User reviews

A story about two outcasts who find friendship and a business partnership with each other in the American frontier.

John Magaro plays a gentle baker who begins the movie as cook for a prospecting expedition. He's too thoughtful and sensitive to really fit in with the macho wild men he's with, who bully and threaten him. Orion Lee is a Chinese immigrant who befriends him and suggests that they go into business selling the baker's biscuits at a local trading post. The biscuits are a sensation, but the enterprise is a dangerous one -- the only place to get milk is to steal it from the cow (yes, THE cow, not A cow) that belongs to the local aristocrat, played by the always welcome Toby Jones. The film begins in the present day with a hiker in the woods discovering something that hints at how the movie will end, and how the movie then circles back to that find is a small miracle of narrative storytelling.

Kelly Reichardt, who's made a career of quiet, understated films, remains true to form here. "First Cow" shows much more than it tells, which should please fans of art house fare but will probably frustrate more casual moviegoers who have less patience for the way stories are told. The two main characters don't talk much, but we learn much about them, not from what they say, but from how they act. The first time we see Magaro's character, for example, he's hunting for mushrooms in the woods, and he takes the time to set a salamander he finds back on its feet when it's struggling to flip itself over. And when Lee's character shows him to his cabin in the woods, the first thing Magaro does is find some wildflowers with which to decorate the small space. Little flourishes like these reward the patient viewer, and we come to like the two men so much that the end, though we've been warned of it in advance, feels that much more tragic when it comes.

Covid has seen to it that 2020 hasn't exactly been the most robust year for movies, but of movies that have been released so far this year, "First Cow" is one of the best I've seen.

Grade: A

Half of the audience that watches this film will likely hate it. I'm starting with that because this film is incredibly slow in terms of pacing, which will easily turn off the impatient viewers. Personally, if a film like that has an interesting story, a slow pace actually helps to suck me into a story. First Cow, which is one of A24's most recent releases, has just become available on-demand. While I wouldn't rank it among their best when looking at their stellar catalog of films in recent years, it's still a great movie all around.

First Cow follows a highly skilled survivalist/cook in Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro), as he stumbles upon a group of traders. Becoming close friends with King-Lu (Orion Lee), they illegally take an opportunity to earn themselves a profit. Once a cow arrives on one of the farms, they steal milk in order to cook biscuits for the townspeople. All seems well and good, but they can only keep it a secret for so long. This premise held my attention so well because the film continuously gave you reasons to care about the two main characters. It was that, on top of the slow pace that really kept me invested.

Films like Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves are what had me keeping an eye on director Kelly Reichardt because I found those films showed her true potential as a filmmaker. She's wonderful at bringing out the best in all of her performers. What kept me from loving those two films overall though, was the fact that I found them to be a little too drab in terms of sound design and music. That's clearly her signature because First Cow once again feels a little too much like that. I loved watching this film and everything that happens felt earned and satisfying, but the overall movie can feel a little lifeless at times. That's really my only issue with most of her film that I've seen. She's otherwise an award-worthy filmmaker in my eyes.

Yes, John Magaro and Orion Lee are both terrific and hold this film together from start to finish, but the real star of the show here is cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt. Having worked on her two aforementioned films as well as a few others, his work on Don't Worry, He Won't Get Far on Foot and Mid90s is when his name truly jumped out at me. Blauvelt is someone that I will begin researching and anxiously awaiting his next project, simply due to the fact that his work on First Cow was his best yet. The camerawork felt like a character in its own right. From certain ways, characters are framed to extreme wide shots that clearly have deeper meanings, the way this film looks pulled me in more than anything else.

In the end, there are things about the tone that bothered me throughout the entire movie, but the story, characters, and especially the way the film is shot held my attention throughout. It's hard to recommend this movie to those who are casual viewers and were looking to be entertained because I can almost guarantee that you won't be unless you're a film buff and know what to expect. If it wasn't for the dour feel of the whole thing just not clicking with me, I might be saying that I loved this movie. Overall, it's a very, very well-made film that deserves attention, but from the proper audience.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but Director Kelly Reichardt doesn't do plot driven movies. Still, FIRST COW is a feature where one has to be observant from the very first shot to the final one.

