“Michelle Williams is superb as a struggling girl who loses her dog in Kelly Reichardt’s wise, deceptively simple tale.” — Newsweek
Michelle Williams is superb as a struggling girl who loses her dog in Kelly Reichardt's wise, deceptively simple tale.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2009
Wendy and Lucy 2008
Wendy is heading from some unspecified personal disaster towards a new life in Alaska with her beloved yellow-gold mongrel, Lucy. She’s stranded in a backwater Oregon town, low on funds, waiting for her car to be repaired when Lucy goes missing. Distraught but stoic, she searches for the dog, dependent on the kindness of strangers in a town where no one has much of anything to spare. Working again with writer Jon Raymond, director Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy) delivers a miniature, minimalist, quietly devastating slice of contemporary Americana. Her picture of small-town workers anxiously eying the new depression offers a tacit critique of the Bush legacy that’s as piercing as Williams’ naturalistic, nuanced performance. — BG
“There’s inevitable sadness in this story of the failings of modern America, but genuine tenderness too, and the combination is both deeply felt and subtly expressed.” — Sandra Hebron, London Film Festival