The Films of Kelly Reichardt: River of Grass (1994)

River of Grass (1994) 

Directed by: Kelly Reichardt.

Written by:  Kelly Reichardt and Jesse Hartman.

Starring: Lisa Bowman (Cozy), Larry Fessenden (Lee Ray Harold), Dick Russell (Jimmy Ryder), Stan Kaplan (J.C.), Michael Buscemi (Doug), Lisa Robb (Young Cozy), Carol Flakes (Lee's Grandmother), Frances Reichardt (Lee's Mom), George Moore (Detective Kirby), Mannie Mack (Mr. Humphery), Monica Davidson (Mrs. Ortiz), Jerry Utter (Doug's Father - voice), Murray Von Murry (Robber), Carl Crowder (Loiterer), Matthew Sigal (Thief), Santo Fazio (Det. Ortiz), Greg Schroeder (Bobby).

 

In many ways, Kelly Reichardt’s debut film River of Grass feels like many other films from young, first time filmmakers. It tells a fairly standard story – of a couple on the run from the law, which is the type of story it feels like young filmmakers make when they don’t really know what they want to say quite yet. Reichardt certainly has her own take on the story – in terms of style, in terms of character, and even in terms of narrative – but it does feel like the film by a filmmaker still trying to figure out what they want to say. Watching it, you wouldn’t guess the career that Reichardt would go on to have – but you certainly do know that she will have a career – the talent is evident.

 

River of Grass takes place in Florida – Southern Florida, away from the tourists and beaches, and basically just a hot, sweaty, depressing wasteland. The main character is Cozy (Lisa Bowman), a young woman, already married, already with a couple of kids. She is bored in her life, and you can tell. She goes out drinking at a bar one night, and meets Lee (Larry Fessenden, playing a creep, because that’s what you hired him to play) and the pair just kind of hang out – eventually they end up by a pool, playing with a gun Lee has – a gun that accidentally goes off. Cozy believes she has accidentally killed someone – but in fact no one was harmed, something we (and Lee) find out fairly soon – but he never bothers to tell Cozy. He’s having too much fun “on the lam” as it were. They pair never do have sex – there is never any love between them at all – and they have no money to go on the run for real, so they spend their time hold up in a hotel, or driving around town looking for some money to get away.

 

There is a restless energy to River of Grass that is like nothing Reichardt has done since. The film has a drum heavy jazz score pulsating throughout much of the movie that helps keep the energy up. Reichardt also spends more time in cars than she will later – right inside with the two of them as they drive along. She also employs voice over narration supplied by Cozy – narration that feels a little like Sissy Spacek’s in Badlands, as both narrators aren’t quite accurately describing what is happening, which we in the audience can see.

 

There isn’t a lot that connects River of Grass with Reichardt’s other films – which mainly take place in the Pacific Northwest, and this is about as far away from there as you can get and still be in America. What they do share perhaps is its focus on people on the fringes of society – people running away from something, but don’t really have the money to do so. A few hundred bucks would be all these two strangers would really need to fulfill their plans – but they aren’t going to get that from anywhere. Her characters are trapped in their circumstances – with no way out.

 

The film differs in another way – and that’s the ending, which gives a more definite ending to the story that Reichardt often gives her films. It is a shocking act that ends the film, as Cozy eventually does discover that she didn’t actually blow up her life, and decides to do so anyway. It’s an ending I’m not entirely sure I buy. But it comes at the end of a movie that captures these sad lives of quiet desperation these people are living – so desperately unhappy, and trapped with no way out. Perhaps Reichardt didn’t make another film for 12 years because she needed to find her own voice, her own style – something she has brilliantly honed ever since. But her talent here is evident.