Review of Wind River (2017) by Daniel S — 09 Dec 2018

One of the great joys of the unfeasibly large selection of films on netflix is trying something you'd not heard of and being surprised with a crackerjack film. This is one of those times. I initially clicked Wind River thinking 'oooh, Scarlet Witch and Hawkeye, awesome', because that's the kind of person I am.

But the most important name I should have read was the writer/director Taylor Sheridan, who produced 2016's wonderful modern Western Hell or High Water. And this carries the same frontier spirit as that film, with an added social justice element.

The 'outsider comes into a community to solve a crime and isn't much trusted right away' is an often used trope, but an effective one at setting up some inherent drama, and Elizabeth Olsen plays it well, being just enough of a dick at the beginning to make the Native Americans on the reservation not seem too dickish themselves for treating her spikily.

Jeremy Renner has never been better as the tracker who is carrying some tragedy in his heart that motivates him to help find justice in whatever form that might take. The film delves into some pretty grisly sides of human behaviour, which can make it hard to watch at points, but the most troubling portion is the quote that fades in at the very end: 'While missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic, none exist for Native American women'.

It's a great film that can tell an arresting story that teaches you about something incredible going on in the real world.