Best known for his screenwriting, Taylor Sheridan (Hell or High Water, Sicario) finally writes a film for his own direction.  Wind River is a gritty crime mystery revolving around a subject that is overlooked in modern cinema.  Native American culture has not been portrayed a lot in mainstream American cinema, even though there is a large amount of subject matter for the big screen.  Sheridan's full filmography shows his interest in other cultures and diversity.  Wind River takes an idea and creates a story around the idea.  The film is not a shallow image of drama and mystery, but a spiritual and in-depth character study.

The character development slows the movie down, but is wholly necessary to build the story.  Jeremy Renner (Arrival, The Avengers, The Bourne Legacy) and Elizabeth Olsen (Avengers: Age of Ultron, Godzilla) are at the forefront of the mystery, but other actors contribute great performances as well.  Graham Greene (The Green Mile, Die Hard with a Vengeance), Gil Birmingham (Hell or High Water, Rango), and Kelsey Asbille (The Amazing Spider-Man) bring important secondary characters to life, helping to create a diverse screen for Sheridan.  I really enjoyed Graham Greene as the police chief on the reservation.  Without his character, many viewers would struggle to understand why the mystery is hard to solve.

While the main action does not come until the second half of the film, the wait is totally worth it.  An explosive final act gives the audience what they waited for.  There is one fantastic transition towards the end of the film that gives the audience a complete explanation for the mystery.  Rather than having a smartass character explain the mystery, Sheridan effectively shows the discovery.  Just as the characters figure out what happened, the audience has the realization.  And of course, as any intriguing mystery resolves, there is a shoot-out to give audience members the action sequences they paid for.

The Bottom Line:  Wind River is a uniquely diverse mystery with a slow start and explosive finish.

​Score: 9.5/10

David Lowery has been really busy lately with this new film and the release of Pete's Dragon in 2016.  While I have not had the chance to watch Pete's Dragon, I expect that it is likely not similar to A Ghost Story.  A Ghost Story is a mature tale about how death affects us.  It can also be described as a film where Casey Affleck (Manchester By The Sea, Good Will Hunting) dresses up as a ghost in a white sheet and haunts Rooney Mara (The Social Network, Carol) for an hour-and-a-half.  The film's tone is hard to read at first, with a unique balance between comedy and drama.  Often times, there are also thriller aspects that pop up to remind the audience of the scariness of death.

I must admit that it took me a while to enjoy this film.  The pace is slow with drawn out scenes, but eventually it turns into something amazing.  The first half of the film is extremely slow, reminiscent of Steve McQueen's (12 Years a Slave, Hunger) directing style.  However once you get past the slow pace of the first half, the film quickly speeds up.  During one of the drawn-out scenes that focuses on Rooney Mara eating a whole pie, I felt like I was being held hostage by Lowery's choice of direction.  I felt like I needed to escape from my scene because of the boring content on the screen.  I still believe that the scene could have been cut a bit shorter, but I understand that Lowery deemed it necessary for the audience to see.  

Once the second half starts to pick up, I truly enjoyed this film as a fine piece of indie cinema.  It is like nothing I have ever seen before.  The originality is astonishing, with what starts off as a touching love story and ends in sheer oddity.  Casey Affleck creates an interesting character, even though he just stands under a bedsheet most of the time.  This is a film that can be used for discussion and will take a few watchings to understand, or at least comprehend.  I would love to have a discussion about the film's meaning if anyone has some ideas about the ending.

The Bottom Line: From a director that just released a Disney blockbuster, A Ghost Story reveals Lowery's originality in indie filmmaking.

Score: 9.5/10

Image credit: ​By Georges Biard, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28205406