Meek's Cutoff (Reichardt, 2010): BFI Southbank, NFT 1, 8.20pm
(plus Q&A with director Kelly Reichardt and star Shirley Henderson)
This is the movie I was most impressed by at the 2010 London Film Festival and I shall be going along tonight for a second look, with the added bonus of appearances by the director and cast member Henderson. The film, which takes as its starting point the fate of a number of the wagons that branched off from the Oregon Trail in 1845, is at once mysterious, tense, thought-provoking and, in parts, stunningly beautiful.
The ending is the most ambiguous I've seen since John Sayles' notoroious denoument to Limbo (1999) and destined to be a major talking point for anyone who sees Reichardt's film. The director made quite an impression on me with her debut Old Joy (2006). Meek's Cutoff, a revisionist western, is a much more ambitious undertaking but one which suggests she will be at the forefront of the independent film scene in America for some time.
Here is the trailer.
This film is screening as part of the Bird's Eye View Film Festival.
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