Sundance 2017 – Wind River

Wind River is as cold as its setting.  Taking place in the frigid mountains of Vermont, where it is negative degrees in spring time, this is a place where everything hurts and blood stains the angel white snow.

Writer/director Taylor Sheridan, the writer behind such films as Sicario (2015) and Hell or High Water (2016), completes his, what has now been called, The New American Frontier Trilogy, with the same intensity and style as the the two films I just named.  What makes Wind River even more impressive is that it is Sheridan’s directorial debut.

When a woman is found dead in the forrest, an F.B.I. agent (Elizabeth Olsen) teams with the town’s veteran game tracker (Jeremy Renner) to find the cause of her death.

Being a big fan of Sheridan’s last two efforts (both films landed in the Honorable Mention part of my Best of the Year list in their respective years), I am really liking his writing style and now his direction style.  Sheridan puts us in parts of America that aren’t really shown in movies or on the news.  I mean, how much do we know about the mountains of Vermont and Native American reservations?  Sheridan shows us just a glimpse of the frozen tundra these people live in and how they survive and go about their business.  Putting a mystery in this setting is unnerving.  You watch this movie on the edge, knowing that something at any time, whether it is a mountain lion that’s killing local animals or someone involved with the dead girl, can go off and do something to our main characters.  Sheridan knows how to build tension as good as anyone, leading to a great watch and an epic climax that will have your jaw on the floor.

Jeremy Renner is sensational in this film.  He is the man of this town.  Cops go to him for help because he knows the land like the back of his hand and is thinking three steps ahead of everybody.  He is calm, cool, and badass, reminiscent of a young Clint Eastwood in his demeanor and attitude towards life, death, and the town.  Renner also shows a vulnerable side, as he has faced tragedy in his past that acts as a spark of motivation to see this case through.  I can see Renner getting some awards contention come Oscar time.  Elizabeth Olsen gives one of her strongest performances as the lead F.B.I. agent in charge of the case.  She starts off the case trying to do everything by the book, until she succumbs to the rules of reservation.  Olsen has been on a continuous rise for over five years now, and this could be a film that places her with the A-listers.

With its stellar script, endless tension, shocking climax, and great performances, Wind River is my early pick for the best film of the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and will be a film you need to keep an eye out for later in the year.

MY RATING – 4/4

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