This is the land of you're on your own

Rating: 8/10 (1 September 2017)

Taylor Sheridan has made quite the impact in the last two years as a writer. Having predominantly been an actor, most recognised for his role as Chief Hale in Sons of Anarchy, it seems Sheridan has found his true calling. Sheridan's first script, Sicario, introduced us to Sheridan as a writer, as well as introducing the world to leading director, Denis Villeneuve. Sheridan's next script, Hell or Highwater, would then gain Sheridan an Oscar nomination and received the Oscar push Sicario didn't quite achieve. Now, Sheridan both writes and directs his next film, ending what has been an unofficial American setting trilogy. Sheridan's third script and second directorial effort come in the form of Wind River, the true story of veteran game tracker, Corey Lambert and his assistance with the FBI on the homicide of a Native American girl. A writer stepping up to direct is often risky, but with Wind River, Sheridan simply adds another string to his bow.
The settings of Sheridan's films are almost characters in their own right. The settings can determine people's states of mind, character motivation as well as highlighting specific social or political conflicts/ problems. Sheridan has thus far used the America Mexico border and Texas in such a way, and now he swaps the warm for the cold. Wind River takes its name from the ice cold Indian reservation in Wyoming, and this setting perhaps the most important and significant one Sheridan has written about. The film is rich with Native American culture, but not in the stereotypical sense that everyone would think. Wind River highlights just how disenfranchised Native Americans are in their own country without getting overly political or racially charged. The film feels authentic and highlights its issues in a heartbreaking and frankly factual way. Wind River is the mystery of a Native American girls murder but is most notably a statement about Native American homicides, as well as, a character study of Jeremy Renner's character, Corey Lambert.
Jeremy Renner's performance as Corey Lambert is phenomenal, with great performances in such films as The Hurt Locker and The Town, Renner's performance in Wind River is yet again Oscar worthy. Renner brilliantly portrays a man struggling with the loss of his daughter, by attempting to claim some form of justice, not only for the family of the girl murdered but also for himself. Wind River is a character piece and Renner rises to the occasion as the character of focus. The film reunites Renner and Elizabeth Olsen from the Marvel universe, acknowledging they have a platonic relationship already established and thus utilising what the two have already displayed to great effect. These two actors work well together and the casting directors knew this well. The film also has great performances from Graham Greene as well as a surprise appearance from Jon Bernthal who is always great to see.
Sheridan directs this film similarly to how Denis Villeneuve and David Mackenzie directed his last two scripts. Sheridan has clearly taken note from these two as he establishes a slow pace which absorbs as much of the setting as possible, while also having punchy action that exhilarates. It could be viewed by many that Sheridan simply pads the film's run time with shots of vehicles moving in the snow, and to an extent, they are right but knowing of Sheridan's significance of setting, these shots have within them, an element of dread and isolation to which these shots capture so vividly. Sheridan's slow pace in the first two acts of the film makes for an intriguing thriller with great character depth, but unfortunately, the films third act fails to impress from a mystery thriller standpoint.
The reveal of the murderer and the crime in the third act felt far too abrupt and took away from the build to it. On reflection, the mystery story was very simple and didn't feature any developments of much interest. Instead, we slowly build to what feels like midway through the investigation and then have everything revealed at once via flashback. I know Hitchcock has done this famously with Vertigo, unveiling the reveal earlier than audiences expected, but with Wind River, I feel it just takes away from the intense and brooding build up of the first two acts. Also the killer is a character we first meet within the flashback, and thus yet another genre convention subversion that didn't sit right with me. However, after reflecting on this, I acknowledge the fact this is a true story and that Wind River is predominantly a character piece and statement of social injustice in America. Nonetheless, the film promises more than it delivers from a genre perspective and features an extremely simple mystery which is hard to not be disappointed by.
Wind River is a fascinating character piece with a strong social statement about Native American missing persons. Excellently acted by Jeremy Renner and sophisticatedly written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, Wind River may not have hit the right notes as a genre film, but has more than excelled in every other way. Wind River is a very human story of vengeance, justice and how the two can be one and the same. The title card at the end speaks volumes about the world we live in and how true equality doesn't exist, but as this film also expresses, this needs to change.