Wind River
Wind Riveris a decent, if flawed, directorial effort from Sheridan that showcases his strength as an actors' director, more than as a writer.
Corey Lambert ( Jeremy Renner ) is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service agent - and divorced parent - who makes his living hunting / kill marauder that prey on the animate being and farmland of the Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming . One twenty-four hour period , while scoping out the wild in search of a " social lion " that has been feeding on local Bos taurus , Corey slip up upon the frozen , bloodied and animalize corpse of Natalie Hanson ( Kelsey Chow ) , an eighteen - yr old woman from the qualification - and someone who , along with her family and father Martin ( Gil Birmingham ) , is far from a unknown to Corey .
Then U.S. government send out Jane Banner ( Elizabeth Olsen ) , a younger and less experient FBI agent who is typically based in Las Vegas , to oversee the subsequent investigation of Natalie ’s death , in cooperation with the Reservation ’s oral sex of law , Ben ( Graham Greene ) . However , it quickly becomes plain to Jane that she ’s out of her ingredient in the vast , frozen wilderness that is Wind River and will need all the help she can get from Corey , include his sharp tracking skills and thorough knowledge of the landscape painting , in her efforts to find out who was responsible for Natalie ’s hideous death .
After see the war against drug - pertain violence along the U.S./Mexico margin inSicarioand weaving a yarn about bank - robbing brothers in economically - stricken West Texas inHell or High Water , actor - turned screenwriter Taylor Sheridan explores a murder closed book on a Wyoming aboriginal American booking with his script forWind River . send from his own screenplay this time around , Sheridan’sWind Riverserves as a thematic finale to his trilogy of neo - western flavored stories about the perfidy of life in the newfangled American frontiers , as well as a chance to show off what he has learned from his previous collaborations with such lauded director as Denis Villeneuve and David Mackenzie . nose Riveris a decent , if blemished , directorial travail from Sheridan that showcases his potency as an actors ' film director , more than as a writer .
like to his premature screenplays , Sheridan’sWind Riverscript plays out as a pulpy musical style flick with more on its mind than amusement - in this case , concerns about the poor quality of life on mod aboriginal American reservations , the gamey - rate of disappearance and intimate assault against aboriginal American women , and how the U.S. government is complicit in both of those things . Sheridan keeps the fundamental murder investigation plot of land screw thread here simple and light , leaving himself way to tissue in more substantive moments of character ontogenesis and emotional drama . Although the murder closed book storyline is engaging and apt in its ultimate reveal of whodunnit , the yield arrives a bittoosuddenly and the actual closed book is similarly straight to a fault ( as telegraph by some on - the - nose dialogue).Wind Riverstruggles to subvert the convention of its genre , in this esteem .
As a whole , Wind Riverhas many of the same strengths and weakness as Sheridan ’s previous body of work . LikeSicarioandHell or High Water , Wind Riverpaints its Wyoming scene ( which was , in realism , primarily filmed in Utah ) as being a broken and destitute populace that is the final result of larger , systematic problems in the U.S. However , unlikeHell or High Waterin particular proposition , Wind Riverhas less success providing meaningful societal commentary through its B - movie storytelling and rather , winds up reference forward-looking - day social / political concerns without having as much to say about them . Part of the job with that lie in the frame of the story , which present the aboriginal American characters as victims who are strong and subject , but are mostly robbed of their authority and leave to watch from the sides as the movie ’s white virile protagonist ( and to a less stage , white distaff protagonist ) save the mean solar day .
WhileWind River ’s steer come off as archetypical to the point of being unimaginative for this intellect , they gain some depth thanks to the actors bring in them to biography . Sheridan ’s background as an actor served him well here , approximate by the strong performances he gets from Jeremy Renner as Corey Lambert - a modern - day gunslinger , pure with a tortured backstory - and Renner ’s fellow Marvel Cinematic Universe actor Elizabeth Olsen as Jane Banner , the ideal and determined but inexperient federal agent in this crime fib . Jane is a more alive player here than Emily Blunt ’s FBI agent was inSicario , but likewise ends up being sideline more than necessary , for the determination of the storey being tell . Renner and Olsen ’s mismatched partner do enjoy a gracious interpersonal chemistry with Graham Greene as Ben , the reservation ’s practical and charismatic head of police force ( who has a fitting sense of gallows humor ) , as well asHell or High Water ’s Gil Birmingham as Natalie ’s father , Martin Hanson .
Sheridan ’s directorial methods here bring to mind MacKenzie ’s style more than Villeneuve ’s , in terms of his previous collaborators . Wind Rivernicely captures the chill temperature and isolated feeling of its setting through the cinematography by Ben Richardson ( Beasts of the Southern Wild ) , but lacks the visual verse and rich , painterly imagery launch in bothSicarioandHell or High Water . Sequencing is another issue here too , as the handful of activity scenes and suspense - driven situations feature here are serviceable , yet otherwise unmemorable and fairly savorless in terms of their execution . Where s Sheridan is pertinent at handling grisly and disturb subject field matter as a film writer , his attempts to be naked and granulose with his focus are more intemperate - handed ( admit , his manipulation of another haunt rustic score by Nick Cave and Warren Ellis ) . On the whole , Sheridan proves himself to be a competent director onWind River- just one with much room for improvement .
Despite having the same shortcomings asSicarioandHell or High Waterand then some , Wind Riveris a worthy thematic finish to Sheridan ’s trifecta of account about crime and the law , fix against the background of three different modern - day combining weight to the Old West . The film likewise has much more dramatic massiveness and more to say about the province of the world than your average B - movie does , thanks to its potent performances and politically - charged storyline . Wind Riverisn’t a must - see for cinemaphiles the way that Sheridan ’s late scripted efforts were ( and its award season prospects are more confutative for it ) , but it ’s certainly worth checking out for those filmgoers who relish the doer / writer / director ’s previous crime - thrillers .
TRAILER
Wind Riveris now playing in U.S. theater across the country . It is 110 minutes long and is Rated universal gas constant for potent violence , a rape , disturbing paradigm , and language .
Cory Lambert , a wildlife tracker , discovers the body of a young woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation . FBI agent Jane Banner get to investigate , but her inexperience in the harsh surround leads her to enlist Cory ’s help . As they delve deeply into the type , they uncover dark secret and face the brutal realities of spirit on the mental reservation .
Cory Lambert, a wildlife tracker, discovers the body of a young woman on the Wind River Indian Reservation. FBI agent Jane Banner arrives to investigate, but her inexperience in the harsh environment leads her to enlist Cory’s help. As they delve deeper into the case, they uncover dark secrets and face the brutal realities of life on the reservation.
