Meek’s Cutoff

This stark and poetic Western is set in 1845, during the earliest days of the treacherous Oregon Trail. A wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. The women, led by Emily Tetherow (Michelle Williams), emerge as the film’s moral and emotional anchors, their resilience and intuition contrasting with the men’s faltering authority. Kelly Reichardt’s frequent collaborator Christopher Blauvelt employs quiet cinematography that instrumentalizes the landscape. The stillness of each shot brings to life a sonic resonance, with the horses, wind, and dust building an anticipatory composition along Oregon’s high desert.