While Cutoff is a western, absolutely, it’s not what one thinks of when considering the genre.  There aren’t cowboys.  There’s only one Indian.  There’s no shoot outs, corrals, or violence.  There are only three families, with their three covered wagons, heading across the plain in hopes of reaching Oregon.  But they’re lost.

In a similar fashion to Gus van Sant’s Gerry, we get to watch these pioneers as their spirits sink lower and lower while they walk around in beautiful, but extremely harsh environments.  But Reichardt used even less music than van Sant did.  The film is nearly silent besides the dialog and the sound of cows pulling wagons.  One of the most striking decisions was to film the movie in 1.33 aspect ratio.  It seems this was intended to encourage a documentary-type feel (a theory supported by the fact the story is based on a true story, on journals kept by the women at the time).  I was doubtful about its usefulness, but Reichardt’s ability to compose shot after beautiful shot in this framing won me over quickly.  Her camera spies on these pioneers from different distances.  Sometimes, at the height of the current on screen drama, we only get to see the action from a great ways off, as if the audience is meant to be following them in a literal sort of way.

Williams is the anchor of the outstanding cast.  Her performance is gritty and stalwart.  She easily gives Hailee Steinfeld a run for her money.  Though the dialog for all the actors is kept at a minimum, usually background noise to some other focus the camera is maintaining, there’s no need for, as these actors can move mountains without saying anything.  Seeing Paul Dano in an environment so similar to that of There Will Be Blood almost makes it feel like he’s playing the same character, and has just wandered into a new story.

Like Wendy and Lucy, Reichardt seems to be exploring more where Americans are finding themselves in their own country.  These hungry pioneers are put at crossroads, meant to sympathize, empathize, and more highlighted in the film itself, determine the threat of a dark skinned Indian who doesn’t speak their language.  The allegories are there if you want to look that deeply.  And you should want to look that deeply.    As Sophia Coppola surprised everyone with the multi-layered Somewhere that is surely a marked change in the maturity of her work, Kelly Reichardt has done that as well.  She has created a thoughtful, and intimate narrative that should demand as much as attention as Wendy and Lucy.

4 out of 4 stars

The two names attached to the film that required a viewing are, of course, Spike Jonze (Adaptation, Being John Malkovich) and Dave Eggers (Away We Go, You Shall Know Our Velocity).  It turns out that I put this blind faith in the right hands.  Jonze had turned the beloved children’s book by Maurice Sendak and made it into an ethereal, visceral cinematic experience.

Max (Max Records) is an imaginative, rambunctious boy who’s world is shifting at it’s very foundation when his parents get divorced and his mom (Catherine Keener) starts dating someone again (Mark Ruffalo).  Fighting to find his place he acts out and extremely sensitive, like most little boys would be.  One night, after a squabble with his mom, Max runs away, finds a small boat, which he boards and rides until he gets to the place where the wild things are.

Once he gets there, he meets a motley group of friends: Carol (James Gandolfini), Alexander (Paul Dano), Judith (Catherine O’Hara), Ira (Forest Whitaker), KW (Lauren Ambrose), and a few others.  Like Max, the group finds themselves in a state of change.  The group dynamics are shifting, and no one is really happy about it.  Before the eat Max, he convinces them that he’s a king and can solve all their problems.  Desperate for a leader to fix them, they all play along.

The feel of the film is so perfectly and beautifully lachrymose, it’s impossible not to get sucked into Max’s imagination.  The script (which Eggers had a monumental task of taking the short children’s story to a feature-length film) wasn’t pretentious or obtrusive, it was charmingly hilarious and, when it needed to be, poignant and touching.  Records is a fantastic actor.  I can’t imagine any other child actor working today that could have outdone him in this performance.  While all the wild things were great, Lauren Ambrose really managed to steal the show with her voice acting.

Cinematographer Lance Acord (Marie Antoinette, Lost in Translation) shows off his tremendous talent of framing shots and locations to create a truly unique and affecting world that perfectly contrasts all the emotions Max and his friends could possibly be struggling with.  What everyone is saying is true: it’s darker than the book, and may not be perfect for small children, but this is a masterpiece of film.

4 out of 4 stars

Paul Dano plays Brian, a 28-year-old struggling with his identity.  Get this: he works in a highend Swedish mattress store.  Quirky!  He falls for Happy (Zooey DesChanel), another mid-twenties kid who doesn’t know what she’s trying to get out of life.  Her dad is insane (played by John Goodman), and he enables her because (it seems), her mother (played by Kim Basinger) is a rich, but deadbeat drug addict.  Things get complicated when Brian is finally approved to adopt a baby from China, and throughout the film, there’s a strange hobo that follows him around, shooting him in the ankle and beating him up with lead pipes… So quirky.

DesChanel is hilarious, and this pigeonhole seems to fit her very well.  Dano can’t seem to get his face to do anything but look wounded and sad.  Goodman’s role is restricted to being a gigantic DB and doing quirky things like refusing to sit in cars, but instead, lays on a mattress in the back of his station wagon while others drive him around. All of the actors have proven themselves in earlier roles, so I’m guessing it’s the boring script by director Asleton and Adam Nagata that keeps any of the characters from being interesting or three dimensional.  Despite being a comedy, there were less than three laugh-out-loud moments.  A film this stagnant needs some resolution, but Gigantic refuses to give you any, so you’ll leave the theater completely ambivolent to what you just watched.  It’s better than, say, Obsessed, but still, Gigantic doesn’t have much to offer.

1.5 out of 4 stars

Released in 2005, The King was written and directed by James Marsh.  Previous to this film, Marsh had directed a few films, but nothing of note.  He currently has a documentary doing the art house theater tour called Man on Wire about the epic tight-rope walk of Philippe Petit’s between the World Trade Center towers.

This is the only writing credit to Marsh’s name according to imdb.com.  If that information is, in fact, correct, it’s a shame we aren’t hearing more from him.  The King is really a great drama.

The film follows Elvis (Gael García Bernal) as he’s released from the Navy after three years of service.  With a dead mother, and no real family to speak of, he heads off to find his white father (you see, Elvis was the result of unprotected sex that was paid for).  When he finds his father David (William Hurt), he’s quickly sent away by the now pastor.  The pastor has a new family, two kids (played by Paul Dano, and Pell James), he’s found Jesus, and has a wide following as a non-denominational preacher.  He doesn’t explain to his family who exactly Elvis is, but explains that they shouldn’t ever speak to him.  Rebuked, Elvis starts dating his daughter Malerie, and all the trouble begins.

The direction of this film is terrific.  Those with ADD might have trouble with the time Marsh takes to set up his story, but those who are willing to give The King the chance it deserves will be greatly rewarded at the end.  Bernal leads the cast with this disturbing portrayal of such a confused young man.  And the film serves as a reminder of how the past can come back to haunt you, even if you found religion.

3 out of 4 stars

Rottentomatoes: 54% – Cream of the Crop: 54%