Reichardt's method of expression is to create a setting and fully immerse the viewer in it. Even though it's based on a novel by Jonathan Raymond (who also co-wrote the screenplay with the Director), FIRST COW isn't concerned with telling a tight knit tale, indeed the characters themselves seem to be exploring and creating their own "plot". They're own history. It's 1820s Oregon and two drifters, Cookie (John Magaro) and King-Lu (Orion Lee) end up in a small town with little at their disposal but some vague hope to keep on moving until they find themselves. The title animal comes to town and the pair find some short-term opportunity to use it's precious milk. Toby Jones is the owner of the Cow - and the richest man in the hamlet.

As is Reichardt's manner, the pacing is deliberate, her camera mostly steady (the movie is framed in the old fashioned 1:37 ratio) and the editing stately. She seems averse to making even the most intense situation palpable to the audience (her previous film, CERTAIN WOMEN, probably had cinema's least dramatic hostage sequences). Reichardt depicts the situation, and the viewer must create their own drama. It doesn't always work (WENDY AND LUCY), but, here as in OLD JOY, there is a vividness in the depiction that makes it worthwhile, if still not entirely satisfying.

Reichardt is an interesting talent and FIRST COW is an immersive dive into the old frontier (there is talk of going south towards the promised land of California and its emerging cities) even if it never quite strikes deep enough.

In present day, a woman finds a shallow grave with two skeletons. In the 1820's, Cookie (John Magaro) is a meek cook traveling with a group of rough fur trappers going to the Oregon territories. He finds naked Chinese immigrant King-Lu (Orion Lee) hiding from Russians after killing one of them. He helps King-Lu to hide as the group reaches their destination. The big local news is that the Chief Factor (Toby Jones) has received the first cow in the region which he needs for milk in his tea. Cookie and King-Lu conceive a new business if they can steal milk during the night.

The story is a bit quirky although it's not actually laugh out loud funny. Right from the start, it's a bit weird with naked King-Lu. I was wondering if this was going for a gay love story but it never goes there. Cookie is such a quiet character that he doesn't have the energy to drive the narrative. The cow is an interesting idea and this is a deliberately quiet movie. It just may be not going to be everyone's taste.

"It's the getting started that's the puzzle. No way for a poor man to start. ... You need capital, or you need some kind of miracle." "You need leverage." "Or a crime."

Another excellent Western from Kelly Reichardt, one with high production quality and which quietly subverts the genre's traditional themes. That starts with the two protagonists, King-Lu and Cookie (Orion Lee and John Magaro) who are rational, somewhat timid guys who hit on a plan to make a fortune via baked goods (yes, baked goods). Cookie is quite the domestic for the hero of a Western, and can crank out a clafoutis if necessary. The buddy he meets, King-Lu, is from China but is the antithesis of stereotypical representations, having traveled the world and multi-lingual, including English and the local Native American dialect. How fantastic is it that these guys aren't macho gunslingers, that they cook, sew, sweep the house, and forage while trying to figure out how to take advantage of this "land of riches." Meanwhile, the Native Americans themselves aren't blood-thirsty savages, they're people and they co-exist with the colonizers, which is reasonably accurate for the 1820's, a few decades before mass colonization would lead to genocide.

Despite the relative harmony, there is a quiet, rather ominous danger everywhere, from a bully in the fur trapping group promising to wait outside the fort after Cookie is paid to rob him, to King Lu describing how his friend was gutted from neck to loin because he was suspected of being a thief, to the more powerful men who debate how many lashes are appropriate in corporal punishment which is clearly at their discretion. There is no real law and order here, just force, and might makes right. At the same time, Reichardt is incredibly restrained in not showing a lot of violence, or reveling in it as a lesser director might have done.

Meanwhile, the message comes through that the West wasn't won with frontier spirit or some other aspect of mythical American exceptionalism, it was won with crime. Sure, the two mild-mannered fellas with big dreams steal milk from a rich guy's cow to make some delicious oily cakes, setting up a pop-up food stall (ok food blanket) that's quite popular with the locals, enriching themselves in the process. But the rich guy is stealing resources from the Native Americans and idiotically believes that the beaver can be trapped without limit. When he's told by King-Lu how vast the original beaver population was in the state, he can't extrapolate what greed will do to the population eventually, or doesn't want to (and indeed, the beaver was almost driven to extinction in Oregon). The little thieves end up in shallow graves, the big thief ends up likely lauded in the state's history, with a town probably named after him.

