The American West is well-trod territory, but Kelly Reichardt keeps unearthing new treasures.
Her latest excavation, “First Cow,” is her most sublime yet. Like many of Reichardt’s previous films, it’s set in Oregon but in a seemingly unremarkable in-between moment in history. It’s a tale literally dug up. In its opening scenes, a contemporary woman and her dog are walking near a broad river where an oil tanker slowly glides past. The dog sniffs something first, then the woman sets to clawing the dirt away.
Her find can only be mysterious to her; it reveals nothing for posterity or science. Just some eternal truths, and one achingly lovely yarn that reaches, through time and cinema, to today. “First Cow” leaps back to the Oregon Territory of the 1820s, where a pair of aimless and impoverished travelers are brought together by circumstance, kindness and baked goods.
Otis, known as “Cookie” (John Magaro), is a cook for a band of trappers who order him around. Shortly before coming to a sparsely populated trading post, he encounters King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant who, having been sought for murder, Cookie finds cowering naked behind a fern.
They have an immediate rapport, and recognize in each other fellow low rungs on the already forming ladder of society. When they later encounter each other at the trading post, a tender, unspoken friendship develops between them. King-Lu invites Cookie, a shy and guileless grown orphan soulfully played by Magaro, to drink a bottle at their shack. Once there, Cookie sweetly begins to sweep the place and add a few flowers. It’s as beautiful a beginning to a friendship as you’re likely to see this side of “Casablanca.”