Movie Reviews: Wind River, Jackals

Wind River
directed by Taylor Sheridan

Just like the movie Sunlight Jr., reviewed here, Wind River is a film that shows that entertainment and socially relevant education can mix well together. Films don't have to be painfully and obviously didactic to get their message across. And films can also be thrilling without being stupid. When you make a film that is often about the impact of structural racism, some people will immediately become defensive. They will point out that as far as THEY are concerned they're innocent of malicious intent or actions. Then the film never gets a chance to entertain because some audience members have already shut their minds to the director's or writer's message. On the other hand, some films about racism put all the blame on individual bigots who are walking stereotypes of racialized enmity. Although people like this do exist, they are not quite as numerous as they used to be. But their filmic depiction allows the mainstream audience to more easily disassociate and feel better about themselves, even if they engage in the same behavior. Wind River walks the line between these two poles. Its villains are deliciously bad but are still recognizably human in their evil. 

And even the good guys can still suffer from a racialized blindness. This is highlighted in a very powerful scene between a white female FBI agent and the father of a murdered Native American girl. The white woman is arrogant and naive enough to question the parents' grief. The next scene makes it clear that this was a mistake based on racial assumptions by the FBI agent, who is a good guy. Her good intentions don't prevent her from saying the wrong thing.

And speaking of the FBI agent I liked that Wind River didn't make her a superheroine. She is good at some things and bad at others. This movie is not preachy, but it is powerful. This film re-unites Avengers stars Jeremy Renner and Elizabeth Olsen. I hadn't seen Olsen in a dramatic meaty role before so her work here was new to me. Impressive. 

It's a horrible thing to lose your culture or be alienated from your culture. In different ways that is what happened to Native Americans and Black Americans.The legacy of defeat and dispossession leaves a mark. I think that self-loathing can be activated in different ways because of that. Wind River links the two communities through the pain of memory. It also make this linkage explicit by having one of the bad guys refer to the Native Americans as "prairie n******s". You don't just get over slavery or genocide. And when you're without hope it's very easy to engage in self-destructive activities. That would seem to be the case for many of the people in both communities.

Cory Lambert (Renner) is a taciturn US Fish and Wildlife agent who works on the Wind River Indian (Arapaho) Reservation in Wyoming. In a less politically correct time people might say that Renner has gone native. He identifies with the Arapaho, calling them his people. His ex-wife is Arapaho. And his son, though 1/2 Arapaho, is being raised to identify as Arapaho. Renner is a hunter and tracker. One of his primary jobs is to manage the predator population (wolves, coyotes, mountain lions) and prevent them from harming cattle. This is not a pretty job. While on his rounds Cory finds the frozen corpse of an Arapaho woman. It's not good. This woman, Natalie (Kelsey Chow) has also been raped. And she is the daughter of Cory's good friend Martin (Gil Birmingham).  She was the friend of Cory's late daughter. Cory's daughter was similarly murdered three years ago, something that contributed to his marital breakup. It's Federal land so the FBI has jurisdiction over felony crimes. But because it's only a dead Arapaho woman the FBI doesn't send a senior agent, just the closest one. Agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) gets lost trying to get to the reservation. She has no experience working murder cases. As she explains to the skeptical/sarcastic tribal police chief Ben (Graham Greene) she's the best that the Feds will provide. She may be inexperienced and woefully unprepared for the bitter Wyoming winter, but she cares. 

It's good that Jane cares because the medical examiner confirms Cory's previously revealed theory--Natalie died not from the rape or beating but from from pulmonary hemorrhage caused by breathing sub-zero air. The medical examiner won't say it's a homicide. And without that ruling Jane can't get more FBI resources. But as Jane and Cory both know, a woman doesn't run barefoot for miles at night unless there was something even more horrible behind her. Jane decides not to tell the FBI about the medical examiner's finding. Someone out there has to pay. Ben (who knows the people) and Cory (who knows the land) will help Jane to track down the people who raped and killed Natalie. They learn that Natalie had a boyfriend, a non-Arapaho named Matt (Jon Bernthal) who worked on the oil drilling site. And the hunt begins. If Cory is nothing else, he's a hunter and a tracker. He listens to the land. The true star of this movie is the harsh unforgiving wintry Wyoming landscape. The director and cinematographer bring this out in so many different shots, including but not limited to blinding snowstorms, the sudden death of a coyote, the snow covered rocks of a mountain , or the brief cozy reprieve of a warm cabin. 

