Vitamin Daily

In the films of Kelly Reichardt, Oregon is America: its frontier, its crumbling edge, its lost soul. Three of her masterful works are set there; all play in TIFF Bell Lightbox's new, should-see Reichardt retrospective.

Her newest, Meek's Cutoff, shoots up an old idea of the Western. There's precious little action; it's agonizingly slow on the Oregon Trail. Nor is there a cowboy hero; instead, Michelle Williams is the troubled moral compass. She and the sky make for beauty in bleakness.

Williams also starred in 2009's Wendy and Lucy, a dog-gone lonely tale set in New Depression-era Oregon. Before that was Old Joy (2006), a road-trip rumination with folk-rocker Will Oldham. Seen together, Reichardt's Oregon trilogy is a determined exploration of the American reality, the dream hung out to dry. —SNP

Meek's Cutoff opens Friday, May 13; next come showings of Wendy and Lucy and Old Joy. For tickets and info, see TIFF.net