Wind River

Plot: Wind River is a who-dun-it on an Arapahoe reservation, where a barefoot young woman Natalie (Kelsy Asbille) is found frozen to death by Fish and Wildlife Service Officer Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner). Murders on the reservations are federal crimes, and FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) shows up to investigate. Jane is a city girl who grew up in Fort Lauderdale. Cory shows Jane around because his daughter was also found frozen to death. The trail leads to a drilling camp populated by 2017's most depraved cinema characters.[imdb]    [photos]

Review: Wind River is a detective story overlaid with commentary on Native American life. It is a deluxe version of a Longmire episode, which also solves crimes on a Wyoming reservation. Jeremy Renner is a great actor, and he makes the movie worthwhile. Elizabeth Olsen's character, Jane, starts out comic -- ditzy, hopelessly unprepared arriving on the wintery scene without gloves, and later she enacts familiar girl-in-man's-world themes, but happily in the third act she delivers some good lines and good acting. By the end of the movie, we see and feel the depth crime through these performances, and that is the best part.

The movie has a slow pace presumably to suit wintery geography and dignify the Native American themes. Detective movie fans might not like that. 

Cast: .Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Graham Green

Written and directed by: Taylor Sheridan (Taylor is a male; which is relevant because of the feminist themes of the movie.) Taylor also wrote Sicario which I loved, and Hell or High Water which was decent. 

The Music: No music until the very end, and then just a few orchestral instruments

The Visuals: Some great pictures of the mountains

Rating: 3.0 stars: Great performances. A story that stays with you. Now that I have spent time with it, I like it better. It contends for 3.5 stars. 

[SPOILER] More: Movies need bad guys, sure, but these guys in the drilling camp are some of the most evil people. This tiny camp had a small army of security guys who were rapists, and had no issue with shooting a half dozen cops.

It is strange how movie script writers set these terrible crimes in peaceful places like the Wyoming mountains.

Even More: Wind River closes with a statistic about missing native American women. I didn't know this was an issue. More here.

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