First Cow (2020)

 Score: 3 / 5

At once a fascinating deconstruction of the foundational problems of capitalism and the sort of pretentious arthouse flick that drives people away from high art, First Cow tries to do a lot of things. It mostly succeeds, I think, as a result of its quiet, gentle delivery. A Western of the most basic sort, it dramatizes a frontier story that is a little absurd, a little familiar, and a little sad. It champions the virtues of brotherly love and lasting friendship for an America that should still be a melting pot and isn't. It uses a very funny heist plot arc in ways that are often less than humorous, choosing instead to focus on literalizing the details of living simply through hard work and ingenuity. And yet, for all this, I found it unbearably boring.

Beginning with a quote from William Blake's "Proverbs of Hell" -- "The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship" -- the film launches into the story of Cookie (John Magaro) and King Lu (Orion Lee), who meet each other in a state of desperation. Cookie, harassed by the fur trappers he travels with, decides to help the naked and frightened Lu, who is hiding in the woods. After another chance encounter, with roles rather reversed, the two men become friends out of circumstance and perhaps out of some natural inclinations for each other. Their friendship is depicted, ultimately, as a basic human need like food and shelter, and one wonders why exactly an entire movie hinges on that less-than revolutionary revelation. Perhaps because it is tied with larger themes.

Somehow, the tone First Cow, handled deftly by director Kelly Reichardt, manages to inject parallel sensations of brutality and nihilism into its primary conceit of pastoral Romanticism. Because of the opening scene, in which a woman and her dog discover two skeletons in close proximity, we suspect the two main characters will die together in the woods. The rest of the movie is just telling us how this happens; for people obsessed with plot, this movie is a definite no-go. Much like this woman, presumably (as she never appears again), we are encouraged to piece together parts of the story, as it is decidedly not filmed in real time. And yet, plot points be damned, we are treated to several sequences of their almost idyllic life together. A favorite sequence depicts Cookie collecting flowers to place in a bottle in their home together, clearly cherishing simple comforts of rustic life.

The movie does indeed move into plotted momentum eventually when the cow of the title arrives in Oregon. It belongs to the Chief Factor (Toby Jones, who of course is doing this weird-ass role in this weird-ass movie) and is apparently the first and only cow in the territory. Interestingly, and in one of the few laugh-out-loud moments, it is often shot as if it were imbued with magic or some fairytale entity come to bestow its gifts on wretched mankind. Cookie (who, I don't think I mentioned before, is a cook) imagines baking goods with the milk from this cow, and so the remainder of the plot unfolds. Rather than taking care of themselves as they are, Cookie and Lu decide to steal the cow's milk to secure a successful, wealthy, secure future we all know they will likely never have. It's the sort of bleak optimism that is seductive to those of us jaded viewers in 2020 America who know it won't end well for the poor folks trying to win a rigged system.

The movie is populated with other odd characters, but none of them matter much in the end. What matters is that eventually the Chief notices his prized cow is not producing much milk, frightening Cookie and Lu so much that they, annoyingly, decide to make "one last" milk-pirating venture. They fail miserably and go on the run. By this point, we know how it will end, and the final act, which should be exciting, proves deadly dull. The movie could easily have been at least thirty minutes shorter and still would have been too lengthy for this viewer. I suppose further viewings might allow me to better appreciate the subtleties of this film, its gentle depictions of eccentric American stories woven around and suffering from the sins of a fledgling nation expanding beyond its healthy boundaries. But it's so bloody boring that I'm not sure I ever want to watch it again unless I need a soporific.