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

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

It is touching, tender, original, entrancing, definitely the best cow film of the year. Plus it's also a quietly masterful thriller where a clafoutis (blueberry) will have you on the edge of your seat.

| Jul 29, 2021

Reichardt works in delicate movements as a storyteller. Magaro and Lee's wonderful chemistry keeps perfectly in step with the filmmaker.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 23, 2021

Never has a film about two losers and the platonic love they have for each other felt more moving or more engaging. Simply wonderful.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Jul 9, 2021

A fable of land and freedom that serves as an up-close-and-personal portrait of friendship and a wider snapshot of America, rooted in the rich soil of the Pacific north-west.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 31, 2021

A Western, First Cow is sensual, bleak and meticulously authentic, reminiscent of McCabe & Mrs Miller, as well as Barry Lyndon.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 29, 2021

Reichardt, also the co-writer, delivers a patient and earnest parable about environmentalism, American destiny and the value of friendship.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 29, 2021

This is a bold, perceptive portrait of early America that deserves to be held up as a new standard of historical filmmaking.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 28, 2021

First Cow is archetypal Kelly Reichardt, slow, small and perfectly formed, elevated by stellar but understated performances from John Magaro and Orion Lee.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 27, 2021

What it does right, it does wonderfully.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 26, 2021

It's a McCabe & Mrs Miller with cows, and there can be no higher praise than that.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 25, 2021

Watching their friendship crackle into life is one of the film's deepest pleasures. Conversation flows so casually that it feels more sighed than spoken.

| May 19, 2021

It's a wonderfully neat concept, and Reichhart, often labelled a minimalist, has never been more assured as a storyteller.

| Original Score: 4/5 | May 5, 2021

Just don't mistake the lightness of step for a softness of philosophy.

| Original Score: B+ | Feb 5, 2021

A picture that's both tranquil and dazzling, two qualities that should be at odds with one another yet somehow bloom in tandem under Reichardt's gentle touch.

| Feb 5, 2021

Some itchy viewers probably (and understandably) won't make it past the first 20 minutes. But if they stay, the deliberate paces of Reichardt's storytelling do cast a sort of spell: a bittersweet comic absurdity, told in the rhythms of real life.

| Original Score: A- | Feb 5, 2021

It's a small, understated movie, but it's also one of the best of the year so far.

| Feb 5, 2021

Finds a warm balance between tension and the pleasure of just watching two kindred types find each other and make a life for themselves in a difficult place.

| Aug 4, 2020

First Cow is overburdened by that preamble, which suffuses the film with a feeling of inevitability but not narrative tension, and the plot isn't sturdy enough to fill two hours. An honorable mention, but no best in show.

| Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jul 11, 2020

"First Cow" is a wonderfully unhurried film, which may be why it is so captivating. It allows viewers to sink in and absorb the story and its setting.

| Jul 10, 2020