Everyday People Search For Escape In River of Grass

Cozy (Lisa Donaldson) is living an unfulfilling life. It's not necessarily a bad life, taking care of her kids in a suburban Florida neighborhood, doing her yoga and taking care of the house, but it is a life that leaves her constantly wanting more. Acting on those urges to expand her horizons, she decides to make an impromptu trip to a local bar where she meets up with Lee (Larry Fessenden). The two of them drink, chat and then go to a backyard pool that Lee's friend owns. While clowning around with Lee's gun, the duo hear a figure moving in the dark and startled Cozy fires off the weapon. Mistakenly thinking they killed somebody (the bullet didn't hit anybody), Cozy and Lee proceed to go on the lam, leaving nary even a note behind for their loved ones to explain what's happened to them.

Michelle Williams Walks A Financial Tightrope In Wendy and Lucy

MASSIVE SPOILER ALERT

Wendy Carrol (Michelle Williams) lives a solitary life on the road. Accompanied only by her dog Lucy, Wendy is on her way to possible job opportunities in Alaska when she gets stuck somewhere in Oregon due to car troubles. Now she has to figure out how to get her car repaired with what little money she has in a region unfamiliar to her. It's a simple story, but one that serves as a great example of how character motivation, not scale, are the best informers for how emotionally intense a movie can be. Wendy's problems are intimate in size but they're harrowing to experience because of how writers Jon Raymond and Kelly Reichardt (the latter also directing) make it abundantly clear what how precarious Wendy's daily life with minimal money and no guaranteed shelter is.

Meek's Cutoff Is A Western Deconstruction Like No Other

As Meek's Cutoff opens, director Kelly Reichardt makes it apparent this movie will be adhering to a  transcendentalism style of filmmaking. Some of the core tenants of this filmmaking style, namely prolonged extended takes concentrated on minimal activity, turn out to be a perfect way to capture the experiences of the lead characters of Meek's Cutoff as they gradually make their way across the American frontier to an unspecified locale that's supposed to provide them all with prosperous riches. This is a journey that's arduous and slow with little in the way of actual progress to speak of so it's fitting that Reichardt opts to capture this voyage in a filming style that places an emphasis on slower pacing and minimalism.