Meek's Cutoff

Kelly Reichardt’s tense period drama brings to life a perilous journey on the Oregon Trail: a brutal, embittered undertaking for a handful of westward sojourners (including Michelle Williams) and their less-than-trustworthy guide. The Portland-based auteur interweaves ruthless American capitalism and modern skepticism, aided by dazzling and dizzying camerawork by Reichardt regular Christopher Blauvelt, in a film that marked the director as one of the great feminist filmmakers of our time.