Top 100 Most Anticipated Films of 2010: Kelly Reichardt’s Meek’s Cutoff

Reichardt’s modest and economical explorations of America’s Western landscapes are a breath of fresh air.

Published on January 20, 2010

#13. Meek’s Cutoff

Director: Kelly Reichardt
Writer(s): Jon Raymond
Producers: Neil Kopp (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy)
Distributor: Rights Available.

The Gist: The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon team of three families has hired the mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a short cut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage….(more)

Cast: Paul Dano, Michelle Williams, Bruce Greenwood, Will Patton, Shirley Henderson, Zoe Kazan.

Why is it on the list?: Reichardt’s modest and economical explorations of America’s Western landscapes are a breath of fresh air.

Release Date/Status?: In post-production, Wendy and Lucy preemed at Cannes, and if a French distributor is in place, then I’m thinking this should find itself on the Croisette as well.

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Eric Lavallée

Eric Lavallée is the founder, CEO, editor-in-chief, film journalist and critic at IONCINEMA.com (founded in 2000). Eric is a regular at Sundance, Cannes and TIFF. He has a BFA in Film Studies at the Mel Hoppenheim School of Cinema. In 2013 he served as a Narrative Competition Jury Member at the SXSW Film Festival. He was an associate producer on Mark Jackson's This Teacher (2018 LA Film Festival, 2018 BFI London). In 2022 he served as a New Flesh Comp for Best First Feature at the 2022 Fantasia Intl. Film Festival. Current top films for 2022 include Tár (Todd Field), All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen), Aftersun (Charlotte Wells).