Meek's Cutoff 2011

Tom Long, Detroit News: This is the sort of film critics love to praise because the filmmaker has done good work before; and well, there must be something there. Well, there's not. Read more

Glenn Kenny, MSN Movies: A cinematic immersion of both modest and cosmic proportions, beautifully enacted by a cast that makes you fully believe that they are these beleaguered characters, and make you glad that you aren't. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A bracingly original foray into territory that remains, in every sense, unsettled. Read more

Christy Lemire, Associated Press: Reichardt trusts her audience, encourages her viewers to feel comfortable in the stillness and the quiet, and to draw their own conclusions from an ending that's as profound as it is enigmatic. Read more

David Edelstein, New York Magazine/Vulture: Reichardt's westward-ho is a world of confusion, geographical and moral, a dislocation beyond the remedy of water or Bibles. Read more

Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: Amounts to a master class in the power of observation. Read more

John Hartl, Seattle Times: Vast and mysterious, the American West of Kelly Reichardt and Jonathan Raymond's "Meek's Cutoff" is not quite like any other landscape. Read more

Scott Tobias, AV Club: Meticulous and immersive, Meek's Cutoff feels like history in three dimensions. Read more

Bill Goodykoontz, Arizona Republic: Greatly enhanced by the performances of Michelle Williams and Bruce Greenwood, director Kelly Reichardt's film quietly becomes engrossing - it almost sneaks up on you. Read more

Ty Burr, Boston Globe: Told largely in long shot, it's a painfully, beautifully slow film, which is understandable given the time, place, and situation. Read more

Ben Sachs, Chicago Reader: Imagine a collaboration between John Ford and Wallace Stevens and you might get a sense of what Kelly Reichardt pulls off here: a sincere re-creation of the pioneer experience, brought to life through careful, often unexpected detail. Read more

Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: If you allow its windswept silences to work on you, "Meek's Cutoff" gathers its own snakelike sense of momentum... Read more

Peter Rainer, Christian Science Monitor: Williams also starred in Reichardt's last, and best, film, Wendy and Lucy, and she clearly has a special affinity for the director, for whom she shows off her subtlest shades. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Under Oregon skies, there's political subtext for the taking in this terrific, unsettling film. Read more

Deborah Young, Hollywood Reporter: A realistic slice of pioneer life that offers a disquieting alternative vision of America's most mythic location. Read more

Betsy Sharkey, Los Angeles Times: Reichardt has stripped "Meek's" down to bare essentials and careful emotions. The cast captures that quality beautifully - like the water that is running out, everything is conserved. Read more

Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: There are stretches that are, frankly, boring. But the vivid details and intimacy you develop with these travelers sticks with you, leaving you in awe of the insane feats people had to accomplish in order for us to enjoy the world we know today. Read more

David Denby, New Yorker: It's a pleasureless, anti-sensuous aesthetic, but the movie, in its thorny, grudging way, is stirring, with many startling details. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: Our interest is constantly stoked by Reichardt's choices as a director. Read more

Ella Taylor, NPR: One way or another, there will be blood. Read more

Elizabeth Weitzman, New York Daily News: Fans of Kelly Reichardt's minimalist portraits will adore her stark Western, but others may be taken aback by the bold lack of traditional filmmaking. Read more

V.A. Musetto, New York Post: Without exception, the actors give understated but compelling performances. Read more

Rex Reed, New York Observer: Who goes to the movies for 104 minutes of punishment? Where is John Wayne, now that we need him? Read more

Steven Rea, Philadelphia Inquirer: The cinematography, by Chris Blauvelt, captures the rugged landscapes and rainless skies with a homespun elegance. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: "Meek's Cutoff" is more an experience than a story. Read more

Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: Kelly Reichardt has crafted a haunted dream of a movie to get lost in. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: In this quiet, beautiful and terrifying fable about a group of lost pioneers, Reichardt combines epic ambition with a focus on intimate, personal detail. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: Boring. Read more

Elbert Ventura, Slate: It is an American independent in the true sense of the word, and it may well be the best homegrown movie we'll see this year. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Reichardt serves the broccoli of historical pedantry, deliberately withholding the delicious cheese sauce of entertainment. Read more

Joe Williams, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Those with the courage to explore uncharted territory will be rewarded with a rough gem of a movie. Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: A film ponderously slow in pace yet kinetically charged with insight; starkly realistic yet allegorical too; psychologically astute yet politically resonant. Read more

Mary F. Pols, TIME Magazine: It's a deceptively small piece of onscreen art that resonates afterward with such insistence that I felt positively nagged by it. Read more

Linda Barnard, Toronto Star: It's the anti-western western, a story stripped of Zane Gray romance, sagebrush and mythic heroes. Read more

Justin Chang, Variety: [Kelly Reichardt has] taken on her biggest budget (essentially a thicker shoestring) and most recognizable cast yet, while fully retaining her patient, deliberate approach to narrative and attentiveness to nature as a character. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: Recalls Jim Jarmusch's Dead Man and even Werner Herzog's Aguirre: The Wrath of God in its evocation of frontier surrealism and manifest-destiny madness; the Reichardt approach is, however, more stringent and pointed in its weirdness. Read more

Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: A mesmerizing cinematic journey that is often as arduous and spare as the lives of its hard-bitten protagonists. Read more