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Director of lots of small (and great) films, mostly set in the American west (major exception of her first feature RIVER OF GRASS filmed in her native Florida).

New one SHOWING UP just came out in the States.

I still need to catch up w/ NIGHT MOVES and WENDY AND LUCY, but love all her other films (and the last story/section of CERTAIN WOMEN is probably her masterpiece).

Definitely a different vibe/pace/feel to most other American directors of her generation and/or level of success.

On paper, I should love her work. It's never landed flush for me though, and that's over enough films for me to reckon that I'm not her audience. She's comfortably NC though.

I watched Old Joy in college almost exclusively because I was super into Will Oldham. That thing was slow and spacious like some old Jarmusch stuff could be (thinking Stranger Than Paradise). It challenged my attention span but had some memorable moments.

I really want to see Showing Up.

NC

I really love Old Joy and think about it frequently enough as I get older. I think a lot of us may be able to relate to parts of both main characters, or to both sides of their dynamic in different moments, which is a pretty delicate thing to pull off, the subtle envies between them too, all that. I should revisit it soon.

I don't think I've managed to see anything else of hers in spite of adding many of her films to various "to watch" lists that remain virtually undented these days.

I might respond differently now but Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy really tested my patience back when I saw them. I should give something more recent a chance.

Crap. Lazy, self-indulgent filmmaking.

To be fair, though, she's not as godawful as some of the crap that came out of the "mumblecore" scene... Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance (2008) was Mouchette-level torment, the epitome of the we-have-no-script-and-are-making-up-crap-as-we-go-along jeanre.

Dougal666 wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:02 pm Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance (2008) was Mouchette-level torment, the epitome of the we-have-no-script-and-are-making-up-crap-as-we-go-along jeanre.

Lynne Shelton was working with improvised acting so making it up as they went along was kind of the concept. It's a feature, not a bug. But whether the feature works to the films advantage is obviously in the eye of the viewer. I've never seen My Effortless Brilliance, but I thought Sword of Trust was decent.

In 2019, First Cow was my favorite film in a year that also included Midsommar, Knives Out, Jo Jo Rabbit and Waves.

There is a brief scene in Meek's Cutoff featuring Shirley Henderson chasing a bit of fabric and calling her husband's name that took my breath away, and I've always wanted to ask Reichardt if it was scripted or just a lightning-in-a-bottle moment they happened to catch.

I got in the most emotionally-heated movie discussion of my life once when I said that I didn't think I could completely trust any man's critical take on Wendy and Lucy. I was not talked out of that opinion.

I will be going to see Showing Up this week and I expect to thoroughly enjoy it.

She's in the pantheon for me.

iembalm wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:37 pm
I got in the most emotionally-heated movie discussion of my life once when I said that I didn't think I could completely trust any man's critical take on Wendy and Lucy. I was not talked out of that opinion.

Just caught up with this last night and it might be one of the biggest bummer films ever made, but maybe it hits even harder as a dog person.

losthighway wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:20 pm

Dougal666 wrote: Wed Apr 12, 2023 3:02 pm Lynn Shelton's My Effortless Brilliance (2008) was Mouchette-level torment, the epitome of the we-have-no-script-and-are-making-up-crap-as-we-go-along jeanre.

Lynne Shelton was working with improvised acting so making it up as they went along was kind of the concept. It's a feature, not a bug. But whether the feature works to the films advantage is obviously in the eye of the viewer. I've never seen My Effortless Brilliance, but I thought Sword of Trust was decent.

Yeah, I know that's what she was doing... and improvised acting is a feature which 99% of the time (for any director) ends up in disaster.
That's what I mean by "lazy filmmaking", like Altman not using a storyboard (which shows).