IT’S rare that a screenwriter begins their career with a hit movie. Even rarer that they follow it up with another hit.
Taylor Sheridan has to date penned one of the best films of 2015 in ‘Sicario’, one of the best films of 2016 with ‘Hell or High Water’, and now tries his hand at directing as well, in his latest offering, ‘Wind River’.
The film tells the story of agent Cory Lambert, played by Jeremy Renner, who works for the US Fish and Wildlife Service (yes, there is such a thing!) who discovers the body of a young girl in the rugged wilderness of the Wind River Indian Reservation.
The FBI sends in rookie agent Jane Banner (played by Elizabeth Olsen), but she arrives unprepared for the oppressive weather and isolation of the Wyoming winter.
Banner quickly employs the services of Cory as a tracker to help her navigate the frost covered landscape, as the two begin to unravel the truth behind what really happened to the body in the snow.
This movie concludes Sheridan’s ‘American Frontier Trilogy’, and it shares similar themes with the first two projects.
They are all set in rural areas where jobs are hard to find and crime seems to occupy the gaping employment vaccum.
In that regard they each serve as a commentary on modern-day America, and a negative one at that. But it’s the story at the heart of the setting which is not only expertly crafted, but cleverly told.
In his first outing in the director’s chair, Sheridan employs many of the techniques that ‘Sicario’ Director, Denis Villeneuve, used so effectively, such as sweeping helicopter shots and a haunting soundtrack.
The violence is harsh and graphic, but it’s hard to argue that this is not the reality for those who live in the land of the free.
Renner is excellent in the lead role, Olsen less so, but the action and suspense are what keep you stuck to your seat.
This is accomplished storytelling at it’s finest, which we score a breathless, 4 out of 5 stars.
Paul O’Rourke