Kelly Reichardt | |
|---|---|
 Reichardt in 2020 | |
| Born | (1964-03-03)March 3, 1964 (age 61) |
| Education | School of the Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) |
| Occupation(s) | Film director, screenwriter |
| Years active | 1994–present |
Kelly Reichardt (/ˈraɪkɑːrt/; born March 3, 1964)[1] is an American film director and screenwriter.[2] She is known for herminimalist films closely associated withslow cinema,[3][4] many of which deal withworking-class characters in small, rural communities.[5][6]
Reichardt made her feature film debut withRiver of Grass (1994) and subsequently directed a series of films set and filmed inOregon: the dramasOld Joy (2006) andWendy and Lucy (2008); the WesternMeek's Cutoff (2010); and the thrillerNight Moves (2013). In 2016, she wrote and directed theMontana-set dramaCertain Women. Since 2019, Reichardt has returned to directing Oregon-set dramas, withFirst Cow (2019) andShowing Up (2022). Reichardt's ninth film,The Mastermind, premiered at the2025 Cannes Film Festival.
Reichardt was raised inMiami, Florida.[7] Her mother was a narcotics agent, and her father was a crime-scene technician.[7] They separated when she was still a child.[7] She developed a passion for photography when she was young, working with her father's crime-scene camera.[7] As a child, she took classes at the Bob Rich School of Photography, an institution that no longer exists.[7] She earned her MFA at theSchool of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. Reichardt has served as the S. William Senfeld Artist in Residence atBard College since 2006.[8][9]
Reichardt's debut filmRiver of Grass was released in 1994. It was nominated for threeIndependent Spirit Awards,[10] and the Grand Jury Prize at theSundance Film Festival. It was named one of the best films of 1995 by theBoston Globe,Film Comment, andThe Village Voice. Reichardt then had trouble making another feature film, saying, "I had 10 years from the mid-1990s when I couldn't get a movie made. It had a lot to do with being a woman. That's definitely a factor in raising money. During that time, it was impossible to get anything going, so I just said, 'Fuck you!' and didSuper 8 shorts instead."[11]
In 1999, Reichardt completed the short filmOde, based onHerman Raucher's novelOde to Billy Joe. Next she made two more short films,Then a Year, in 2001, andTravis, which deals with theIraq War, in 2004.[12] In these two films, critics have noted that she subtly makes clear her displeasure with theBush administration and its handling of theIraq War.[11]
Reichardt met and subsequently became close friends with fellow filmmakerTodd Haynes in 1991, during the production of his filmPoison. She worked on this film as a key set dresser and props master.[7] After Haynes madeSafe, four years later in 1995, she drove Haynes to Portland from the Seattle Film Festival, where she met writerJon Raymond andNeil Kopp, who would go on to, respectively, write and produced several of Reichardt's films.[13] Raymond has been cited as the largest influence on Reichardt's decision to base her films in thePacific Northwest, his specific humanist portraits of the region inspiring her.[14] In 2006, she completedOld Joy, based on a short story in Raymond's collectionLivability.Daniel London and singer-songwriterWill Oldham portray two friends who reunite for a camping trip to theCascades andBagby Hot Springs, near Portland.[15] The film won awards from theLos Angeles Film Critics Association,Rotterdam International Film Festival, andSarasota Film Festival. It was the first American film to win the Tiger Award at theRotterdam Film Festival. Kopp won the Producer's Award at the2007 Independent Spirit Awards for his work onOld Joy andParanoid Park.
For her next film,Wendy and Lucy, Reichardt and Raymond adapted another story fromLivability. The film explores loneliness and hopelessness through the story of a woman looking for her lost dog. It was released in December 2008 and earnedOscar buzz for lead actressMichelle Williams. It was nominated for Best Film and Best Female Lead at theIndependent Spirit Awards. Reichardt then directedMeek's Cutoff, aWestern also starring Williams. It competed for theGolden Lion at the67th Venice International Film Festival in 2010.[16]
Reichardt received a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship in 2009[17] and a 2011 United States Artists (USA) Fellowship.[18] She edits her films herself.[11] In 2014, Reichardt was named an Artist-in-Residence in the Film and Electronic Arts program atBard College.[19]
In 2013, her filmNight Moves debuted in competition at the70th Venice International Film Festival. An intense thriller about a secret plot to blow up a dam which was also written by Raymond, it was considered a shift in tone from her other slower, more melancholic films. It was also the first time that Reichardt employed digital cinematography.[20]
Reichardt's filmCertain Women is based onMaile Meloy's 2009 short-story collectionBoth Ways is the Only Way I Want It, and was shot in March–April 2015 in Montana.Michelle Williams,Laura Dern,Lily Gladstone, andKristen Stewart star.[21] Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions (SPWA) bought the rights to distribution.[22] The film premiered on January 24, 2016, at theSundance Film Festival, and earned Reichardt the top award at the 2016London Film Festival.[23]
In October 2016, Reichardt revealed that on her next film she would collaborate with authorPatrick DeWitt on an adaptation of his novelUndermajordomo Minor, potentially to be shot outside of the U.S.[24][25] Two years later it was announced that Reichardt had putUndermajordomo Minor on hold and would instead reunite with Raymond to directFirst Cow, an adaptation of his novelThe Half-Life.[26]
