For all its idiosyncrasies in presentation and characterization, its narrative regresses into a standard fare that lacks momentum or significant character growth.

| Original Score: 2.5/5 | Jan 8, 2025

Filmed with a compassionate eye, this is the antithesis of the dusty classic western.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 23, 2024

There’s a tenderness in how Reichardt depicts the trials and victories for the two hapless heroes. Neither of whom is made for such a hostile world. Their friendship isn’t agreed upon, just something always destined to happen.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 11, 2024

This has become a common staple for Reichardt, whose films are all about companionship seeking prosperity, but the friendship here between Otis/Cookie and King-Lu (John Magaro and Orion Lee respectively) may be her most endearing yet.

| Jul 9, 2024

Kelly Reichardt is just not for me. Well, I could have said that before 2020. But then First Cow happened. I don’t know what to tell you. It’s just so pure.

| Feb 23, 2024

Behold the elegance and oft-cited aesthetic minimalism with which Reichardt unfolds so many thoughts and ideas about race, representation and gender.

| Feb 7, 2024

Kelly Reichardt’s First Cow is quite simply a masterwork of gentle filmmaking that through the lens of a small story manages to encompass the zeitgeist of the American Dream as it is imagined in 19th Century Oregon and the pioneer experience.

| Original Score: A+ | Nov 12, 2023

First Cow is a male-oriented companion to Reichardt’s preceding film, the female-centric Certain Women, concerning itself wholly with the interplay of different masculine types...

| Sep 23, 2023

Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond deliver a well-written screenplay, telling a minimalist story that will probably divide critics and audiences due to its purposefully slow pace and uneventful narrative.

| Original Score: B | Jul 24, 2023

Framing the opportunities available on First Cow's frontier as anything but equal, the film provides through touching, comic observation a portrait of America writ small.

| Mar 3, 2023

First Cow is an udderly entertaining film.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Sep 1, 2022

The film reminds us that even the tightest and most earnest bond can be seduced by the sinister allure of “just a little more”.

| Original Score: 4.5/5 | Aug 20, 2022

This film has a long list of pleasant surprises like its sense of humor and delicacy, but perhaps the best one is William Tyler's grand music which is as powerful as it is subtle, an ideal companion to this human song. [Full review in Spanish]

| Jul 25, 2022

In a world in which all social contracts seem to be dynamited, seeing two men in a movie who respect and care for each other even though they have different interests (far from envy, ambition, love or homoeroticism) is a great discovery

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Mar 30, 2022

A masterwork for the western genre, and a full charge ahead for empathy in our capitalistic system. This moo-ved me. John Magaro broke my heart.

| Mar 11, 2022

A calm, relaxing voyage into a chapter of American history, First Cow doesnt possess the urgency of most independent cinema, and thats exactly what makes it so memorable.

| Original Score: 4/5 | Mar 2, 2022

A beautifully observed film whose outward simplicity gives way to a thoughtful exploration of capitalism, and the relationship between humanity and the natural world.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Feb 18, 2022

First Cow might not be the most impactful film of the year, but it absolutely is one of the most joyful and charming.

| Feb 12, 2022

Reichardt is nothing if not a documentarian of practicality and face value -- as in both that she sees the value in staring at faces, and in that things being what they seem to be is never boring to her

| Jan 14, 2022

First Cow's rhythm slows down the heart beat, watching this film is almost a meditative experience with beautiful photography, incredible acting and the subtext of friendship. [Full review in Spanish]

| Original Score: 9/10 | Sep 30, 2021