The False Start River of Grass Planted the Seeds of Kelly Reichardt’s Career
From Alex Lei at SLANT:
The case is sometimes made that 1994 is the “The Greatest Year in Film History.” It’s in no small part due to the preeminence of a number of IMDb Top 250 list-toppers like The Shawshank Redemption, Forrest Gump and Pulp Fiction. While largely a pedestrian collection, the latter’s reputation is essential in cementing a memory of the ‘90s as a decade of cinematic “independence.” As every year does, 1994 started with Sundance. There were a couple notable debuts: Kevin Smith launched promisingly onto the scene with Clerks, character actor Tom Noonan won the whole show with his directorial debut What Happened Was… and, unfortunately, David O. Russell also competed with his first feature Spanking the Monkey. Most oddly of all though is the first film by someone not often associated with the ‘90s indie film boom: Kelly Reichardt. Her debut River of Grass not only played in the main competition at Sundance, but garnered three Independent Spirit Awards nominations—on top of Reichardt being awarded “Someone to Watch.” While Smith and O. Russell would go on to rapidly climb the early Indiewood ladder, Reichardt faded into obscurity for years after her second feature failed to get off the ground. Yet, 30 years on, River of Grass has more to offer than was apparent at its premiere. It gives us a glimpse at Reichardt’s latent prowess and opens a window to how much Reichardt changed as an artist through her hiatus.
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Unlike those later films, River of Grass is also shocking for its stylistic predeparture, with its jazzy, almost New Wave Godardian editing (done by Fessenden) lying in stark contrast to the textured realism Reichardt has become known for. Languid images of lazing about can be interrupted by fast, poppy editing or drumming hi-hats. A bar robbery is presented in rhythmic shot/reverse shot. A revolver firing is pushed almost to abstraction, like when Jean-Paul Belmondo guns down the bike cop in Breathless. It’s almost like the work of a different filmmaker.
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It has always been an uphill battle to get any of her films off the ground in an industry as apparently indifferent to art as the worlds her characters inhabit are to them. The false start of her career with River of Grass was no doubt discouraging, and saw Reichardt re-emerge over a decade later as an ostensibly different kind of filmmaker, but the seeds of what make her one of America’s best were there from the beginning.
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