Full interview for The Playlist can be found HERE
Here are review excerpts from the archives about her last four films:
Certain Women
"Reichardt's latest film has three short stories adapted from Maile Meloy’s writings about lonely, isolated women in the 21st century. Starring Laura Dern, Michelle Williams, Kristen Stewart and Lily Gladstone in a career making performance, this might be Reichardt’s best movie yet. Not only profound statement on female yearning in the 21st century, but delicately nuanced portrayal of an American society rotting at its core. Based on Montana writer Maile Meloy's short stories, Reichardt weaves together four stories about four different women: Laura Dern as a down on her luck lawyer, Michelle Williams as an aggressive opportunist, Kristen Stewart as a motivated, but confused night school teacher and newcomer Lily Gladstone, the film's best performance, as a hard-working rancher. It's a romantic, but pessimistic vision of western Americana" [B+]
Night Moves
"Bearing to connection to the Gene Hackman noir from the 70s, Reichardt tackles eco-terrorism as three radical environmentalists, expertly played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard, concoct a plan to make a hydroelectric dam explode. Of course there are repercussions “Night Moves” moves at the same slow, burning pace we’ve come to expect from her film’s especially in the film’s first half which is by far the strongest part of the film. The wait and execution of the bombing is tightly edited and constructed that you will likely be biting every single one of your fingernails in anguish. It is one of the most excitingly constructed sequences I have seen. The film is minor Reichardt but well worth a look." [B]
Meek's Cutoof
"How can a film about getting lost be so frighteningly gripping? With "Meek's Cutoff" Reichardt crafted her most surreal cinematic experience. A film about confused people that are led to a road to nowhere by an even more clueless leaders. It's 1845 and settlers are travelling through the Oregon dessert, lost, bewildered, dying of thirst. Because this is a film by the vulnerable female director, a woman (Michelle Williams) decides to take charge and lead the troupe from nowhere to somewhere.
She seeks the help of an Indian held captive by the troupe. The western genre gets deconstructed, its cliches turned inside out, by Reichardt as she tries to find Western solitude from the most unexpected of places" [B+]
Wendy and Lucy
"There is no movie quite like "Wendy and Lucy." The plot is simple. Girl loses dog. Girl looks for dog. That's it, that's all. It's not just a simple premise, but it's minimalist stuff reminiscent of the French new wave of the 60's. In fact shoot it in Black and White and you might get duped in thining this was the best film of 1960. TWendy is played beautifully by Michelle Williams & what a simple and touching performance it is. She barely has any dialogue and, instead, renders her heartbreaking performance as if she were the greatest silent movie star on earth. Nothing happens but everything happens because in Reichardt's carefully chosen frames there looms a lost America that the news wouldn't dare cover. There are scenes of startling beauty in this 80 minute film." [A-]