Boring? Or truly simply underrated.
The minimalist, harrowing drama Meek’s Cutoff might be greatest recognized for igniting a debate about artwork and leisure when NY Instances Journal’s Dan Kois labeled it as boring and cited watching it for instance of “consuming your cultural greens” (i.e., one thing that you just do out of a must show your sophistication, relatively than for pleasure).
Whereas the controversy had benefit, utilizing Meek’s Cutoff as a central instance of an overcooked cultural vegetable was misguided—mainly as a result of, properly, the movie isn’t boring. It’s slow-moving and sparse, but it surely’s additionally terrifying, intense, and taut, forcing you to contemplate the pioneer expertise in methods you by no means actually needed to.
Meek’s Cutoff is sort of just like the traditional laptop sport Oregon Path, besides crossed with The Shining. As an alternative of laughing when your pioneer household will get misplaced and the wagon breaks a wheel, the film makes you notice the utter horror of wandering hopelessly throughout barren terrain with another household that you just’re beginning to view much less as companions and extra as potential brunch.
Maybe this skilled movie critic can persuade you:
“Past that, Meek’s Cutoff is a movie that works masterfully with area, time and historical past. You could possibly name it a thriller or horror film in excessive sluggish movement, or a parable that’s extra about 2010 than 1845. At numerous moments it recollects Bertolucci’s The Sheltering Sky, Erich von Stroheim’s Greed and people verses from the Previous Testomony. Little question it might bore many individuals foolish, however its temper of desolation, hazard and determined religion affected me extra powerfully than the rest I noticed amid the onslaught of cinema at Toronto this 12 months.”—Andrew O’Hehir, Salon
Should you’ve by no means seen Meek’s Cutoff, I’d encourage you to expertise it for your self. It’s a haunting, unforgettable tackle survival and the human spirit—a movie that lingers just like the desert’s oppressive silence.
