At first glance, River of Grass is a by-the-numbers crime story/road movie with shades of classics such as Bonnie and Clyde. It's deadbeat man meets lost woman at a bar before the two commit a crime and go on the run from the law, but this being a Kelly Reichardt (Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy, First Cow) film, so much more than that. River of Grass, Reichardt's feature film directorial debut, has her trademarks: the loneliness of life; the vastness of the USA; evocative sound design and cinematography that focus on both the environment and people. It is the former that adds levels of depth to this crime caper story.

This has to be one of the most depressing and hopeless dramas about two felons there is.

Lee (Larry Fessenden) is a Grade-A slacker in his thirties, stuck living with his mother and with zero prospects. Cozy (Lisa Donaldson), also in her thirties, is a dissatisfied housewife who feels no emotional connection to her kids (she says as much in one of her frequent voiceovers). The two lost souls meet one night in a bar and subsequently break into a Lee's “friend's” house to swim in their pool. Cozy is playing with Lee's gun, which he found on the side of the road, when it goes off, seemingly killing the homeowner.

And so River of Grass' beguiling story starts. In a split second, Cozy and Lee are on the run with no money and no real plan of where to go next. Reichardt sprinkles her usual reflections on life and death and everything throughout the duo's story. Both characters are searching for something, but thanks to the complexity of life, what that something is isn't clear. If anything, believing themselves to be murderous outlaws actually gives them a purpose; something to work with. It's a bizarre and twisted setup that would fail in many filmmaker's hands, but in Reichardt's and co-writer Jesse Hartman's, it shines.

River of Grass is clearly a feature debut. It is rough around the edges in ways that most of Reichardt's other films aren't; that's not to say films like Wendy and Lucy, which depict the poverty line in the US, are overly sanitised or inaccurate, but they have a clear, cohesive, and focussed viewpoint presented on screen. River of Grass certainly presents plenty of viewpoints , but they are a bit more flimsy and scattered.

Thelma and Louise, released three years before River of Grass, went against the expectations of the style and genre, with a female-centred plot that made a refreshing change of pace. River of Grass similarly subverts expectations, and essentially becomes one big juxtaposition. There is no romance when normally there might be, the crimes are either poorly executed or just plain untrue, and the ‘road trip' element barely holds together when there is no escape or end goal ever in sight.

That is the beauty and singularity of River of Grass. Reichardt has forged a remarkable filmmaking career out of telling stories about people on the fringes of society, those with the dreams of living another life but without the means to make it happen. River of Grass is no different. It is defeatist and difficult, more so than some of her recent films, but it's a fascinating beginning to the filmography of one of the most special filmmakers working in the world today.

Limited Edition Blu-ray Features

• 2K restoration by Oscilloscope Laboratories & uncompressed stereo PCM audio

• Audio commentary by Kelly Reichardt and Larry Fessenden

• Audio interview with writer and curator So Mayer (2024)

• Larry Fessenden: Invisible Man, Renaissance Man, Monstrous Midwife – a visual essay by critic Anton Bitel on the career of actor and producer Larry Fessenden including his work with Reichardt and other independent filmmakers (2024)

• “Drive-by” outtakes

• Restoration featurette

• Trailer

• Optional English subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing

• Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Time Tomorrow

• Limited edition booklet with new writing by Caitlin Quinlan

• Limited edition of 3000 copies, presented in full-height Scanavo packaging with removable OBI strip leaving packaging free of certificates and markings

River of Grass will be released by Radiance Films on 28th April

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