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Meek's Cutoff (2010)

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All Critics
Top Critics

Average Rating: 7.5/10
Reviews Counted: 116
Fresh: 99 | Rotten: 17

Moving at a contemplative speed unseen in most westerns, Meek's Cutoff is an effective, intense journey of terror and survival in the untamed frontier.

Average Rating: 7.4/10
Critic Reviews: 32
Fresh: 29 | Rotten: 3

Moving at a contemplative speed unseen in most westerns, Meek's Cutoff is an effective, intense journey of terror and survival in the untamed frontier.

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Movie Info

The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in one another's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses

PG, 1 hr. 44 min.

Western, Drama

Directed By: Kelly Reichardt

In Theaters: Apr 8, 2011 Limited

On DVD: Aug 8, 2011

Box Office:$1.0M

Oscilloscope Pictures

Meek's Cutoff Trailer & Photos

More Photos (8)

Cast

Michelle Williams
Emily Tetherow
Bruce Greenwood
Meek, Stephen Meek
Will Patton
Solomon Tetherow
Zoe Kazan
Millie Gately
Paul Dano
Thomas Gately
Shirley Henderson
Glory White
Neal Huff
William White
Tommy Nelson
Jimmy White
Rod Rondeaux
The Indian

Critic Reviews for Meek's Cutoff

All Critics (116) | Top Critics (32) | Fresh (103) | Rotten (17) | DVD (7)

Imagine a collaboration between John Ford and Wallace Stevens and you might get a sense of what Kelly Reichardt pulls off here: a sincere re-creation of the pioneer experience, brought to life through careful, often unexpected detail.

May 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Reader

| Comment

Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

Top Critic

Greatly enhanced by the performances of Michelle Williams and Bruce Greenwood, director Kelly Reichardt's film quietly becomes engrossing - it almost sneaks up on you.

May 26, 2011 Full Review Source: Arizona Republic

| Comment

Bill Goodykoontz

Arizona Republic

Top Critic

A mesmerizing cinematic journey that is often as arduous and spare as the lives of its hard-bitten protagonists.

May 20, 2011 Full Review Source: Washington Post

| Comments (2)

Ann Hornaday

Washington Post

Top Critic

This is the sort of film critics love to praise because the filmmaker has done good work before; and well, there must be something there. Well, there's not.

May 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Detroit News

| Comments (11)

Tom Long

Detroit News

Top Critic

A film ponderously slow in pace yet kinetically charged with insight; starkly realistic yet allegorical too; psychologically astute yet politically resonant.

May 13, 2011 Full Review Source: Globe and Mail

| Comment

Rick Groen

Globe and Mail

Top Critic

"Meek's Cutoff" is more an experience than a story.

May 12, 2011 Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times

| Comment

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

Top Critic

A better complement than 'The Big Trail' would be 'The Blair Witch Project,' another film that taps into an American unease with the wilderness that is the shadow twin of the country's bold sense of manifest destiny.

November 17, 2011 Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

| Comment

John Beifuss

Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

I felt like I was trapped on a slow-moving wagon train to nowhere with a bunch of people I wanted to escape from.

October 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Laramie Movie Scope

| Comment

Robert Roten

Laramie Movie Scope

Offbeat and most interesting western about emigrant pioneers lost in the prairie.

September 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews

| Comment

Dennis Schwartz

Ozus' World Movie Reviews

... a primal piece of filmmaking, wrought from dirt and rock, calico and splintered wood, and illuminated by natural light and campfire.

September 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Parallax View

| Comment

Sean Axmaker

Parallax View

This stunning yet frustratingly remote film gets the exemplary transfer it deserves.

September 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Slant Magazine

| Comment

Chuck Bowen

Slant Magazine

Be warned. Some stretches are almost as much of a slog for the viewer as they are for the pioneers... But Meek's Cutoff conveys a far more realistic account of what life was really like on the frontier trail than John Wayne or Clint Eastwood ever did.

August 8, 2011 Full Review Source: Movie Talk

| Comment

Jason Best

Movie Talk Source: Movie Talk

This is a film where life and death decisions are made at every turn; where the very concepts of religion and humanity are dissected in gorgeously subtle yet devastating ways.

July 14, 2011 Full Review Source: Quickflix

| Comment

Simon Miraudo

Quickflix

Kelly Reichardt's extremely modest film is slow, but it is also intriguing, moving and meaningful.

July 13, 2011 Full Review Source: ABC Radio (Australia)

| Comment

CJ Johnson

ABC Radio (Australia) Source: ABC Radio (Australia)

May well be truer to what the migration west was like for many settlers than Hollywood's romanticized and sanitized version of such stories.

June 23, 2011 Full Review Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

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Duane Dudek

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Michelle Williams is now the only Dawson's Creek cast member with a chat-worthy film career.

June 16, 2011 Full Review Source: The Age (Australia)

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Jim Schembri

The Age (Australia)

I rarely feel the heart-in-my-throat suspense that I felt as Reichardt's characters sent a covered wagon down a steep hill ...

June 15, 2011 Full Review Source: Looking Closer

| Comment (1)

Jeffrey Overstreet

Looking Closer

"Meek's Cutoff" works wonders even if you don't buy the political metaphor, instead appreciating the film as a historical survival tale and a meditation on the nature of trust - how others win it from us and why we give it to them.

June 10, 2011 Full Review Source: Capital Times (Madison, WI)

| Comment

Rob Thomas

Capital Times (Madison, WI)

Exhausting and ambiguous, it's for moviegoers who relish a quiet, arduous chronicle of bleak hardship, seemingly portrayed in real time.

June 9, 2011 Full Review Source: SSG Syndicate

| Comment

Susan Granger

SSG Syndicate

Sparse, uncompromising and bewitching. Reichardt has stripped back all but the bare essentials, scattering the characters across the sun-bleached landscape like marbles.

May 31, 2011 Full Review Source: The Vine

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Clem Bastow

The Vine

By privileging the dynamics between the characters over story, Reichardt has created an extremely rewarding cinematic experience that is rich in political commentary, pathos and visual beauty.

May 30, 2011 Full Review Source: Cinema Autopsy

| Comment

Thomas Caldwell

Cinema Autopsy

It will definitely divide audiences. Some may find it a graceful and understated master class in observation. Others may be put to sleep.

May 27, 2011 Full Review Source: Entertainment Spectrum

| Comment (1)

Keith Cohen

Entertainment Spectrum Source: Entertainment Spectrum

More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for Meek's Cutoff

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I admire Meek's Cutoff's deliberate pacing, its emphasis on atmosphere, and how it cultivates a palpable portrayal of the high plan desert, but the film could have benefited greatly from a little immediacy. In true Leanian fashion, I don't think Kelly Reichardt is directorially savvy enough to control a film this

December 13, 2011

Jonathan Hutchings

Super Reviewer

Cast: Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Zoe Kazan, Paul Dano, Shirley Henderson, Neal Huff, Tommy Nelson, Rod Rondeaux Director: Kelly Reichardt Summary: Set in 1845, this drama follows a group of settlers as they embark on a punishing journey along the Oregon Trail. When their guide leads them astray,

January 12, 2011