Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow is another masterpiece of quiet restraint, patient storytelling, and richly down characters. Reichardt trusts her audience’s patience and takes her time guiding us into the narrative, revealing the characters, and slowly building on her themes and ideas. So many westerns, so many pioneer stories, are about the promise of America, the myth that this is a country in which anyone can build their fortune and make their dreams come true. Reichardt is interested in exposing the lie at the heart of so much of our American myth-making – ingenuity and resourcefulness is rarely enough, the American dream is often achieved through theft, bloodshed, or some other access to power and privilege. She also continues her exploration of outsiders seeking connection and stability inside a world and system that doesn’t have a place for them. The restrictions of the 1.37:1 aspect ratio help us feel as boxed in by the narrative as our two protagonists do by their situation, and the natural lighting keeps us from romanticizing their endeavors, even as they continually attempt to romanticize their stab at the American dream. It’s an incredible film – a gentle heist film by way of buddy dramedy that is all-too honest about the endings of such reckless endeavors.