The first cow (fantastically played by Evie the cow btw) is thus a symbol of the natural order shifting, and in a profound way. Early on in a small saloon, one man remarks "This ain't a place for cows. God would've put cows here if it was." Another replies "No place for white men either then." It's notable that the cow is there so a rich man can have cream in his tea, and so he can display his status and sophistication to visitors who might look down on his rustic surroundings. It's a luxury, and reserved for him alone. It's the tip of an enormous iceberg, of many more white men with their precious possessions, of a lifestyle that will ravage the environment for the sake of personal wealth. In the opening shot in the present day, an enormous (and very ugly) cargo barge is seen going down the river. It's a shot I almost forgot by the time the film ended, but it seems to show in a subtle way the result of 200 years of such a lifestyle.

That's an aspect of Reichardt's direction I admire most, just how much she holds back and lets the viewer think about. There is a powerful message here, but it's delivered with great subtlety. Most of the scenes are played without a soundtrack in the background, and she doesn't feel a need to include shots to fill everything in for the viewer. There were places where I felt the film could have moved along a little more quickly and it won't be for everyone, but the more I thought about it afterwards, the more I appreciated what she had done.

The film's visual style is impressive but it's story and pacing is what really drags this film down for me. The cinematography is the one aspect I found to be excellent. The framing is on point and impressive and it adds a lot to the film's style. The production design and costumes are also really good here too. These characters look and feel as if they in the 1820s. The performances are also great too. Each character feels believable and works to help tell the story of the film. Although I like all that, the pacing is not very good. It feels incredibly long and tedious without any real majorly satisfying payoff. It's a 2 hour movie that feels like it goes on for 2 and a half hours. If they had cut down some of the scenes, this issue wouldn't be as major as it is. There were some elements of the story I enjoyed and some I found to be pointless. If you like A24 then check it out but don't have your hopes incredibly high for it.

For those viewers who believe the pace of the film is "slow", yes, there are no car chases. Instead, this film has a depth of character and original development that creates a mood so beautifully of the time and place. It is refreshing to have a plot that keeps the viewer's interest throughout. When the majority of movie offerings out there are pure trash, this film is a real treat.

Thanks to constant mental stimulation due to social media, cell phones, and online content always being available, the majority of people now have an extremely short attention span. If that sounds like you, then don't watch this.

I personally consider myself to be a very patient person, and if you are willing to just be patient and actively appreciate the film you will find this film to be a rich cinematic treat. The cinematography is exquisite, meticulously framed in a 1.33:1 aspect ratio. The performances are extremely watchable - these characters could easily have been rather dull or boring but the brilliant actors elevate them to near-mythological status. The plot, while cliched, is supported so well by the aforementioned elements that it feels like a completely new experience to the other films that have similar plots.

If you only watch films for a quick dopamine hit, this is not the film for you. In order to get anything out of this film, you must put in some of your own thought. Under the surface, the film is rich with ideas about capitalism, the American Dream, and especially male friendship. It's left up to the viewer to interpret the work for themselves, which is what I appreciate most about Kelly Reichardt - she doesn't try to force a message down your throat, she just lets you interpret her films however you want to. But you need to be patient if you want to get a good experience, which many people, especially on this website, don't quite seem to understand.

I see lot of people complain about the pacing of the movie. I personally have no problem watching a slow paced movie, in fact I love slow paced movie and most movies that came from A24. My issue with this film is that I don't find any strong emotional connection to the characters. I think mainly because the story is focusing more of the theme of greediness rather than desperation for life. By the time the movie ended, I couldn't find any strong reasons to be empathetic to the characters. I think the movie could be more appealing to larger range of audience if the characters are well developed and more engaging. The movie is still watchable for me, it isn't bad. I love the aesthetic of it. But it could be more engaging.

If you've ever seen a Kelly Reichardt film you know the well-regarded director is in no rush to get her audience anywhere fast or in particular, as she instead lets her camera linger on her characters and setting, well and truly the less is more approach to narrative storytelling.

Since her debut with 1994 effort River of Grass, Reichardt has steadily plowed away across her career with character driven dramas that will either have the audience in a trance like state of anticipation or others struggling to stay awake as things ever so slowly transpire in front of their eyes.

