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D
iscounting whatever the
John Krasinski/Emily
Blunt household is up to
these days, quiet is an underrated
aspect of cinema. As audiences,
we lean toward demanding a
near-constant auditory assault –
that if we’re not hearing some-
thing, we’re missing something.
Director Kelly Reichardt has no
qualms with upending this and
otherpiecesofconventionalcine-
matic wisdom withFirst Cow,a
film that takes great care to re-
mind us of the whisper-quiet
bones of America’s history – a
time when there wasn’t much to
hear except what nature was tell-
ing us.
Reichardt’s attention to the
power of quiet – not total silence,
but the hushed hum of the natu-
ral world – can be felt from her
new film’s second scene (we’ll get
to the pivotal first scene soon), in
which a nomadic chef named
Cookie (John Magaro) delicately
traipses through the woods of
19th-century Oregon. Cookie is in
theemployofagroupofbrusque,
frequently drunken beaver-fur
catchers, and isn’t doing too well
with the goods and provisions
provided. So he seeks whatever
nature provides – foraging a few
mushrooms, gathering some
nuts. But in his mission, he’s care-
ful to leave little trace of his pres-
ence, with his hushed footsteps
subtly but immediately cluing us
to the fact that he’s a sensitive
soul, not particularly suited to
thrivinginthisAmericanfrontier.
Filming in the harsh and un-
predictable outdoors of the Pacif-
ic Northwest, Reichardt had to
construct the background noise
ofFirst Cowcompletely in post-
production – things wouldn’t be
so believable were, say, audiences
to hear the whoosh of a 747 flying
high over Cookie’s head. The
film’s sound, or lack thereof, is a
small detail but an essential one.
The care that Reichardt puts into
First Cow’s sound builds a bridge
to the similar care she takes with
the spare set design, the natural
lighting, the stripped-down nar-
rative, the lived-in performances
and so on, until it’s two hours lat-
er and she’s stealthily delivered a
full, immersive, complete world.
Onethatfeelstotallynatural,ifid-
iosyncratic when shoved up
against the expectations of con-
temporary filmmaking.
Oh,andshedoesthisallbytell-
ing a story about a cow. Not just a
cow, as the title makes clear, but
thefirstcowtoeverroamOregon.
The animal has been brought
over by the trading post’s local
bigwig, Chief Factor (Toby Jones),
all the way from California. And
though the dairy cow has lost her
mateandcalfalongtheway,there
is still an opportunity for Chief
Factor to finally add cream to his
coffee – which is where Cookie
comes in.
Teaming up with an ambitious
Chinese immigrant named King-
Lu (Orion Lee), Cookie begins tosneak onto Chief Factor’s proper-
ty in the dead of night to milk the
precious bovine, then surrepti-
tiously use her milk as the “secret
Chinese ingredient” in the pair’s
“oily cakes,” which sell like, um,
oily hotcakes to famished traders.
Cookie and King-Lu see the
scheme as their ticket to a better
future – Cookie wants to operate
hisownfarm,King-Lutorunaho-
telinSanFrancisco–butasthings
tend to go in Reichardt films, the
crushing reality of American cap-
italism comes to bear down on
the dreamers sooner or later.
BasedonReichardt’slong-time
collaborator Jonathan Ray-
mond’s novel,First Cowis not a
leisurely or easygoing film, de-
spitehowsoftapicturethatabove
synopsis might paint. It is a film
intent on exploring struggle and
potentially futile determination,
and in Cookie and King-Lu’s oily-
cake empire, Reichardt finds an
intriguing new avenue and world
to explore themes that have long
anchored her work, from 2008’s
Wendy and Lucyto 2013’sNight
Moves: economic struggle, the
anxiety that is living on the fringeof society and America’s default
urge to exploit.
