John Magaro in North Miami native Kelly Reichardt's "First Cow," Photo Courtesy A24.
He whispers small talk into her ear. Is he just making conversation during this furtive nighttime visit? No, his nerves need calming down, seeing as he's never done this kind of intimate maneuver before. The darkness that surrounds them, punctuated by the wind blowing through tree leaves, seems oblivious to the pair, as his small talk gives way to matters of more substance. Words of sympathy and reassurance escape his lips as he sits in a stool and finishes the task at hand.
And that's how Cookie milked his first cow.
The scene in question happens roughly halfway through “First Cow,” director Kelly Reichardt's ravishing and soulful tale of unlikely bonds and all-American capitalism, set in the unspoiled landscapes of the Oregon Territory during the 1820s. This leisurely stroll of a motion picture, which recently became available to watch on demand, rang my cowbell like no other film I've seen to date in this tumultuous, unpredictable movie year.
So how does Cookie (“The Umbrella Academy's” John Magaro), a soft-spoken and mild-mannered new arrival to the Pacific Northwest, end up taking something that doesn't belong to him? That's a story that Reichardt, a North Miami native, is in no hurry to tell. And yet the pastoral rhythms in this screen adaptation of “The Half Life,” a novel by frequent collaborator Jonathan Raymond, never feels poky or twee. The deeper you venture inside this richly textured frontier tale, the more complete and all-encompassing the recreation of its setting feels.
A brief present-day prologue shows a woman and a dog (a callback to Reichardt's “Wendy and Lucy”) literally unearthing a clue about the central characters. Then we go back in time a whole century to meet Cookie, aka Otis Figowitz, the ugly duckling in a band of fur trappers. His rough-hewn companions make no secret of their disdain for him, finding fault with his meager scavenging haul. The putdown is a bitter emasculation, a declaration that this meek Easterner, whom they tolerate because he can cook, is not man enough.
How a gentle soul like Cookie can survive in this hostile environment is something that, as a viewer, gnaws at the back of the mind, especially after he first crosses paths with a Chinese immigrant who's clearly on the run from some people. The lanky stranger is also not wearing any clothes. Cookie gives King-Lu (Orion Lee) a blanket to wrap himself in and shelter inside his tent.
King-Lu is gone in the morning, but the innate goodness of the benevolent chef's gesture reverberates like a ripple in a pond. The two men reconnect by chance in the bar of a settlement that, much like the country at the time, is a work in progress, in a constant state of development. They leave the watering hole together, but not before Cookie overhears a patron talking about the imminent arrival of the titular animal, the property of a rich Englishman (Toby Jones) that would, indeed, become the first of her kind at the settlement.
Orion Lee, John Magaro, Photo Courtesy A24.
The wheels start whirring inside King-Lu's head once he learns Cookie can not only bake but do it well. To reveal more from here on in would rob you of discovering the film's delicate appeal. Suffice it to say it involves baked goods, a money-making scheme and a display of people's inability to wait their turn in line.
“First Cow” unfolds in a way that never feels scripted, thanks to the spare eloquence in Reichardt and Raymond's screenplay, the painterly lushness of cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt's square compositions, the attention to detail in Anthony Gasparro's meticulous production design, and the acoustic spunk in composer William Tyler's score.
John Magaro, Photo Courtesy A24.
The film is also a showcase of Reichardt's strengths: her knack for building authentic, fully realized worlds we can lose ourselves in, her ability to create layered, complex characters that you're certain have lives that continue once the cameras stop rolling. This feels like her more accessible effort, in part because it eschews a brittleness that conspired to keep viewers emotionally detached in some of her past work. But even as her films can be a little too granola, she's always been a vibrant storyteller, and in “First Cow,” she brings together the tenderness of “Wendy and Lucy,” a wrenching character study, with the pioneering spirit of her bleak Western “Meek's Cutoff,” both of which starred Michelle Williams.
It's a staggering achievement, but Reichardt takes a cue from her reticent and unassuming leading man, brandishing his modesty like a badge of honor. It could have just settled for being a cautionary tale about the cost of the American dream, but it's something far more fulfilling. At its core, it's a paean to friendship: how unexpectedly it can blossom, how resilient it can become in the face of adversity. It's acts of kindness, selflessly exchanged, a sharing of long-term aspirations, made all the more poignant by the precariousness of the central duo's shifting fortunes.
Toby Jones, Photo Courtesy A24.
I saw “First Cow” back in March, just before Florida went into lockdown mode and right after it opened in bigger markets for a brief theatrical run that was cut short due to the coronavirus pandemic. It's the most cherished gift this cinephile could have received, because it gave me something to hold onto after theaters closed. This is the point where I admit one of the reasons why it took me so long to put pen to paper is a fear I wouldn't be able to do it justice. The story of Cookie and King-Lu reminds us just how good movies can be, how they're able to lift us up when it seems like nothing can. I doubt I'll see a lovelier film in 2020.
“First Cow” had its world premiere at last year's Telluride Film Festival and also screened at the Toronto and Berlin film festivals. Earlier this week, it became the first title to be sent as a DVD screener to Oscar voters. Its distributor, A24, had planned a late-year theatrical rollout following its brief limited run in March, but opted for a video on demand release this week after making it available for digital.
