August 4, 2017 2 min to read

Wind River

It's powerfully gripping, shot beautifully, and one hell of a crime drama.

by Kleon Van

Good: Faaaaantastic cinematography. It reminded me a lot of Sicario, which is probably due to the fact that Winter River’s director, Taylor Sheridan, wrote Sicario’s screenplay and probably had some part in the way it was filmed. Jeremy Renner was incredible as Cory. Usually with big name actors, the people themselves are always ‘present.’ In this movie, he melted into his role and was convincing as the grief-stricken father. Seeing Jon Bernthal out of no where was a (great) shock. The movie totally ‘got’ me with the switch though. Usually he plays scumbaggy assholes, so I immediately assumed he was a different character. I totally wonder if his shaggy look had a play in his casting Besides Renner, Olsen did great as the FBI agent. You could see how much of a rookie she was.. with just finishing a weapons course and then going in on a big first mission? Good thing she had Cory to help out! I like how they did the reveal of what really happened. It was rough, and the sense of dread was definitely there. You knew what was going to happen. So when you saw Jane outside the place of the deed, shit. got. real. Bad: I just analyzed the tracks! - One thing that was kind of a thorn was the whole ‘tracker trope.’ It was close to being too much, but it only occurred like, twice. If I had anything bad to say about this movie, it’d probably be….. that first shootout. I mean come on, a trained FBI agent purposely going into a hostile area with bear spray all in her eyes? Just didn’t seem smart. Other Thoughts: This is one of those movies I can only watch once. Not because it’s bad quality, but it’s rough terrain and the journey is best the first time only. Maybe sometime with the right people? Really intense standoff… even with no payoff! Sheridan has a good track record of intense scenes.. especially with the highway standoff in Sicario. Also, Cory was a total bad ass. Like my friend’s friend Dan said, he was always in control.

Bottom line: There’s very little that’s bad in this movie. It’s powerfully gripping, shot beautifully, and one hell of a crime drama.