Raymond’s novel spent almost
equal attention on Cookie and
King-Lu’s story as it did on a mod-
ern-day narrative to properly
identify their accidentally exca-
vated remains. With the excep-
tion of an intriguing and ulti-
mately haunting opening scene
involving a dog walker (Alia
Shawkat) along Oregon’s Colum-
bia River, Reichardt ditches any
here-and-now setting to zero in
on a history that also feels pur-
posefully contemporary: Who
cannot relate to well-meaning
souls determined to escape their
circumstances, no matter the
greedy and clueless villains who
stand in the way?
Few of Reichardt’s tactics
might work as well as they do
were it not for her excellent pair-
ing of Magaro and Lee. Typically,
Reichardtisabletolandafamiliar
face to anchor her decidedly anti-
commercial projects (Kristen
StewartinCertain Women,JesseEi-
senberg inNight Moves, Michelle
Williams across three projects
now), providing a comforting en-try point for wary audiences.
That’s not the case here – unless
someone considers Jones a veri-
fied box-office draw, which I sin-
cerely wish was the case. Yet it is
also difficult to imagine anyone
other than Magaro and Lee in the
lead roles – their chemistry feels
genuine,thefriendshiptheyform
onscreen remarkably real. May
First Cowturn them into house-
hold names. (I realize my dreams
here are sometimes as absurd as
Cookie and King-Lu’s.)
As our heroes’ fortunes rise
and fall, though, it is all you can
do to hope that Reichardt and
Raymond have pulled some sort
of dirty narrative trick here. That
the conclusion which they fore-
shadow inFirst Cow’s opening
minutes – and which I won’t spoil
here,eventhough,yeah,it’sreally
all spelled out in the literal first
three minutes – is some sort of
narrative fake-out. You hold your
breathandconvinceyourselfthat
the inevitable isn’t arriving. And
allReichardtofferstocomfortyou
is a remarkable quiet.FirstCowopensMarchItwilldoyour
bodygood
elly/eichardt’slatest
taesgreatcareto
remindusofthe
whisper-Äuietbones
ofAmerica’shistory
OrionLeeandJohnMagarostarinFirstCow,afilmsetintheU.S.PacificNorthwestinthe19thcentury.BARRY
HERTZ
REVIEWFirstCow
CLASSIFICATION:PG;121MINUTES
DirectedbyKellyReichardt
WrittenbyKellyReichardt
andJonathanRaymond
StarringJohnMagaro,OrionLee
andtheTitularCow
★★★½
A
s CinemaCon goes, so goes
Hollywood.
On Wednesday night, af-
ter the world was brought to the
brink of coronavirus news ex-
haustion – from Donald Trump’s
European travel ban to the fact
that America’s most beloved ce-
lebritycouple,TomHanksandRi-
ta Wilson, has now been diag-
nosed with the virus – the film in-
dustry got an extra dose of anxie-
ty when the National Association
of Theatre Owners (NATO; the
other one) announced that this
year’s CinemaCon was cancelled.
It is not hard to understand
why NATO pulled the plug on the
annual Las Vegas gathering of
Hollywood studios and North
American exhibitors, where each
party attempts to convince the
other that their business is a
booming one. As COVID-19 con-
tinues to make headlines around
the world, who would want to be
stuck in a casino conference cen-
tre with thousands of others for a
four-day grip-and-grin session? If
I was one of the dozens of celebri-
ties studios such as Disney and
Warner Bros. contract to make a
CinemaConappearanceandhype
up theatre owners about the
year’s big new blockbuster, I
would be desperately searching
for any clauses to escape such a
potential disease trap. The only
real surprise about CinemaCon’s
cancellationisthatittooksolong.
The writing was on the wall as
soonasAustincancelleditsSXSW
film, music and tech festival. And
even more so when MGM an-
nounced earlier this week that it
was shutting down a cornerstone
of CinemaCon socializing: seven
of its Vegas buffets.
So while the move is complete-
ly understandable from a public-
health perspective, the meta-
phorical optics are going to be a
trickiersell.Howaretheatreown-
ers going to convince the rest of
the world that the multiplex is a
safe environment if even they
won’t congregate in large clusters
themselves?Rightnow,themovie
industryisstandingontheedgeof
a cliff; the next few months will
determine whether it jumps in
blind or remembered to pack a
parachute.