With her newest effort First Cow, Reichardt doesn't change her style in the slightest in adapting Jonathan Raymond's book, as we follow John Magaro's Cookie and his new business partner King-Lu (played by the films MVP Orion Lee) deep in the woods of the early American Oregon frontier where they search for fortune but settle for a small-scale business venture that sees them stealing milk from the areas sole cow.

The film feels and and breathes like its from the era it is set in, there's no flashy Hollywood style over substance here, this is a muddy and lived-in woodlands set tale that is further enhanced by Reichardt's stoic directing and 4:3 aspect ratio but while its alive in this sense of time and place, there's very little energy or enthusiasm coming from its tale or characters that feel as though they had a lot more to give.

There's nothing wrong with small and intimate character study's that act as metaphors to much larger explorations of the human condition and our history but First Cow constantly feels as though its beggining to be something more, something that never eventuates, never more so evident than in the relationship between Cookie and King-Lu as friends and business associates with Magaro and Lee doing fine work but finding themselves unable to escape the shackles of a film that doesn't let them fly free.

It's a hard film to hate, you can sense that Reichardt and her crew poured their love into this A24 distributed drama (one that I'm sure they will be promoting come awards season) but there's not a lot to love here as our central friendships, characters and story slowly plod along to a destination that never eventuates into a finale that makes it all truly worth your while.

Final Say -

A sure-fire hit with Reichardt fans, First Cow continues on with the form and product that has made her name but this snail-paced drama feels as though it had more to give with a bunch of colorful characters and situations that feel only half-explored.

2 1/2 broken branches out of 5

The movie begins with a modern day scene, we know the period only because we see a modern ship on the river. Then soon a skull is discovered and then two adult skeletons laying side by side in either a shallow grave, or maybe just covered by debris over the past 150+ years.

Most of the story is in the 1800s as explorers travel west to build a new life and perhaps find some of that gold. Gradually two men become friends, one a Chinaman the other a man from Maryland trained as a cook after being orphaned. When the first cow shows up, owned by a wealthy man, the two hatch a plan to form a business.

It is a nice story of friendship and cooperation to overcome obstacles, but as the period would dictate the men are dirty, the scenes are unattractive, and the story often moves quite slowly. It is almost 2 hours and I found myself wishing it had been 80 to 90 minutes.

The user reviews are quite polarized, many love it while many hate it. I can understand both extremes, I am somewhere in the middle.

My wife and I watched it at home on BluRay from my local library.

This was the 1st movie I had seen in a real theater in months. Otherwise, I might have bailed after 10 minutes. It is slow to develop, with a prologue that doesn't make sense. The forests of Oregon is a wonderful character, but I'm not terribly interested, especially since the natural-light shooting makes everything dark. The story is told in fragments, with missing explanations of the intervals.

The two guys meet in the forest, then later in a saloon, where they form a bromance / business partnership, the latter of which requires stealing milk from the 1st cow in the territory. In turn, each guy bounces between greed and wariness of being found out.

I suppose as an art movie, things don't have to make sense, including the backstory of the 1st meeting.

Kelly Reichardt's (Old Joy/Wendy & Lucy) latest is an 18th century fable of a couple guys trying to corner the market w/their savory muffins even though their stealing the ingredients to make those sweet edibles. Cookie, played by John Magaro, is attached to a skinning outfit but due to the scarcity of game, he has to make do w/what he can find which angers his party to no end. During one of his scavenging runs, he comes across an erudite Chinese man, played by Orion Lee, who's hiding out from some Russians who are after him so Cookie does the humane thing & hides him until the threat passes. Once they reach a settlement, Magaro drifts around but in a fit of serendipitous luck runs into Lee & through sheer gumption decide to make sweet muffins or as they call it "oily cakes" to sell to a hungry populace who buy them as fast as they make them but their success is hindered by a secret; they're stealing the milk to make the cakes from the only cow in the area owned by a wealthy businessman, played by Toby Jones, who just so happens to love their product so much he commissions a special dish when some influential guests come to dine at his home. Instead of possibly saving up money to buy their own cow or at the very least play their theft by ear, they continue to skirt their own safety ultimately getting caught & chased into the hills being pursued by Jones' men (one of which is played Ewen Bremner of Trainspotting fame). Slight but colorful in the extreme, this effort is of a piece w/all of Reichardt's work which tend to be regional (her films usually take place in the Pacific Northwest) but given the fact no one else is doing what she's doing (maybe Debra Granik (Winter's Bone/Leave No Trace) can stake a claim since her films kind of skew towards landscape melodramas as well), she's kind of cornered the market by delightful default. Co-starring Gary Farmer as an Indian noble, Stephen Malkmus (lead singer of the band Pavement) as a fiddler, Rene Auberjonois (in probably one of his last roles since he passed recently) as a member of the settlement & Scott Shepherd (he played Jean Grey's dad in Dark Phoenix) as Jones' esteemed guest.