First Cow debuted at the2019 Telluride Film Festival,[27] it was screened at the2019 New York Film Festival, and in February 2020 was selected to the main competition of the70th Berlin International Film Festival. It was Reichardt's return to films set in Oregon after shootingCertain Women in Montana. Released byA24 to a limited number of theaters in March 2020, the film was pulled from distribution due to the onset of theCOVID-19 pandemic and became avideo on demand title in June 2020.[28]
Reichardt's next film,Showing Up, was set inPortland, with Williams in the lead role as a sculptor. It premiered at the2022 Cannes Film Festival, and was the director's first feature to be included in the main competition for thePalme d'Or.[29] The film was released by A24 in the United States on April 7, 2023.[30]
Reichardt's films have all received positive reviews from critics, withRiver of Grass andFirst Cow particularly reaching near-unanimous acclaim. Her films have not been big box-office successes, withCertain Women the most successful at $1.1 million.[31]
The Mastermind had its world premiere at the main competition of the2025 Cannes Film Festival on May 23, 2025, where it was nominated for thePalme d'Or.[32][33]
Reichardt has frequently collaborated with critically acclaimed actressMichelle Williams, saying that she enjoys Williams's confidence and inquisitive nature, and that she can never guess what she's going to do.[34] Williams has starred as the female lead in four of Reichardt's films.
Jonathan Raymond has written or co-written the screenplays of six of Reichardt's films.Old Joy andWendy and Lucy were both co-written with Reichardt, and are based on his short stories.First Cow is based on Raymond's novel, titledThe Half Life. He is based in Oregon, where a large number of Reichardt's films are set and shot.[35]
Reichardt has frequently collaborated with American cinematographerChristopher Blauvelt.[35] He has been the director of photography for five of her feature films, starting withNight Moves in 2013.
Reichardt's dog Lucy has also appeared as a cast member in two of her films,Old Joy andWendy and Lucy, in which Lucy stars as herself.[35]
Reichardt's films have often been called minimalist and realist, with film criticA. O. Scott describingWendy and Lucy as part of a new American Independent cinema he termed "Neo-Neo Realism", primarily due to its thematic and aesthetic similarity to classic Italian neorealist films such asRome Open City andPaisan.[11] Reichardt sees a difference between her work and the minimalist movement as a whole,[13] and has called her films "just glimpses of people passing through".[36] She also recognizes her style as minimalist, saying, "A movie is a series of reveals, essentially, and then you're supposed to sit in a room and tell someone what it all means. That goes against everything that I just worked for, so I have no interest in summing it all up. It's all out there".[37] Her films' realist tendencies position them in line with Matthew Flanagan's idea of slow cinema. Their long takes, minimal dialogue and minimalist action are all characteristics of slow cinema that allow the audience time for contemplation.[38] This style may also be in response to more mainstream films; Reichardt has said, "when I go to the movies and I sit through the previews, I literally feel assaulted."[13] As a mode of minimalist art film, Reichardt uses slow cinema and control of time as a means of storytelling and a conveyer of feeling.[39] This style is exemplified in Reichardt's filmography through a deliberately unhurried pacing of narrative events, which allows for a deeper exploration and emphasis on atmosphere and character psychology. In her work, this style is frequently paired with naturalistic performances from actors and minimalist sound design, allowing for viewers to have their attention drawn to the physical and emotional landscapes that Reichardt creates.
Reichardt also diverges from the mainstream with her films' avant-garde content.River of Grass segments the narrative into numbered sections, andCertain Women is also divided into episodes. Reichardt's realism and camera angles reject the objectification of bodies and challenge audience expectations by lingering on seemingly insignificant images after characters have left a scene.[38]
Reichardt's films often focus on characters on the margins of society, who are not usually represented on screen, or who are seeking a better quality of life and place in the world. She is interested in characters "who don't have a net, who if you sneezed on them, their world would fall apart".[40] Her films tackle aspects of the American experience the commercial film industry seldom explores. Eric Kohn ofIndiewire has called her films "a mesmerizing statement on the solitude of everyday life for working-class people who want something better. They're trapped between a mythology of greatness and the personal limitations that govern their drab realities. By attending to atmosphere and attitude as much as plot, Reichardt has quietly become one of the country's best chroniclers of the American experience".[41] In his contemporary review ofOld Joy,Slant Magazine'sNick Schager praises how "Reichardt’s delicate touch is such that it creates room for an interpretative flexibility. The film’s pauses in dialogue and the unseen spaces between scenes breathe with palpable, mysterious life."[42]
Reichardt's films often contain references to modern times and political events.[43] OfMeek's Cutoff, she said, "Here was the story of this braggart leading a bunch of people into the desert without a plan and becoming completely reliant on the locals who are socially different from him and who he is suspicious of. All of which seemed relevant to the moment"[11] (in reference to theIraq War andGeorge W. Bush). Reichardt has confirmed that the character Meek was meant to resemble Bush. Alongside this,Meek's Cutoff highlights themes of Indigenous lives and decolonization, aspects often ignored within the Western genre.[44] The film reflects the disillusionment of American expansion to the west, and Reichardt uses visual imagery, such as women's clothing to depict the racist segregation and conflict of white colonizers and indigenous characters.