A test of how bad the situation
might get will be found at the box
office this weekend, which finds
Hollywood offering up an acci-
dentally timed vast array of op-
tions to appeal to as many demo-
graphicsaspossible:thepremiere
of a Vin Diesel action tentpole(Bloodshot), a zeitgeist-y satirical
thriller (The Hunt) and a faith-
based romance (I Still Believe).
And two weeks later, Disney is
hoping to repeat the success of its
cartoon-to-live-action formula
with the big-budget remake of
Mulan.Atleast,thosearethetitles
for now.
Already, we’re in unpreceden-
ted film-release territory, with
four potential big earners (the
007 entryNo Time to Die,the chil-
dren’sfilmPeter Rabbit 2: The Run-
away,the highly anticipated hor-
rorsequelA Quiet Place Part II,and
F9, the latest instalment of the
massiveFast & Furiousfranchise)
and now even middle-ground re-
leases (the Kumail Nanjiani/Issa
Rae rom-comLovebirds) aban-
doning their spring release dates
in favour of (hopefully) less vi-
rus-ylate-summerandfallberths.
Surely there are countless ac-
countants and risk-management
experts going over every other
major spring and summer release
atthismoment,decidingwhether
there’s money to be made on
would-be blockbusters such as
Black Widow,Top Gun: Maverick,
Wonder Woman 1984andsoon.
Meanwhile, the actual produc-
tion of movies has also been
thrown into chaos, given that
Trump’s new European measureswill put wrenches in any plans to
shoot overseas. At home, Califor-
nia Governor Gavin Newsom on
Thursday urged the cancellation
of any large gathering of more
than 250 people, which certainly
affects red-carpet premieres but
could also include major-produc-
tion film sets.
More than ever, the Cannes
filmfestivalseemstobeinserious
doubt – and any ripple effects of a
Croisette cancellation will be felt
far beyond the art-house world.
OnThursday,theJunosandCana-
dian Screen Week, which culmi-
nates with the Canadian Screen
Awards, have been cancelled. A
cursory glance at the spring and
summerindustrycalendarfindsa
long list of other major festivals
and events, both abroad and in
Canada, that are surely monitor-
ing the public-health situation,
and their books: the Tribeca Film
Festival in New York (April 15-26),
Hot Docs (April 30 through May
10), Inside Out (May 21-31), and
then further into the fall the Ven-
ice (Sept. 2-12), Telluride (Sept.
4-7) and Toronto (Sept. 10-20)
filmfestivals. (The Berlinale, so
usedtofeelingtheoddfilmfestiv-
al out given its traditional late-
February scheduling, must be
breathingahugesighofreliefthat
itgota2020editionoutbeforethecoronavirus concerns hit such
high levels.)
If any of those events fold and
more studios decide to shift re-
leases, it won’t just change the
way we watch movies but also
which movies get made. Studios
willnodoubtcontinueproducing
product ... but maybe they won’t
shell out $100-million-plus for a
blockbuster that must be seen on
a big screen, and instead, say, pay
half that or a less for a film more
suitable to their upstart stream-
ing services. And no festivals and
industry conferences means no
talent discoveries, no coveted
word-of-mouth buzz, no market-
ing angles, no handshake devel-
opment and distribution deals,
no future.
Not to sound alarmist, but
there is a decent chance that the
snuffing of SXSW has already
meant some filmmakers have po-
tentially lost crucial career gains
theymaynevergetback.Wecould
be losing an entire generation of
new voices, if the current situa-
tion holds.
Hopefully, business will be
back to normal soon enough, and
the Vegas buffets will once again
welcome hungry CinemaCon at-
tendees next spring. For now,
though, Hollywood’s stomach is
surely roiling.Fadetoblack?Thecoronavirushitskeeponcomingforthemovieindustry
BARRYHERTZ
| NEWS