Director: Taylor Sheridan
Writer: Taylor Sheridan (Screenplay)
Starring: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Greene, Gil Birmingham, Kelsey Asbille
Plot: An FBI agent teams with a town’s veteran game tracker to investigate a murder that occurred on a Native American reservation.
There may be spoilers the rest of the review
Verdict: Contender for Film of the Year
Story: Wind River starts as we meet Cory Lambert (Renner) a hunter hired to take out predators in the Wyoming vast landscapes, his latest job is to search for lions hunting living stock but his tracks for these predators leads him to a gruesome discovery of Natalie’s (Asbille) frozen body. Cory brings in Native American Sheriff Ben (Greene) who brings in FBI agent Jane Banner (Olsen) to help with the investigation.
The three work together as Cory’s own experience of losing a daughter helps him connect with victims family, his ability to track predators and knowing what it is like to be an outsider to the Native American community helps the new outside Jane who doesn’t get the best help from the locals but together they will look to get to the bottom of this horrific crime.
Thoughts on Wind River
Characters – Cory is a hunter for hire to eliminate predators in the open land, he is the best tracker in the area but is also haunted by the death of his own teenage daughter, when he discovers one of her old friends body he must work with FBI agent Jane to discover the truth while being the only one that connect with the victim’s family. FBI Agent Jane Banner is the nearest agent to the crime, she isn’t prepared for what she discovers in the environment but is determined to find out the truth even if the locals don’t want to help along the way.
Performance – Jeremy Renner gives his best performance of his career to date here where you are just wanting to see more from his character because he is that interesting. Elizabeth Olsen is great here too showing how she can do the smaller films with ease.
Story – The story is following a crime that needs to be solved where we see Native American community not being as accepting to outsiders making solving the crime more difficult. The story shows how bleak the world these characters live in and the unfolding of the truth is engaging pulling us into want to learn the truth. This is a slow burning story but you just want to keep watching each and every scene.
Crime/Mystery – The crime side of the story is investigating of the body being found, it could be murder but the cause of death isn’t murder, this also adds to the mystery of the film as we are left to see how everything unfolds.
Settings – The settings are fantastic viewing with the mountain range looking breath taking but also show the distant world between the Native American people and the modern world.
Scene of the Movie – The truth
That Moment That Annoyed Me – This is hard to find something I didn’t like.
Tagline – Nothing is harder to track than the truth
Final Thoughts – This is an easy contender for film of the year even could been an early pick for Best Picture, it has the best acting performance of the year to date and is a must watch for the crime thriller fans.
Overall: Brilliant film and contender for film of the year.
Rating
