Wind River

Wind River, a neo-Western thriller about the death of a young woman on an Indian Reservation, is about as bleak as you’d expect from writer-director Taylor Sheridan, the man behind Sicario and Hell or High Water. But don’t let this put you off, as the captivating, unpredictable plot and some outstanding performances make it one of the best films of 2017.

When tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) finds the frozen body of an eighteen-year-old Native American woman in the snowy wilderness, rookie FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) is sent in to investigate. However, after the FBI refuses to send extra resources, she’s left alone and out of her depth in a harsh and unfamiliar environment, forcing her to team up with Lambert to find and catch the killer.

Jeremy Renner, in quite possibly his strongest performance to date, excels in his role as Lambert, masterfully expressing the complexity of his character while also showing his pain and grief as he’s forced to relive a similar tragic incident in his past. The world that Sheridan depicts feels harrowingly realistic and unsettling, and conveys a deeper message about how these reservations and the people living on them have been failed time and time again.

Wind River is an excellent film that truly stands out as one of the highlights of the past year — it is not be missed.