Review of WIND RIVER: Wicked Wyoming Winter

August 3, 2017

This film is being shown in local theaters with hardly any advertising, no trailers, newspaper ads, posters nor social media posts. However, since it stars an actor I admire, Jeremy Renner, I made sure I'd watch it before it silently disappears from local circulation before long, as was the usual fate of poor box office performers on the first days of release. 

The Wind River Indian Reservation in Wyoming is in perpetual winter. While tracking a mountain lion killing cattle, US Fish and Wildlife Service agent Cory Lambert discovers a body of an 18-year old Indian girl on the slopes of a snowy mountain. The FBI was called in, but they can only send a young inexperienced agent Jane Banner. Jane conscripts Cory's skills to help her track down the killer in this inhospitable wilderness.

Jeremy Renner gives another excellent performance here as Cory Lambert, as I fully expected him to since he broke into the big time on Oscar Best Picture "The Hurt Locker" (2008). His character Cory is not only a skilled animal tracker and hunter, he was also a man haunted by a tragedy in his family. Renner portrays the action and the dramatic aspects of his character with realistic skill and sensitivity. 

Renner's "Avengers" co-star Elizabeth Olsen (Scarlet Witch to his Hawkeye) plays wide-eyed FBI rookie Jane Banner. Olsen was able to maintain her character's credibility and hold her own amid the rough tough blue-collar men she had to deal with in this case for which she was totally unprepared for, not only in her inadequate winter gear but also in her limited investigative ability. 

I was not surprised to see Graham Greene in the cast as the Sheriff Ben. Greene seems to be the first go-to actor when there is an Indian character, most notably "Dances With Wolves" (1990) where he was nominated for a Best Supporting Actor Oscar. Raven-haired Gil Birmingham (popularly known as Jacob Black's father Billy in the "Twilight" films) had such a memorably touching stand-out performance as Martin Hanson, father of the victim.

I was surprised to see Jon Bernthal in a third film within these past few weeks, since he was also in the casts of "Shot Caller" and "Baby Driver." Here he plays Matt, the older White boyfriend of the victim, one of the logical first "persons of interest" in the crime. 

I did not know beforehand that this film actually had a strong credentials. It turns out this film had premiered at this year's Sundance Film Festival. It also competed in the Cannes Film Festival under the Prix Un Certain Regard category, winning Best Director for Taylor Sheridan in his directorial debut. 

Taylor Sheridan gained critical acclaim in the past two years because for writing the screenplay of two excellent films -- "Sicario" (2015, Dir: Dennis Villeneuve) (MY REVIEW) and "Hell or High Water" (2016, Dir. David Mackenzie) (MY REVIEW), both of which were nominated for Best Original Screenplay in the Writers Guild. "Hell or High Water" was not only nominated for an Original Screenplay Oscar, but also as Best Picture last year.

This time, Sheridan actually directs his own script for the first time and the product is both impressive and engaging. The crime story was told straightforwardly and logically in 111 minutes. The deliberately slow pace reflects the bleakness and difficulty of the milieu for all the characters, but it never gets tedious. The brutal survival of the fittest among the wildlife echoing the issues of Indians living in a desolate reservation made a strong social statement. The snow here was as pristine and pretty as it was dreary and deadly. 8/10.