Best Kelly Reichardt Films, Ranked by IQ Score

Kelly Reichardt's filmography is the most-sustained engagement with Pacific-Northwest geography, working-class American cognitive register, and slow-pace formal commitment in contemporary American cinema. Her catalog operates at a register most U.S. distributors have abandoned — sub-90-minute features, deliberate cinematography, ensemble protagonists whose intelligences are rendered through observation rather than dialogue.

Anchor picks: First Cow (2019) is the catalog's most-canonical entry — frontier-Oregon period drama whose friendship-between-cook-and-Chinese-immigrant structural premise the film takes entirely seriously. Certain Women (2016) is the canonical short-story-triptych entry. Wendy and Lucy (2008) was the breakthrough. Meek's Cutoff (2010) is the most-formally-experimental entry — the 1.33:1 aspect ratio is the canonical Reichardt visual decision.