I’mnot focused on big plans, I’m focused on small plans,” says an activist in an early scene from Kelly Reichardt’s latest film,Night Moves. It’s probably a stretch to suggest that because this minor character is a filmmaker, she’s also a stand-in for Reichardt herself; nonetheless, her words nicely encapsulate the modest essence of Reichardt’s filmography.Night Movesmight be the ‘biggest’ of her five features to date, but it’s still a film whose story pivots on an explosion that’s heard only as a faint, off-screen rumble.
While the film – concerning three Oregonian amateur eco-terrorists (played by Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard) and their scheme to detonate a hydroelectric dam – is politically charged by default, it’s less a polemic than a methodical, low-key framing of the ‘is terrorism ever justified?’ argument. “I can almost argue the side of everybody in the film to some degree,” Reichardt suggests. “For me, it’s completely a character film, and [co-writer Jon Raymond] and I tried to put our own politics aside for this, and tried to follow the path of these three characters that we had in mind … we tried to really focus on the characters and what their politics would be, and not our own.”
Of all Reichardt’s films (which include 2005’s Old Joy, 2008’s Wendy And Lucy and 2011’s Meek’s Cutoff), Night Moves has the heftiest plot, though that’s a by-product of it being a film about a plot. As ever, mood and atmosphere are key, with the evocative rural Oregon locations and perpetually overcast skies playing a large role in abetting the temperament of Eisenberg’s guilt-ridden, paranoid antihero. The film’s ending – as audaciously ambiguous as that of Meek’s Cutoff – confirms that Reichardt is as interested in leaving her audience suspended in that mood, even if it comes at the expense of conventional narrative satisfaction.
It’s this quality, among others, that distinguish her as a truly independent filmmaker in an era when the term has been increasingly devalued. When I ask about the 11-year gap between her 1994 debut feature River Of Grass and the follow-up, Old Joy, her answer highlights the fallacy of the Tarantino heyday being a boon for all stripes of independent cinema.
“During that time, what happened? Reservoir Dogs happened, Pulp Fiction happened – there weren’t many women making films then anyway, so it was a really hard time in that respect, but then it was triply hard once those films came out. It kinda sealed the deal for a while, as far as trying to make films that had different shapes or stories or different methodologies.” Or, more succinctly, “If you were trying to do something without a tonne of popular music and blood.”
Reichardt also displays a healthy sense of cynicism regarding the reason behind her recently increased productivity. “I think in some ways age has finally trumped being a woman, like I’m old enough now – ‘She’s the oldest person on the set, we’ll listen to her’”, she laughs. “I’m not that social a person, and when I have a film, that makes me be social, and I like the idea of every couple of years just going somewhere where the elements are hard, and getting as far off the grid as you can, and just trying to make something with a bunch of people that you’re into, and everybody’s putting all their creative juices together. It’s a beautiful thing to be able to do in life, to have those experiences.”
Night Moves (dir. Kelly Reichardt) is in cinemas Thursday September 11.
