For about five years now, actor Jeremy Renner has starred in Taylor Sheridan’s Mayor of Kingstown. Revolving around a family that primarily makes money based on incarceration rates, the Paramount+ original series is getting better and better. As popular as the show seems to be, this crime series overshadows an important piece of trivia: this is actually not the first time Renner and Sheridan have worked together. The first meeting between the Avengers actor and the neo-Western-based director came four years prior in a unique crime thriller.
It’s also a bit of a reunion between Renner and his MCU co-star, Elizabeth Olsen. There’s a lot to unpack here, so buckle your seat belt. Created to raise awareness for the many Indigenous women who go missing or are murdered (a social plight that hasn’t been recognized for a very long time), Sheridan’s Wind River has Renner stepping into the role of Agent Cory Lambert. Even though Cory’s official rank belongs within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service division, he’s pulled into an investigation when he finds a frozen body submerged within the snow on a Wyoming Indian reservation.
Jeremy Renner Handles This Serious Role Well
As Sheridan is the writer and director here, he formulates a much slower pace, which, in turn, makes the winter-covered landscape feel more like an isolated dome that no one can escape from. Olsen plays the fish-out-of-water FBI agent, assigned to assist Cory since there is foul play involved with the young woman’s death. Almost in sync with Sheridan’s methodical storytelling, Renner drops any semblance of the characters he was most known for at the time and brings forth a heavy but cold protagonist. Cory is a father who is hell-bent on solving this murder because his own daughter died three years ago, and that case is still unsolved.
Renner does a great job (much more than he’s apparently allowed with those other movies) of showing a torn man. Cory has to and wants to help the parents of the deceased, but it’s pretty evident that he is still full of sorrow for his own loss. The only chance he gets at letting this frustration and anger pour out is in the climax when he finally captures the person who killed 18-year-old Natalie Hanson.
Cory is reserved for most of the film, so this scene is quite surprising but also very satisfying. Renner’s evolution of the character (tracking and killing game, promising the father he will do what he has to, showing sadness at his own loss) followed by the climax is an ultimate cathartic moment. Although a sequel is in development (without Renner and Olsen), Wind River is not considered a franchise film. Renner still holds nothing back and delivers a career-defining performance.
‘Wind River’ Spotlights a Troubling Trend Among the Indigenous
While Elizabeth Olsen doesn’t give as much of a surreal performance as Renner, there is a lot to say about her ability to hold tension when it matters the most. As her character is inexperienced, her presence in climactic scenes makes everything feel more dramatic. Agent Jane Banner is more suited to cities, blocks, and buildings, not the harsh weather or the tribalistic attitudes of security guards. Olsen not only brings the numerous foils that Cory needs but also the female perspective that Wind River needs as a whole.
Except for minor female cast additions that help flesh out one bit of story detail and nothing more, Banner goes the extra step and forces the villains to reveal themselves. Besides the overwhelming feeling of grief and loss floating just above the plot, Renner and Olsen do surprisingly make a great duo in this neo-Western crime film. Watching them together on screen makes it clear why this became one of the top 10 independent films of 2017.
Like the other titles in Sheridan’s early career (Sicario and Hell or High Water), Wind River was made on a low budget, $11 million, the lowest of the American Frontier trilogy. A movie like this didn’t need much anyway. The seemingly never-ending cover of the snow helped create the illusion of secrets within the Wind River Indian Reservation. This massive covering that enveloped everything (including the sound) brilliantly complemented the message that Sheridan wanted to bring forth: the mysterious quietness (and bias) surrounding all the female Indigenous deaths.
In an interview with NPR back in 2017, Taylor Sheridan himself stated that within three months, the two researchers he hired could not find a single statistic on missing or murdered Indigenous women on reservations. That really says it all — and gave him enough reason to finish this film. If you want to see this thriller for yourself, Wind River is available to stream on Netflix.
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