I liked that the film didn't do the obvious with Renner's and Olsen's characters. Cory is rather obviously processing some heavy grief. He's not healthy yet. And this is even more true for Martin. Martin gets a lot of the film's best lines. I wouldn't say this is an ensemble piece because it isn't. But this isn't Dances With Wolves or Avatar either.  As one Arapaho puts it, "Why does 'help' from you people always start with insults? " Once again I was put in mind of Louis C.K.'s joke/observation about the dangers that women face when they are intimate with men, given the size and aggression differentials. It is too often a leap of faith. This is a moody film but one that has its optimistic points. People who believe in individual striving or in communal struggle will find things in this film to support their pov. You could also view this movie as an extended meditation on loss. How do people or communities deal with this? But ultimately this film is a Western, complete with a high noon showdown. This is still in theaters. Check it out.
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Jackals
directed by Kevin Greutert

This film was a disappointment. The siege or home invasion movie is a classic theme in horror films. People in such situations do silly or stupid things that both amuse and well horrify us. That's understandable. If you don't expect to be fighting for your life then unless you happen to be a member of the combat branches of the armed forces, a mercenary or some other person who deals out death and destruction on a regular basis then you're likely going to make some mistakes. Or maybe you're the budding psychopath in your group of family and friends. Once threatened your inner beast emerges and causes so much carnage that at the end all your loved ones can say is that they're glad you're on their side. That's also a pretty regular theme in horror/thriller movies. The quiet (wo)man gets his or her switch flipped and opens up hell on the bad guys. But what sort of people do something incredibly dangerous and then sit around waiting for bad things to happen without even bothering to prepare themselves? The people in this movie, that's who.

We see in the movie intro that a Satanic cult gets members to murder their own families as proof of their dedication to this cult. Nice. Well a cult deprogrammer named Jimmy Levine (Stephen Dorff) has worked with a CEO named Andrew Powell (Johnathan Schaech) to kidnap Andrew's son Justin (Ben Sullivan) from the cult and bring him to the family super secret log cabin where the rest of the family , Mother (Deborah Kara Unger), brother (Nick Roux) and fiancee (Chelsea Ricketts) will try to talk some sense into Justin. There are a number of problems that were obvious to me just 15 minutes into the movie. Jimmy Levine is working alone. Why would he be working alone? It's not exactly cheap to hire cult deprogrammers. And Jimmy isn't really a physically imposing guy. So why wouldn't Jimmy have a whole crew of muscle with him? Failing that, it seems like he should have had at least two or three men as large as refrigerators tagging along. Instead he only takes Andrew with him when he kidnaps Justin. 

Excuse me but isn't allowing the customer, who is presumably not licensed to do this sort of work, to help you on your job just opening yourself up to all sorts of liability? And again, not that I'm like a cult deprogramming expert or anything but given how ugly this cult is and how insane Justin is, why would you even want his family to see him at this point. And finally, and most relevant to this story, why would you take Justin to a place that he knew about and most definitely told his cult buddies about? That's just stupid. It's almost as stupid as using your money to hire cult deprogrammers and buy vacation cabins but apparently be against buying a few firearms. Maybe it's just Michigan but most of the people I know who own cabins up North also have all sorts of rifles, pistols and shotguns on site. Anyone trying to storm their private property is going to get got. But in this movie the good guys are unarmed, surprised and unprepared for the attack by the cultists. And they can't even call for help. 

The movie tries to bring to mind the classic Straw Dogs, but it didn't work. And Justin is such a completely vile person that I couldn't even understand why his parents wanted him back. The film is at least twenty minutes too long on top of everything else. The actors give it the old college try but poor writing and bad lighting really make this a film you're better off skipping. Watch You're Next, The Strangers, or maybe even Funny Games if you want to see the home invasion motif done right.
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