In one scene, there's just one idiotic choice after another made by the characters... honestly, no normal person would be so idiotic as what was shown in the film, and that makes for a large plot-hole as far as realism goes (this particular scene happens at night, perhaps you'll know which one I mean).

There's also several other plot-holes in the film, that once again deals with the characters in the film making extremely illogical choices, but since I have not read the book that this film is based on, I can't say if that is indeed the way that the story unfolds in the book, or if the director of the film simply took some very idiotic creative-license when they directed the film.

Either way, the film is OK. It's not great, or good, it's just OK. You can watch it if you don't have anything else to watch.

It may be because of how I watched this - First Cow and Reichardt's films in general call for seeing it in a cinema if at all possible, she simply has that eye and ear for the minutest details and for the time she takes with every shot and many scenes to draw out the feeling of a place as well as for the actors to settle in, that you want to sink in to this film as a sensory experience, and instead I saw it at home where (I don't know about you but) I have too many distractions, not least of which the phone on a busy weekday - but it took me about fifteen to twenty minutes or so to get into the mood of this film. I wasn't sure if it might go anywhere really, as it follows the Cookie character as he is part of this fur trapping outfit (or almost on the outside, just barely with it, but enough to be in it without, say, getting into scraps/fights like the others), and it was frankly slow-going.

But then the story, as much as it is, kicks in and it becomes this very simple tale of a friendship and what may be a fairly minor crime in the grand scheme of things - taking milk from a cow that isn't there's so they can make oily cakes, basically the 1820's rural Oregon equivalent of what I assume is Krispy Kreme - and how it gets tested and firms as they become more successful and gain the employ of the wealthiest man in the area (Toby Jones), who... also happens to own the cow that they've been milking. It's so engrossing because of its simplicity, the delicacy and yet the immediacy of the world that Reichardt has recreated for us. Like all the best period filmmakers, she and her collaborators bring this part of America/the Pacific North-west to life in almost a humble sort of way: it isn't ostentatious, it's just... what it was, and that makes it special.

Aside from the performances themselves from these two, I have to wonder if the power of this film comes from something that maybe Reichardt was conscious of or maybe she wasn't, but this story makes me think about filmmaking itself, especially of the independent kind (or art creation in general). You have to assemble the right ingredients, and it most often takes some tenacity for it to all come together like it should (and how many times have you heard of someone on an indie movie shoot "going guerilla" or "stealing a shot" from some such and such a location they didn't have a permit for, etc). It feels like a story that Reichardt has lived at some point in her life, and she gets to deepen on the themes she worked in on Old Joy, also about a male friendship that gets tested by cirumstance.

And what's fascinating is how because of the slow-burn-ness of the pacing, by the time it gets to the last half hour or final quarter, it has some real suspense as we wonder how our two great lawbreakers will get out of this as they get hunted down. It's not quite to the same level of poetic grungy-frontier depiction heights as a McCabe & Mrs. Miller, but it has that same looseness and understanding about humanity, and if anything is less pessimistic about equality between people of different backgrounds and races. What happens after the end credits start to roll? I don't know, and I don't need to is the point - they've gotten through some s***, and they're together.

I am usually skeptical of industry hype, but this wonderful frontier indie is as every critic said- easily the best film of 2020 (as of July). It is a story of rising up when circumstances conspire to keep you down. It is a story of ingenuity and downfall from greed. It is a bromance for the ages.

