Film Review: First Cow

John Magaro as and Eve The Cow in First Cow.

There’s something magical about when a film is keenly attuned to itself. Sometimes movies are so in control of their tone that you can stop thinking about what they are capital-d Doing, safe in the knowledge that the story will get you where you need to go. It’s admittedly a highly subjective reaction and tends to be prohibitively dependent on every aspect of the film, but the universally satisfying realisation of being in good hands, when it hits you, is transcendent. First Cow comes to Australian cinemas this week, after a national premiere at the digitally-ran MIFF last August and an acclaimed run in theatres abroad – and it has magic to spare.

Co-written by director Kelly Reichardt and author Jonathan Raymond and based on the latter’s 2004 novel The Half Life, the film tells the story of Otis ‘Cookie’ Figowitz and a man he meets named King-Lu. Both labourers in sparsely settled early nineteenth-century Oregon, the men find promise of something more when the titular First Cow (*Beanie Feldstein “the TITULAR cow!” voice*) is brought into town. With Cookie’s culinary training, they begin surreptitiously milking her at night and using the spoils to make highly profitable, doughnut-like ‘oily cakes’ to sell at market. That mustn’t sound like much, but the film has such quiet, unsparing purpose, and is swamped in such winning tenderness, that this never matters.

Cookie, first of all, is a humble, considerate man with whom it is a blessing to spend the film’s two-hour runtime. In an incredibly by-the-book piece of storytelling that is somehow earnest enough to not feel staid, the first choice we see Cookie make as a character is when he rescues a tiny lizard, setting the helplessly overturned creature back on its feet so that it may scurry off into the forest.

It’s a moment that, to my immense comfort, reminded me of the director whose film I was watching. Reichardt is one of the modern filmmakers most often slapped with the ‘auteur’ label – understandably, as her style is as distinct as it is beautiful. With a camera that is still, patient, and lingering on landscapes, her acutely minimalist storytelling tends to concern itself people on the margins. Cookie and King-Lu, like numerous Reichardt characters before them, are modest people simply trying to establish themselves.  

Inhabiting these roles, the performances of the two leads are necessarily wonderful. Both men’s voices are oddly captivating – John Magaro as Cookie has a soft, unassuming drawl, and Orion Lee as King-Lu uses his deeper tone to convey a striking gravity. “History isn’t here yet”, he murmurs knowingly, as the film makes one of its many gestures toward greater meaning.

To characterise its thematic work that way is perhaps a little uncharitable, in fact. The truth is, Reichardt has more than a few cleverly pitched ideas to explore, from the environment and consumption (“the beaver here are endless”, a character declares heedlessly), to capitalism, to colonisation, to human connection; but ultimately, none of this intrudes or feels heavy-handed. Ultimately, Cow has a simple, will-they-get-away-with-it tension, and a bevy of genuinely affecting moments of basic emotional function.

For example, the simple pleasure of Cookie’s culinary handiwork unites everyone around him. I was even endeared, irresistibly, towards Chief Factor, the very man who Cookie is stealing from, when he takes one bite of the “comestible” and his face lights up. “I taste London in this cake”, he says wistfully – and I sigh dreamily, as if he’s a puppy, or an old couple holding hands.

Reichardt’s concern throughout Cow, it seems, is with people, and the consequences of the structures to which they are subject. That much is clear from the film’s framing device, which I won’t ruin here – this story, astonishingly tender and beautiful as it is, isn’t content to just give the audience likable characters developing an endearing friendship that you like to watch. As it must, the inescapable context of nascent capitalist settlement makes itself apparent. It’s best to enjoy this wonderful gift of a movie, with eyes open to all elements – pleasant and unpleasant – of the story that’s being told.

First Cow is showing in cinemas across Australia from Thursday 29th of April 2021.