Wendy and Lucy also reflects the economic hardships that affected millions of Americans (particularly women, whom the film suggests are affected more than men) as a result of the high costs and collateral damage from the war.[11] Reichardt's 2013 filmNight Moves has more overt political references. The three protagonists are radical environmentalists,[45] and the film is set in Oregon, a state with many notable instances of environmental protest, particularly against its lumber industry[46] and in defense of theNorthern Spotted Owl, an indicator species of the Pacific Northwest.[47]
Critics have noted that Reichardt's films often have ambiguous endings that leave the audience hanging and unsatisfied. Xan Brooks ofThe Guardian uses the examples of "wonky Kurt, left wandering city streets at the end ofOld Joy, hapless Wendy, still looking for Alaska, orMeek's Cutoff's lost pioneers, forever strung between triumph and disaster. These films do not so much resolve as dissolve. They leave us dangling, forced to write their third acts in our heads".[36] Reichardt has said, "Maybe I'm suspicious of absolutes. I mean, yes, there is something satisfying about watching an old film when the music rises up and the words come at you: The End. But it would seem absurd to do that at the end of one of my films. It would just make them feel lopsided, because they're all so short, they cover so little time. We don't know where these people were before. We spent a week with them and then on they went".[36] She has also said that she enjoys films that let the audience find their own way in and come to their own conclusions.[36]
Reichardt's films contain feminist ideas in both style and content, rejecting mainstream, male-centric, commercial filmmaking methods and focusing on gender. She rejects the label "feminist filmmaker" and dismisses the reductionist term "woman director" as redundant.[48] She rejects mainstream methods by using small budgets, filming on location (most of her films are shot in Oregon), and refusing to romanticize her characters and their struggles. Feminist themes are often present in Reichardt's work, and are a notable aspect of her filmic style. Much of her films are female-led.Meek's Cutoff centers on the women of a wagon train in the Oregon wilderness, and depicts an often unseen feminist side of classic Western cinema.[35] A similar feminist style is seen inCertain Women, depicting the lives of ordinary women not usual shown in popular media through a filmic lens. Reichardt's work portrays female protagonists grappling with issues of isolation and solitude, economic hardships, and the social constraints of gendered roles, for example. She places an emphasis the lived experiences of women, highlighting personal journeys, often alone and away from the narrative influence of male protagonists.[49] While not being a filmmaker explicitly focused on political or activist narratives, Reichardt's work often engages with broader feminist concerns.
InOld Joy, which stars two men and was spoken about at festivals as an LGBTQ+ film,[50] the theme of male friendship is highlighted and addressed through feminized qualities of sensitivity and vulnerability rarely seen in mainstream Hollywood cinema. InNight Moves,Dakota Fanning's character serves as a strong female counterpoint toJesse Eisenberg's male protagonist, and the film's environmental storyline reflects eco-feminist values.
Film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | Editor | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1994 | River of Grass | Yes | Yes | No | |
| 2006 | Old Joy | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2008 | Wendy and Lucy | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2010 | Meek's Cutoff | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2013 | Night Moves | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2016 | Certain Women | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| 2019 | First Cow | Yes | Yes | Yes | [51] |
| 2022 | Showing Up | Yes | Yes | Yes | [29] |
| 2025 | The Mastermind | Yes | Yes | Yes | [52][53] |
Yes
Short film
| Year | Title | Director | Writer | DoP | Ref. |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Ode | Yes | Yes | Yes | [54] |
| 2001 | Then a Year | Yes | No | No | [55] |
| 2004 | Travis | Yes | No | No | [56] |
| 2019 | Owl | Yes | No | No | |
| 2021 | Bronx, New York, November 2019 | Yes | No | Yes | |
| 2021 | Cal State Long Beach, CA, January 2020 | Yes | No | Yes |
Reichardt is a multiple award winning director. Her first feature film,River of Grass, was nominated for several awards at both theSundance Film Festival in 1994, and two years later, in 1996 at theIndependent Spirit Awards. She won her first award for her second feature,Old Joy, at theLos Angeles Film Critics Association Awards, in 2006. Her highest acclaimed film isFirst Cow, which received ten nominations across six different festivals. At the 2016 edition of theLondon Film Festival, Certain Women was awarded best film. Most recently, her latest feature film,Showing up won theRobert Altman award at the 39th Independent Spirit Awards.
