Synopsis
Set in 1845, this drama follows a group of settlers as they embark on a punishing journey along the Oregon Trail. When their guide leads them astray, the expedition is forced to contend with the unforgiving conditions of the high plain desert.
Your Movie Library
Cast
- Michelle WilliamsEmily Tetherow
- Bruce GreenwoodStephen Meek
- Will PattonSoloman Tetherow
- Zoe KazanMillie Gately
- Paul DanoThomas Gately
- Shirley HendersonGlory White
- Neal HuffWilliam White
- Tommy NelsonJimmy White
- Rod RondeauxThe Indian
Recommendations
- 100
Boxoffice Magazine
Epic in scope, and featuring a powerful lead performance by Williams, Reichardt does justice to the myth of the wagon train settlers and makes a Western every bit as beautiful and poetic as Terrence Malick's "Days of Heaven," and thankfully a bit more energetic. - 100
Salon
In this quiet, beautiful and terrifying fable about a group of lost pioneers, Reichardt combines epic ambition with a focus on intimate, personal detail. - 100
IndieWire
Reichardt crafts a highly textured narrative that both invokes the mythology of the American frontier and cleverly transcends it. - 100
The A.V. Club
Meticulous and immersive, Meek's Cutoff feels like history in three dimensions. - 90
Variety
Working on a richer and more intricate canvas than she's previously attempted, Kelly Reichardt has pulled off a rare thing with Meek's Cutoff -- a low-budget period Western with a bracing feminist spin. - 90
Movieline
Meek's Cutoff is an ambitious feat of visual storytelling that's alive to both its landscape and the actors who people it. - 80
Village Voice
Cinematic as it is, Meek's Cutoff has an uncanny theatricality. The scenes alternating between windswept emptiness and the dark void could be played on a barren stage. For all its detailed authenticity, this minimalist "Wagon Train" is less naturalistic than existential. - 70
The Hollywood Reporter
A realistic slice of pioneer life that offers a disquieting alternative vision of America's most mythic location.
