FIRST COW
****
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Screenplay: Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond, based on Raymond’s novel The Half-Life.
Principal cast:
John Magaro
Orion Lee
Toby Jones
Scott Shepherd
Ewen Bremmer
Alia Shawkat
Country: USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 122 mins.
Australian release date: 29 April 2021.
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship” - William Blake
Kelly Reichardt makes enigmatic films and her latest, First Cow, is no exception. At a superficial level, it’s a deceptively simple story about friendship (another one - see Land) but you just know there is a lot more going on below the surface. Her movies are often set in the isolated north-west of the USA, in states like Oregon and Montana, and deal with the minutiae of human emotion rather than big, earth-shattering events. Probably best known for 2010’s Meek’s Cutoff, her last film to be seen in Australia was Certain Women, in 2016. She also often collaborates with writer Jon Raymond, as she has again here, working from his 2004 novel The Half-Life.
First Cow starts in the modern day, when a woman walking her dog (Alia Shawkat from Sophie Hyde’s Animals) on the banks of an Oregon river finds a shallow grave containing two skeletons. From there, the film travels back to the 1820s where ‘Cookie’ (John Magaro) is a cook working for a group of curmudgeonly fur trappers making their way to a trading port. Out foraging one evening, he comes across King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant on the run from a posse of Russians. Cookie helps him to hide overnight and watches as he disappears the next day but the pair meet again later in the Royal West Pacific Trading Post, a burgeoning settlement awash with beaver trappers’ money. They wind up sharing King-Lu’s rough shack and discuss how they can make some money before moving on. “History hasn't been here yet. It's coming, but we got here early this time. Maybe this time, we can be ready for it. We can take it on our own terms”, reckons King-Lu. When he finds out that Cookie is also a baker, he tells him that a rich local land owner, the Chief Factor (Toby Jones), has a cow on his property, the first in the area. The friends decide to join forces and steal a little milk to make some sweet biscuits to sell at the market but, when their oilcakes are a roaring success with the locals, they have to keep milking the cow and, eventually, attract the attention of the cruel Chief Factor.
There are a number of ways Raymond and Reichardt’s screenplay of First Cow can be appraised. It’s certainly an engaging yarn about the American frontier at a crucial moment in its development and a tale of mateship between two people from totally different backgrounds. On another level, it could be read as an examination and critique of US capitalism and how the ‘haves’ treat the ‘have-nots’ under that system. You might also consider it as a look at the different approaches to the world taken by East and West, in that King-Lu is far more entrepreneurial than Cookie, who’s less willing to take risks to achieve financial success. King-Lu has more of a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude when it comes to seeking his fortune.
The lead actors are utterly convincing as the two men who become firm friends. Magaro and Lee aren’t ‘showy’ in this, which is precisely why they are so believable in their roles. The production design helps, too, and you can almost smell the damp earth, the mud and the rain on their rough-hewn clothes. Another big plus for the film is the cinematography of Reichardt’s long-term collaborator, Christopher Blauvelt, and their choice of shooting First Cow in Academy ratio. The boxy framing gives the film an enclosed, almost suffocating feel, which is augmented by keeping the camera low to the ground and the use of extreme close-ups. It works a treat and adds to the intimacy of the men’s bond. William Tyler’s score is unusual in that it isn’t authentic to the period but its moody design gives depth to the atmospheric sylvan locations.
First Cow has been a great critical success but its roll-out at cinemas was terribly hampered by COVID (it was shot in 2019) and we are lucky in Australia to be seeing this impressive work on the big screen. It’s a quiet film but it has a lot to say.
Screenplay: Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond, based on Raymond’s novel The Half-Life.
Principal cast:
John Magaro
Orion Lee
Toby Jones
Scott Shepherd
Ewen Bremmer
Alia Shawkat
Country: USA
Classification: PG
Runtime: 122 mins.
Australian release date: 29 April 2021.
“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship” - William Blake
Kelly Reichardt makes enigmatic films and her latest, First Cow, is no exception. At a superficial level, it’s a deceptively simple story about friendship (another one - see Land) but you just know there is a lot more going on below the surface. Her movies are often set in the isolated north-west of the USA, in states like Oregon and Montana, and deal with the minutiae of human emotion rather than big, earth-shattering events. Probably best known for 2010’s Meek’s Cutoff, her last film to be seen in Australia was Certain Women, in 2016. She also often collaborates with writer Jon Raymond, as she has again here, working from his 2004 novel The Half-Life.
First Cow starts in the modern day, when a woman walking her dog (Alia Shawkat from Sophie Hyde’s Animals) on the banks of an Oregon river finds a shallow grave containing two skeletons. From there, the film travels back to the 1820s where ‘Cookie’ (John Magaro) is a cook working for a group of curmudgeonly fur trappers making their way to a trading port. Out foraging one evening, he comes across King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant on the run from a posse of Russians. Cookie helps him to hide overnight and watches as he disappears the next day but the pair meet again later in the Royal West Pacific Trading Post, a burgeoning settlement awash with beaver trappers’ money. They wind up sharing King-Lu’s rough shack and discuss how they can make some money before moving on. “History hasn't been here yet. It's coming, but we got here early this time. Maybe this time, we can be ready for it. We can take it on our own terms”, reckons King-Lu. When he finds out that Cookie is also a baker, he tells him that a rich local land owner, the Chief Factor (Toby Jones), has a cow on his property, the first in the area. The friends decide to join forces and steal a little milk to make some sweet biscuits to sell at the market but, when their oilcakes are a roaring success with the locals, they have to keep milking the cow and, eventually, attract the attention of the cruel Chief Factor.
There are a number of ways Raymond and Reichardt’s screenplay of First Cow can be appraised. It’s certainly an engaging yarn about the American frontier at a crucial moment in its development and a tale of mateship between two people from totally different backgrounds. On another level, it could be read as an examination and critique of US capitalism and how the ‘haves’ treat the ‘have-nots’ under that system. You might also consider it as a look at the different approaches to the world taken by East and West, in that King-Lu is far more entrepreneurial than Cookie, who’s less willing to take risks to achieve financial success. King-Lu has more of a ‘whatever it takes’ attitude when it comes to seeking his fortune.
The lead actors are utterly convincing as the two men who become firm friends. Magaro and Lee aren’t ‘showy’ in this, which is precisely why they are so believable in their roles. The production design helps, too, and you can almost smell the damp earth, the mud and the rain on their rough-hewn clothes. Another big plus for the film is the cinematography of Reichardt’s long-term collaborator, Christopher Blauvelt, and their choice of shooting First Cow in Academy ratio. The boxy framing gives the film an enclosed, almost suffocating feel, which is augmented by keeping the camera low to the ground and the use of extreme close-ups. It works a treat and adds to the intimacy of the men’s bond. William Tyler’s score is unusual in that it isn’t authentic to the period but its moody design gives depth to the atmospheric sylvan locations.
First Cow has been a great critical success but its roll-out at cinemas was terribly hampered by COVID (it was shot in 2019) and we are lucky in Australia to be seeing this impressive work on the big screen. It’s a quiet film but it has a lot to say.
