be forever lost under the deluge of tripe that emanates from a film industry that most of the time is only looking to make money: Prove them wrong!!!!

Meeks Cutoff

The daily drudge of frontier life.

In the1840’s it was the inherent right of people to travel from the thriving American Eastern Seaboard to the new Western frontier with a promise of a new and good life. This became known as the Oregon Trail it was a 2000 mile journey that could take between four and six months. These pioneers travelled with their families and there goods and chattels, some made it across the barren dry landscape and some perished on the journey.

Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy 2006) has based her western road movie Meeks Cutoff (2010) on the true story of the fur trapper and guide Stephen Meek (Bruce Greenwood), who due to the risk of Indian attacks left the Oregon Trail declaring that he knew a short cut that would avoid the threatened hostilities and get to the destination a lot sooner! Leading three families on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, he soon becomes lost. Fighting hunger and thirst they had to increase their reliance on each other and when a Native American crosses their path the emigrants are torn between their lack of trust in Meek, who has certainly proven himself to be unreliable, and the Cayuse tribesman (Rod Rondeaux) who is perceived to have an interrogate knowledge of the terrain but is seen as a savage and their natural enemy.

The Women become the dominant force.

The film quite vividly demonstrates how the masculine powerbase soon disintegrates when things get really tough and how the “women folk” become the dominant force. Michelle Williams plays Emily Tetherow the most resolute of the travellers who along with the two other female members of the party, played by the Scottish actress Shirley Henderson and Zoe Kazan, become the central individuals in this ever more deteriorating situation. The authenticity of the untamed frontier is greatly enhanced by the splendid cinematography of Chris Blauvelt. As is the story by some genuinely good acting from all our nine leads that indisputably portray the genuine pain and anguish suffered by these early settlers. And what a great ending, one that credits its audience with some intelligence.