First Cow: Movie Review

Cast: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, a Cow

Director: Kelly Reichardt

More a frontier tale with a side of ambling pace than anything rushed, director Kelly Reichardt's latest will require an adjustment of attitude from viewers.

The glacial pace of the storytelling here isn't a detriment to what occurs, more a complement to the story being told - and the effects of which are all the more devastating for it.

An apparent allegory into American capitalism, First Cow focuses its attentions around the discovery of two corpses in seemingly barren ground in modern way US. Immediately content to spring an air of mystery on its viewers, First Cow then loops back to the tale of John Magaro's Cookie Figowitz, a seemingly discordant jump back into 1820s America, where civilisation is brewing, however is anything but cooked.

As part of a prospecting group heading west, Figowitz is a target for the gang's hunger. But happening upon King Lu (Orion Lee) in the woods while foraging the pair form a bond and splinter off from the main group. Their world is shaken when a cow arrives in their world, and Cookie begins to flex his culinary muscles, garnering the attention of Toby Jones' Chief Factor...

It's no lie to say that First Cow ambles toward its destination.

It begins with a slow tracking shot of a container ship passing from the left of the screen to the right, indicating Reichardt's desire to go nowhere fast, but to savour every moment of the ride.

And as such, in its sparsity of storytelling and its minimalism of exhibition, First Cow is a triumph on that front.

Settling into the rhythms and the 4x3 ratio reaps rewards, as the "just one more" mentality creeps insidiously into Cookie and King's relationship, threatening to tear all asunder with devastating effect.

It may not be to everyone's tastes, but First Cow delivers a thoughtful compelling rumination on greed and desire, and also on the bonds of friendship. Its focus may be the 1820s, but its scope is timely and universal.