Pacing is slower than necessary, but no more than one would expect from a Studio A24 production. You can fast forward through the first few minutes and not miss anything, but I enjoyed wondering why there was a modern ship passing through a movie about 1800's Oregon.

Audiences who appreciate cinematography and leisurely strolls through the lives and struggles of 1800's settlers will be entertained. Those expecting modern pacing, shootouts, and explosions will be sorely disappointed.

I am glad there wasn't much swearing or overt racism except for the scene where everyone stared in disbelief that King dared to talk to the Factor. Every character is a lovely shade of gray. I wanted everyone to wash their dirty hands while eating, but germ theory was still 50 years out.

A few caveats- this is shot in letterbox and is nowhere near 4K resolution. The story is predictable, and the main characters make some very dumb decisions. You have to be in the mood for darkness, both literal and creative. This isn't a Disney movie as you will realize within the first 5 minutes.

A positive surprise. At first the film feels that it doesnt know where it goes and shows a VERY detailed introduction of its two protagonists. But detail is the key word for this newest feature by Kelly Reichardt. The visuals are extremely detailed and so are the characters in general. We get a lot of information just by watching them in their daily lives and slowly the plot thickens and has some unexpected turns. Kelly Reichardt really did a fantastic job telling that story. She proves a fantastic eye for visuality, showing off some fantastic nature shots that really add a lot to the atmosphere of the film. She did everything right with this film, although she might once in a while loses herself a little bit too much in her details. The actors were wisely chosen and the leading roles filled with rather unknown actors who are usually in secondary roles. First of all there is John Magaro who is very subtle and effective. The better performance came from Orion Lee who is extremely charismatic and does a lot with the role given to him. I think he might have a very interesting future. I loved how he handled that role and gave it many different facettes. There is a good supporting performance by Toby Jones who does wonders with his rather one dimensional character. Ewen Bremner is a bit wasted, but not as much as Lily Gladstone which was insulting. Gladstone was brilliant in Reichardt's previous film, and ended up in my Top 5 Supporting Actresses so I was shocked how misused she was in this film. But thats just one of the very few flaws the film that. Another very positive note goes to the score, which is fantastic and as mentioned before the cinematography. Give it a try and try to read as less as possible about it so you have the chance to perfectly soak into it.

Very sincere effort, deserving sincere review. Meticulous re-construction of Northern frontier life in the 19th century. We know the Californian gold rush dragged countless souls to NW "ex"-Mexico, but before that was the rush for Fur. This film captures that "Silas Marner" moment, where beaver-felt in Europe was on the wane, in favor of Silk. You really need some of the frontier on the inside to appreciate how well done & intricate are the details here. A man on foot is far less effective than one on horseback, making our two fellow-pioneers poor; though you'd expect the Squire, at least to own a horse? And I've never met an oriental man who can't cook better than ANY Westerner - a fact of life that's hard to ignore. As for the pace of this artistic film, if you complain about that it's slightly missing the point. You see a lot of this in the work of the French cinematic school, mid 20th Century, long scenes with minimalist dialogue (perfectly spoken) & punctilious for the tiniest of details - something Hollywood ought to consider as an alternative to "effects for FXs-sake", big-star Egos, oppressive self-censorship and disarmingly gratuitous violence. I liked First Cow, not only for its cinematic endeavor, but also for its a-u-d-a-c-i-t-y to be different in an age of in-your-face predictable-ness. As for the "ending", the viewer needs the intelligence to figure this one out without having things spelt-out.

Is it okay to "steal" from a wealthy landlord to survive in this capitalist ladder?

First Cow is a brilliant tale about friendship and the necessary things we do to make hay. The central performances are brilliant and slow narration with pleasant country music really gives you the The Straight Story and Lone Star vibes. Haven't seen Kelly Reichardt's previous works but after watching this I am more than interested to complete her filmography. This film probably wouldn't receive a lot of noise during awards season but is definitely going to end up in many top 10 lists regardless.

The camera work and the scenery are great. The period settings look good, but I cannot confirm that because I was not there.

Other than that the story in simple with no excitement or anything special about it.

The editor, which is incidentally also the director, should have cut it to 90 minutes. Alas, I did skip through the many dull parts and was disappointed by the ending which hinted to, but did not really explain the beginning.

A mediocre attempt at a romantic story about friendship and the hardships of life on the frontier.