Wick's Review

Summary - Really Great 4.5

Wind River, the best American crime movie in recent memory, is as American as it could possibly be. Native-American at its core, cowboy on its face, Wind River transcends its stunningly assured procedural tropes to create a haunting tale of Western life in 2017, on the res and off, for Indians and Anglos alike.

The acting is shockingly good, especially from Jeremy Renner, but also from the large cast of reds and whites. Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham and Kelsey Chow are three Native-Americans who jump offscreen, while the always great Jon Bernthal delivers one perfect scene as a hella righteous ex-SEAL.

Wind River is Taylor Sheridan’s magnum opus, a consummate American crime movie that easily tops the less-than-great scripts he wrote for the sickly great Sicario and the widely praised Hell or High Water. Sheridan’s Wind River script is essentially perfect, plus he directed the movie in a way that does the script justice, while respecting the benighted Shoshone who struggle along on the Wind River Indian Reservation.

Consider the following.

• Renner’s hunter has internalized Native-American ethos, while remaining recognizably cowboy.
• The shootout scene has everything an all-time great Mexican standoff should.
• The sparse script says everything that must be said, and tees up scenes of tremendous action, yet the laconic plot remains non-histrionic. Whodunnits are rarely so bracing.

Bottom Line

Taylor Sheridan cements his position as a great American filmmaker with Wind River. It’s Oscar stuff.

Acting - Great 4.0

Jeremy Renner etches a Best Actor performance as a professional hunter working for US Fish & Wildlife. Renner delivers his best performance to date as a classic Westerner who loves Indians and the Indian way,

Elizabeth Olsen’s Jane Banner is a city-bound FBI agent plunged into a major murder case in snow-bound Wyoming. After proving she could act in Godzilla, amongst other major movies, Olsen has become a bona fide moviestar. She’s also in the multiplex right now as a social media sensation in Ingrid Goes West.

Gil Birmingham plays a father who lost a daughter to murder, as does Renner also. Birmingham essays the deep contradictions in a man who lives on his people’s land but is cut off from their ways. He was also featured in Taylor Sheridan’s Hell or High Water.

• Kelsey Chow shows up strong as the murder victim.
• Martin Sensmeier is powerfully sad as her lowlife brother.
• Jon Bernthal lights up the screen as an ex-SEAL now working for an oil company.
• Julia Jones is a mournful MILF as Renner’s ex. Teo Briones is just right as their young son.
• Graham Greene’s laconic weariness is an American classic, just as he was in Dances with Wolves.

Film - Perfect 5.0

All hail Taylor Sheridan, hunky All-American actor turned top notch auteur. His Wind River pegs the meter, several of them in fact.

• Direction: The movie starts with a flashback that uses a poem as soundtrack, and then deftly uses flashbacks throughout the twisty-turny crime story to follow.
• Play: No character seems contrived, nor their interactions unnatural, and yet the whole thing is out in Elmore Leonard territory, albeit not that funny.
• Music: The sounds of the Montana winter
• Visuals: One perfect visual among many is the sight of a mama mountain lion denning with her two cubs, in a very tense moment.

Edge - Sordid 2.8

Savage & Profane, not for the faint of heart. The savagery includes a graphic rape scene.

Reality - Glib 1.3

Admirably straight-laced in its reality liberties, Wind River doesn’t need hocus-pocus to create suspense.

Taylor Sheridan was inspired by the goings-on with the people and especially the girls on reservations. Interested? The True Story Behind ‘Wind River’ Is This Hidden Injustice Against Native American Women

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