Kelly Reichardt 2013 USA
Starring: Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning, Peter Sarsgaard, James LeGros, Alia Shawkat, Katherine Waterston, Logan Miller
Kelly Reichardt's films sit in the middle ground of American cinema. Her productions are independent and experimental, slow-moving and minimalist yet they frequently feature Hollywood stars. Michelle Williams has been a regular collaborator as has the singer/songwriter/actor Will Oldham (otherwise known as Bonnie Prince Billy) but in her latest Reichardt has gone further towards the mainstream than ever before, enticing Jesse Eisenberg and Dakota Fanning, while still remaining true to the unconventional style of her past work, at one point switching focus and concentrating on extras wholly unrelated to the narrative as her protagonists move towards their target in the distance completely unnoticed by campers watching game shows on portable TV's or working on their vehicles, driving home how anyone we pass in the street could be planning similar crimes and we'd never know. In the same vein she makes use of genre but pares it back and twists it, taking it into fresh and unusual territory. Her 1994 debut River Of Grass was compared to Badlands except the main couple go nowhere, commit no crimes and aren't all that keen on each other. 2008's Wendy And Lucy meanwhile was a road movie that functioned (mostly) without a car while 2010's Meek's Cutoff was a Western with nary a cowboy in sight. So it's only fitting that Night Moves should be about a group of eco-terrorists whose major act of violence exists only in the literal sense. This is after all fairly low-budget cinema so a huge explosion is hardly going to be represented with masses of CGI, flames and destruction. Instead the crime's only purpose isn't even political, it's merely a springboard with which Reichardt can explore the effects of the planning and consequences and there's simply a far-off blast followed by a corking scene with the meticulously constructed characters in profile as they drive away surrounded by darkness with all but the cab of their truck obscured, the only information conveyed in their silent faces. We can't see where they're going or even where they've been so there's only the now and the implication is that wherever they do go they'll never get away from where they are now. And they don't. Fanning's Dena begins the film as the money behind the project. The daughter of rich parents she's privileged enough to be idealistic but also spoilt enough not to fully comprehend the possible repercussions of her actions. She enjoys the glamour of it all, the talk, the false ID's, the adventure, but for the most part is used by her accomplices. She even does the majority of the graft, talking a salesman into letting her buy 500lb of ammonium nitrate fertiliser (despite having no permits or documentation) while the two men wait in the car and happily taking up a shovel when necessary. After the incident she's the one hit hardest when the realisation sinks in, her skin breaking out in raw blotches, one under her chin calling to mind the 'damned spot' that plagued Lady Macbeth (an appropriate thought considering the film's Shakespearean structure). Eisenberg's Josh has different roots that we never see and the unit initially mistakable for his family are actually members of a farming commune. He's moodier and more subdued but twitchy as if panic is quietly festering beneath his face full of stubble. His usual expression is one of silent disgust for practically everybody and when he arrives by car to find Dena and Harmon having sex in the latter's caravan he lets them be, walking into the woods so as not to disturb them, apparently able to keep his emotions largely in check. In a blink-and-you'd-miss-it moment though the façade slips as Dena talks passionately and argues with Harmon and a look of both pride and desire takes over making it clear that he adores her, a feeling that only enhances his separation and the anger he feels at hearing her problems second-hand. His unravelling is more gradual and mostly hidden behind people's incorrect suspicions of his misbehaviour towards his friend. Peter Sarsgaard's Harmon is the wildcard, the man who makes the bomb and a veteran of many attacks but some of his stories don't quite add up. Early on he talks happily of his love of fishing and in the second half he breaks his own rules, calling Josh out of what at first seems to be concern but that soon descends into encouraging his colleague to 'deal' with Dena because she's becoming a problem (not that he'll do anything concrete himself). Combined with his heavy drinking and his ostensible ease with what they've done it suggests a darkness based in his past as a Marine, an impression that maybe his principles are false and he performs these tasks because he knows no other life. The majority of the second half is spent with Josh, played with a startlingly fraught, barely concealed fragility by Eisenberg. Fanning and Sarsgaard are decidedly more average although the scarcity of their appearances may be partly to blame. Brilliance notwithstanding the film suffers from similar setbacks to Reichardt's others in that the mundane pacing of the script means that suspense is bled away rather than build up, something that the eerily atmospheric soundtrack just can't replace. The characters' questionable morality is also mishandled, rarely being broached and overall preventing a full connection with their plight. In fact without Eisenberg's towering yet subtle performance it may be difficult to even care about their fate when the end comes. The film is well worth seeing for Eisenberg's career-best feat and Reichardt's directing talent is plain for all to see but expectations should be sufficiently low in other areas, if at all.
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