WATCH: Night Moves

Night Moves, like all of Kelly Reichardt's films, is seriously ‘indie’. And not indie like ukulele soundtracks, naval-gazing teenagers, puffs of weed-smoke at golden hour, and bittersweet endings—endings where characters learn a little bit about themselves and the world, things that they, and you, ultimately already knew but just had to find out in time, plus some professional fine-tuning of their/your Xanax prescription. (I fucking love those movies). So if you're looking for Little Miss Lars Lost in The Real Garden State, maybe give Night Moves a miss and field search 'independent' in the iTunes store (definitely doing that later.)

Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning) are young, idealistic activists who plan to blow up a dam to attract attention to their vague but staunch environmental beliefs. They enlist the help of Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), a creepy veteran with bomb-making (in)capabilities who lives in a caravan in the woods. What follows is a fascinating and very natural-feeling thriller about how one might plan and carry out an act of eco-terrorism, complete with all the realistic and unique tensions, secrecy, logistics, personnel, and mental pressure that would go along with it. For anyone who has any kind of fist-raising green streak, Night Moves is a scary and necessary imagining of what could happen when those convictions are taken to their nth degree.

Reichardt has an unsettlingly sentient way with characters. Eisenberg does a perfect job as the asocial, paranoid leader (try to imagine actually blowing up a dam! or, like, helming Facebook!); Fanning brings a tragic truth to the misguided and way-out-of-her-depth rich-girl rebel Dena; and Peter Sarsgaard is, as always, creepily good. Particular praise must be given to the detail and direction of the film's setting: the alternative Oregonian communities that these characters live in. The earnest people and unsexy realities of the eco-conscious shared living co-ops and organic farmers are portrayed—well, nailed actually—with needling, discomforting accuracy. It's like a completely unfunny and not at all exaggerated Portlandia skit but with no punchline; just the quiet, humble, but meaningful trudge of day-to-day life outside the mainstream.

Tense, restless, neurotic, difficult, demanding, and void-filled films — classic Reichardt. Films that, with that description, bare an unfortunate resemblance to a list of symptoms for clinical depression. (They are also brilliant, and they are true 'indie' movies.) She tells depression-inducing stories, too: loneliness in the world (Wendy and Lucy), isolation from society (Old Joy) and helplessness against larger forces (Meek's Cutoff, River of Grass). Night Moves falls into this last class, a suspenseful and provocative study of three 'environmentalists' who choose to move—violently and militantly—against these looming, larger forces.

Written by Jim Vockler Whyte for The Thousands Online City Guides | ARCHIVE: VIEW HERE