First Cow (2019)

Half of the audience that watches this film will likely hate it. I'm starting with that because this film is incredibly slow in terms of pacing, which will easily turn off the impatient viewers. Personally, if a film like that has an interesting story, a slow pace actually helps to suck me into a story. First Cow, which is one of A24's most recent releases, has just become available on-demand. While I wouldn't rank it among their best when looking at their stellar catalog of films in recent years, it's still a great movie all around.

First Cow follows a highly skilled survivalist/cook in Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro), as he stumbles upon a group of traders. Becoming close friends with King-Lu (Orion Lee), they illegally take an opportunity to earn themselves a profit. Once a cow arrives on one of the farms, they steal milk in order to cook biscuits for the townspeople. All seems well and good, but they can only keep it a secret for so long. This premise held my attention so well because the film continuously gave you reasons to care about the two main characters. It was that, on top of the slow pace that really kept me invested.

Films like Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves are what had me keeping an eye on director Kelly Reichardt because I found those films showed her true potential as a filmmaker. She's wonderful at bringing out the best in all of her performers. What kept me from loving those two films overall though, was the fact that I found them to be a little too drab in terms of sound design and music. That's clearly her signature because First Cow once again feels a little too much like that. I loved watching this film and everything that happens felt earned and satisfying, but the overall movie can feel a little lifeless at times. That's really my only issue with most of her film that I've seen. She's otherwise an award-worthy filmmaker in my eyes.

Yes, John Magaro and Orion Lee are both terrific and hold this film together from start to finish, but the real star of the show here is cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt. Having worked on her two aforementioned films as well as a few others, his work on Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot and Mid90s is when his name truly jumped out at me. Blauvelt is someone that I will begin researching and anxiously awaiting his next project, simply due to the fact that his work on First Cow was his best yet. The camerawork felt like a character in its own right. From certain ways, characters are framed to extreme wide shots that clearly have deeper meanings, the way this film looks pulled me in more than anything else.

In the end, there are things about the tone that bothered me throughout the entire movie, but the story, characters, and especially the way the film is shot held my attention throughout. It's hard to recommend this movie to those who are casual viewers and were looking to be entertained because I can almost guarantee that you won't be unless you're a film buff and know what to expect. If it wasn't for the dour feel of the whole thing just not clicking with me, I might be saying that I loved this movie. Overall, it's a very, very well-made film that deserves attention, but from the proper audience.

Fmovies: Is it okay to "steal" from a wealthy landlord to survive in this capitalist ladder?

First Cow is a brilliant tale about friendship and the necessary things we do to make hay. The central performances are brilliant and slow narration with pleasant country music really gives you the The Straight Story and Lone Star vibes. Haven't seen Kelly Reichardt's previous works but after watching this I am more than interested to complete her filmography. This film probably wouldn't receive a lot of noise during awards season but is definitely going to end up in many top 10 lists regardless.

The acting and the cinematography were superb but is was almost excruciatingly slow and I felt like I'd been cheated as to the outcome of the whole film. I'm sure the director could direct a good, watchable film, unfortunately this wasn't quite it

First Cow fmovies. This film is super slow. The story is interesting, but it is not even enough to fill one hour, let alone two hours.

This is a marvelous film, that leaves out all the parts that are unnecessary, and includes the real life bits and pieces that add up to a wonderful story. It highlights the value of generosity, and creativity, while also unflinchingly telling the story of a hard life on the frontier. The intensity of hunger in the world, and the value of food are beautifully exhibited.

The camera work and the scenery are great. The period settings look good, but I cannot confirm that because I was not there.

Other than that the story in simple with no excitement or anything special about it.

The editor, which is incidentally also the director, should have cut it to 90 minutes. Alas, I did skip through the many dull parts and was disappointed by the ending which hinted to, but did not really explain the beginning.

A mediocre attempt at a romantic story about friendship and the hardships of life on the frontier.