Decent crime drama with by SICARIO screenwriter

Rating: Null/10 (20 August 2017)

Taylor Sheridan has written a pair of the more hard-hitting dramas of recent years in HELL OR HIGH WATER and SICARIO. HELL's was fine enough that it was worthy of the Oscar it was nominated for (and Best Picture, too, IMHO). With WIND RIVER, Sheridan steps behind the camera to direct as well. Like SICARIO and HELL, it's a crime drama set in desolate area (here an Indian Reservation in Wyoming). Loosely based on true events, it involves solving the gruesome freezing death of a young woman, a game tracker who discovers the body (Jeremy Renner), an FBI agent assigned to the case (Elizabeth Olson) and the local Native American cop (Grahame Green). Renner, Greene and Gil Birmingham (as the grieving father) are all superb. Unfortunately, Olson never quite strikes the right note as the FBI agent. She plays the 'fish out of water' motif far too obviously. And, like Emily Blunt's Kate in SICARIO, the character veers dangerously close to being a female pinata for all the testosterone in the movie. Sheridan's screenplay, while solid, also betrays his tendency to overstate things best left to the viewer to decipher.
WIND RIVER is a decent B movie with higher ambitions. Sheridan the Director doesn't contribute much beyond shaky cam and doesn't display the assuredness of SICARIO's Villenueve or HELL's MacKenzie. It's not up to the prior two movies, but, still a worthy watch.