By Nadia Ranaputri
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| Image credit: FilmAffinity |
Director: Kelly Reichardt
Cast: John Magaro, Orion Lee, Toby Jones, Scott Shepherd, Ewen Bremner, Lily Gladstone.
When First Cow opens, we're taken to a nice, quiet forest. A woman walks along the forest with her dog. Then her dog comes across something that leads him to start digging. What could it be? Has he found a treasure? Leftover food, perhaps? The woman stops him before he could continue his dig, only to continue digging the ground herself. So what does she find? It's a remnant of the past, and one that leads us to the bygone era of the Oregon County in the 1800s.
First Cow centers around fellow traveler and chef Otis "Cookie" Figowitz (John Magaro), who's travelling with some rowdy hunters. Along the way, he meets Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant who is on the run from the Russians after killing one of their own. Cookie eventually allows him to come along with him, sparking an eventual friendship. Realizing their shared dreams of seeking opportunities, Cookie and Lu set their sights on a lone cow sent to the Oregon Territory for the wealthy Chief Factor (Toby Jones), devising a plan to use the cow's milk to make and sell batches of oily cakes as a means to make a living.
First Cow won't be for everyone. It's incredibly slow, and it very much remains that way for most of the film's runtime. Think Blade Runner 2049 levels of slow. But this is one of those films where it justifies its slow pacing. It allows you so much time to familiarize yourself with this era and its characters. It boasts some similar styles as The Revenant, but First Cow is much more contained, whereas a film like The Revenant feels much bigger in scale. The brutal Oregon Territory in the 1800s is portrayed in a simplistically gritty way. It lets you explore this deranged world where many had to fight for their own survival, whether it is against the harsh weather or the threat of other men. Many of the scenes linger towards the ones trying to make a living. There are even aspects of colonialism and socialism, and capitalism; how money is one of the vital commodities of this era, but it's discussed in a very subtle way, through both the writing and the visual storytelling. Yet,
despite its reliance on visual storytelling, much of the film's
dialogue is sparse. It tells what it needs to tell. In other words, it
gets straight to the point. A character can say a certain revelation
about who they are, but rarely ever explains it any further.
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| Image credit: WBUR/ A24 |
As
mentioned earlier, one of the central heroes of the film is the
emphasis on visual storytelling. I love films that are able to tell the
story in a visual way, and lets the audience figure the answers on their
own. The majority of First Cow is relied on visuals, and the way
it executes this is near perfect. A lot of the scenes linger on
particular images, person, or object, that later become significant.
Take Bong Joon-Ho's Parasite in comparison. In the beginning, the
scholar's rock that Ki-woo is given with by his friend has heavy
implications towards symbolism and as an object that Ki-woo is attached
to. Yet, these implications are drawn from both visual and dialogue.
Ki-woo and his family sees it as a sign of wealth because his friend
says it is, and Ki-woo keeps the rock close to him in the film's third
act, even to the point of it being used against him as a weapon at the
very end. First Cow does the complete opposite of this. Instead
of relying on both the visuals and the dialogue, the film mostly chooses
to focus on the former. At first, you might start to wonder why such a
particular person or object is being shown, because there isn't much
explanation or context to it. But the more the film goes on, the more you understand the intention behind every visual emphasis. There
are many visual hints that feel like trinkets or pieces of a puzzle
being left behind, all we have to do is pick up on them and piece it
together ourselves.
However, First Cow doesn't always lean towards ambiguity, regardless of its visual storytelling, more towards subtlety. It
may even seem as if the film ended on an ambiguous note, but if you've
picked up on one particular scene, you might have already guessed that
there's more to it, and it isn't all that ambiguous. Yet
at the same time, the presentation itself has an intimate feel to it, a sort
of tenderness that contrasts the themes discussed in the film. You'll
notice that despite the grim atmosphere and later tension, much of the
violence is rarely ever shown on screen. Sure, there are fights here and
there, but they're always in the background rather than being placed in
the center of the film. Perhaps this decision was to maintain the
simplicity and intimate element to it. This wasn't intended to be a
gritty Western in the first place, and it stays that way throughout the
film. At the
center of the deeper themes, it's about the development of an unlikely
friendship of two men trying to make their way in the world. The first
half of the film is dedicated to their first encounter and eventually,
the evolving bond between Cookie and Lu, which are elevated by the nuanced performances from John Magaro and Orion Lee. It gives this a slightly lively
atmosphere that though heavily restrained, is fairly visible. By giving time to the smaller
scenes, the film allows the audience to get a sense of who the
characters are in general, as well as their relationship and
what roles they play in society. You buy into their struggles and why they would end up doing things they normally wouldn't to make a living. In the film's case, it's stealing milk from a wealthy man's cow to make Cookie's oily cakes.
First Cow is an interesting film to come back to, but it's also a film where if you put your full attention to it, you might have already pieced together a lot of the foreshadowing and visual hints in the first viewing. First Cow could be a very divisive film. There will be ones that love the film for its simple presentation and a slow film that leads to a rewarding third act. But there will also be the side that will ultimately dislike how it moves at a snail's pace. If you're familiar with most of the films from A24, you won't be surprised at how the film presents itself. It's something among the lines of films like A Ghost Story, a fantastic A24 entry, but the film itself is nothing like a horror film, as the title may suggest. It's instead a slow exploration of a deceased man watching the people in his life as a ghost. First Cow, on the other hand, is not the typical action-filled Western that you would expect, but rather a contained look at the friendship of two men and a scheme that could put them in danger. Even so, violence was never used as a way to create tension, the atmosphere and the story itself does. It's used in a very subtle way and even leaves some of the interpretation to the audience. Though, to be fair, it's not the most exciting film from A24, but it's still a welcome addition and a very fine film overall.
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| Image credit: Film at Lincoln Center |
Overall verdict: First Cow is quite an odd film, but it's nothing new if you're familiar with A24 films. It's a slow moving film that really takes its time in fleshing out its world and its two main characters. This films explores many themes, yet discusses them in a subtle way, mainly through visual storytelling. And that's the thing, visuals are the film's focal point of conveying its themes and story. It lingers a lot on visual hints and cues that might seem insignificant at first, but would later play a vital role in the film. It's also very subtle and low-key, even when it comes to the tension, but it's still there. Such example could be found in a scene where the Chief Factor, the owner of the only cow in the land, tries one of Cookie's oily cakes. It's a slow methodical scene, and you start to wonder if the Chief Factor would immediately realize that milk must be the hero ingredient based on the taste. Some of the key elements of the story even felt as if they were left to the audiences' interpretation. It doesn't always give information directly, it's being left somewhere for us to find ourselves. But the core of the story is really a growing friendship between two men making a living in a grim world, which explains the more grounded and intimate feel of the film. First Cow isn't going to be for everyone, but for the ones patient enough to tread through its deliberately slow pacing, you might just find yourself rewarded on how it all comes together.
Stars: 4.2/5
First Cow is available to watch in select streaming services
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