Review of Meek's Cutoff (2011) by Steven D — 12 Jun 2011
This film gives me hope for art house movies of the future. It is one of the most patient films I have seen since probably There Will Be Blood back in 2007. The absolute beauty of this entire film is the slow and ambiguous cinematography which never causes the audience to be bored. It excited me to see these long drawn out takes that creates the feeling of desolation and hopelessness. It added to the experience of this journey and gives a sense of the unknown. it's an extremely bleak movie which never truly ties any loose knots, but that's what I loved about it. It has deep underlining themes which add the grandeur of the story and also make up for no true ending. You don't mind the hopeless nature of the films' cutoff ending because you get so much meaning from the journey itself.
"Meeks Cutoff"s strong points though lead into the parts I didn't like about the film. We spend so much time with these characters because it is slowly paced, however we never get to glimpse into their reasoning. We get to see some personality from how they react to events but we never get a sense of their individuality. This is an ensemble cast but the point of the ensemble should be to bare witness to the melting pot of characters and that never happens. Instead we walk away not knowing anything about the people we just spent so much time with. That is, however, the only regret I had walking away from this extremely artistic revisionist western.
This review of Meek's Cutoff (2011) was written by Steven D on 12 Jun 2011.
Meek's Cutoff has generally received positive reviews.
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