Elizabeth Olsen and Jeremy Renner are teaming up to catch a killer in the trailer for Wind River. Though much of the story has been kept secret, we do know that film will focus on the aftermath of a young woman on the Indian reservation in the Wyoming wilderness. An investigation is headed by novice FBI agent Jane Banner (Olsen) and US Fish and Wildlife agent Cory Lambert (Renner). Graham Greene (The Green Mile), Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) and Kelsey Chow (Teen Wolf) round out the cast.
The new crime thriller is written and directed by Taylor Sheridan, writer of the acclaimed Sicario and Hell or High Water. Wind River was screened at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival and received positive reviews from critics and those in attendance. While primarily known for his acting roles on Veronica Mars and Sons of Anarchy, director Taylor Sheridan has focused the last several years behind the camera. His screenplays have been largely successful, with Sicario and Hell or High Water receiving Academy Award and Golden Globe nominations.
Entertainment Weekly debuted the trailer, seen above, which clocks in at a tense two minutes. We’re given the width and breadth of the desolate Wyoming hinterlands, where the vastly-underfunded law enforcement has “six officers to cover an area the size of Rhode Island.” Despite the open, empty surroundings, we’re given claustrophobic shots of the investigation, leading to the discovery of a shack with pictures of women lining the walls and a silent resistance from the reservation residents who see Olsen’s Banner as an interloping outsider. As the trailer continues, it’s clear that the investigation causes the characters to unravel into desperation and violence as they try to track the killer.
Wind River is the latest in the snow-noir sub-genre that has seen growing popularity in recent years. From Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy and Jo Nesbø’s Harry Hole series in literature to television series like Trapped and Fortitude, Sheridan’s Wind River seeks to add to the snow-noir category by focusing on the disconnection between the frontier and the contemporary world. Like Sheridan’s work so far, there Wind River is a mix of noir with a modern wild west feel. The snow is clearly used as a symbol for the secrets kept on the reservation and the grim likelihood that this will be another unsolvable crime, due to the vast wasteland surrounding them.
Wind River marks the end of a loosely-threaded trilogy by Sheridan, whose films have explored the dangerous and desperate sections of America that often go ignored. In Sicario it was the borderlands adjacent to Mexico, in Hell or High Water it was rural Texas and here, the vast expanse of Wyoming. The running subplot between all these films is the problems in and shortcomings of the laws that are meant to protect people and the officers that are unable to enforce said laws.
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Source: Entertainment Weekly