Cory Lambert makes his living by way of hunting wolves and bobcats, not helping law enforcement officers catch criminals. But the Wind River reservation is covered in snow at this time of the year and few know how to track someone in the snow than he does. Plus, Cory is close friends with the deceased woman's father, Martin (Gil Birmingham) and he knows some sense of closure to this case would be a great help to Martin and his grieving wife. Thus, he agrees to help Jane find out whoever was responsible for this murder on that cold night. Solving a murder is never easy, but with very little law enforcement out here, both Cory and Jane are well aware that the odds are very much stacked against them on seeing justice get served here.
Wind River is now the third feature-length movie to be penned by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, with the past two years delivering his two previous writing credits, Sicario and Hell Or High Water. Like his past films, Wind River is a crime thriller set in the modern day world that deals with topical issues and even carries over actor Gil Birmingham from Hell Or High Water. Unlike his past two screenplays though, Taylor Sheridan has also decided to make his directorial debut on this project and the guys work behind the camera is decent but not extraordinary. There's some inventiveness on a visual level but most of its shot in a boilerplate manner that doesn't show as much imagination as you might expect from a guy whose written some pretty inventive screenplays in his day.
The script is also weaker than his last two efforts but it's still a fine screenplay all things considered, taking an interesting look at a population of individuals that are too often disregarded as mere stereotypes at best. The way Wind River handles the pain suffered by Martin and his family over the death of his daughter provides some of the most powerful moments of the entire motion picture, as do moments where cory must confront his own painful death-ridden past. By the by, you're wondering if the choice of having Jeremy Renner headline a project so heavily concentrated on a Native American population brings about a white savior element to the project, I can say that it doesn't really for the first half (for me anyway, but I'm also not the person whose ethnicity is affected by their representation in this particular film so take my words with a grain of salt) of the story, with some interesting insights into what it's like to raise a mixed race child coming up in Cory's interactions with his son.
The climax, on the other hand, kind of does take on somewhat of those White Savior overtones as Cory takes on those responsible for the murder that's rocked the Wind River community. Sheridan's script does bungle the ball in more than just that particular storytelling element once the third act rolls around though. An overlong flashback scene depicting whose responsible for the murder abruptly enters Wind River and sucks out all of the tension of the movie since the mystery gets resolved for the viewer before our lead characters get said answers while a climactic showdown centering on Jane recalls, of all things, the 2013 movie Dead Man Down as a previously contemplative drama all of a sudden shifts gears into becoming a high-octane action movie complete with machine guns a-blazing. Very odd choice for this film that does not work in execution.
Luckily, the wonky third act at least concludes with an appropriately somber final scene that contains some wonderfully subdued acting from both Jeremy Renner and Gil Birmingham. Both of these guys are aces throughout the whole film with Renner showing once again that he's much better at headlining darker complex dramas than he is at being a conventional Hollywood leading man in stuff like that fourth Bourne movie while Birmingham is turning out to be a real talent to keep an eye on as this guy shows off his ability to depict realistic depictions of a person in anguish effortlessly. Elizabeth Olsen as Jane also turns in strong work and it's commendable that Sheridan's screenplay bucks convention and refuses to let her character and Cory become a romantic couple. Some more tactful moves like that one in the writing and in the serviceable but not all that exceptional directing could have made Wind River live up to the last two feature films Taylor Sheridan wrote, but at least it's still a solid crime thriller in its own right with some really powerful moments of solemnness.
Wind River is now the third feature-length movie to be penned by screenwriter Taylor Sheridan, with the past two years delivering his two previous writing credits, Sicario and Hell Or High Water. Like his past films, Wind River is a crime thriller set in the modern day world that deals with topical issues and even carries over actor Gil Birmingham from Hell Or High Water. Unlike his past two screenplays though, Taylor Sheridan has also decided to make his directorial debut on this project and the guys work behind the camera is decent but not extraordinary. There's some inventiveness on a visual level but most of its shot in a boilerplate manner that doesn't show as much imagination as you might expect from a guy whose written some pretty inventive screenplays in his day.
The script is also weaker than his last two efforts but it's still a fine screenplay all things considered, taking an interesting look at a population of individuals that are too often disregarded as mere stereotypes at best. The way Wind River handles the pain suffered by Martin and his family over the death of his daughter provides some of the most powerful moments of the entire motion picture, as do moments where cory must confront his own painful death-ridden past. By the by, you're wondering if the choice of having Jeremy Renner headline a project so heavily concentrated on a Native American population brings about a white savior element to the project, I can say that it doesn't really for the first half (for me anyway, but I'm also not the person whose ethnicity is affected by their representation in this particular film so take my words with a grain of salt) of the story, with some interesting insights into what it's like to raise a mixed race child coming up in Cory's interactions with his son.
The climax, on the other hand, kind of does take on somewhat of those White Savior overtones as Cory takes on those responsible for the murder that's rocked the Wind River community. Sheridan's script does bungle the ball in more than just that particular storytelling element once the third act rolls around though. An overlong flashback scene depicting whose responsible for the murder abruptly enters Wind River and sucks out all of the tension of the movie since the mystery gets resolved for the viewer before our lead characters get said answers while a climactic showdown centering on Jane recalls, of all things, the 2013 movie Dead Man Down as a previously contemplative drama all of a sudden shifts gears into becoming a high-octane action movie complete with machine guns a-blazing. Very odd choice for this film that does not work in execution.
Luckily, the wonky third act at least concludes with an appropriately somber final scene that contains some wonderfully subdued acting from both Jeremy Renner and Gil Birmingham. Both of these guys are aces throughout the whole film with Renner showing once again that he's much better at headlining darker complex dramas than he is at being a conventional Hollywood leading man in stuff like that fourth Bourne movie while Birmingham is turning out to be a real talent to keep an eye on as this guy shows off his ability to depict realistic depictions of a person in anguish effortlessly. Elizabeth Olsen as Jane also turns in strong work and it's commendable that Sheridan's screenplay bucks convention and refuses to let her character and Cory become a romantic couple. Some more tactful moves like that one in the writing and in the serviceable but not all that exceptional directing could have made Wind River live up to the last two feature films Taylor Sheridan wrote, but at least it's still a solid crime thriller in its own right with some really powerful moments of solemnness.
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