‘First Cow’ is a nice movie about nice friends | movie review

First Cow tells the story of an unlikely friendship, their improbable business idea, and the cow that is the lynchpin behind both

Like all of director Kelly Reichardt’s films, First Cow is a warm blanket of a story where the stakes are never overstated, the characters are grounded to Earth, and the filmmaking leaves you to be immersed in its simple joys.

Director Kelly Reichardt has said that her movies are “just glimpses of people passing through.” And as oblivious directors often are about their filmography—I’m looking at you Nicolas Winding Refn—Reichardt hits the nail right on the head. Whenever I watch one of her films, I know I’m going to feel comforted in one way or another. The stories she tells invoke the feeling of talking to a stranger who has a great story to tell that they heard from someone else who in turn heard it from another person—and First Cow is no exception.

At the start, we see an unnamed woman (a cameo by Green Room‘s and Arrested Development‘s Alia Shawkat) who is walking her dog along a river. The adorable pup who would have been the star of the film if not for the eponymous cow uncovers a skull that is revealed to be a full skeleton—two, in fact, laying side by side. And though we never see the woman again, we could imagine that the story that follows is one that she slowly uncovers through research and pure curiosity and maybe begins to tell it at dinners. About the time she found two skeletons buried in the ground by a river.

We cut to the Oregon territory in the 1820s and meet Cookie Figowitz (John Magaro), a quiet chef traveling with a group of loud and aggressive fur trappers across the wilderness. While scavenging for food for the group, he stumbles upon a naked man cowering in the bushes. And despite his compromised position, he speaks deliberately and with control as if this is exactly where he’s meant to be. The man, King-Lu (Orion Lee), a Chinese immigrant, tells Cookie that he killed a man and is now on the run from a group of Russians—though it doesn’t quite explain his state of undress.

Though Cookie doesn’t say much, you can tell through his big eyes and gentle movements that he has a pure heart that drives him to give King-Lu food and shelter for the night. The next day King-Lu is gone, though Cookie glimpses him making his escape across a river later. Of course, as every good story goes, the pair sees each other again later with Cookie, now free of his commitments to the fur trappers, and King-Lu established with a small shack on the outskirts of a settlement.

The men bond over a warm fire and alcohol as they talk of their pasts and their ambitions. Reichardt has a unique ability to make you feel immersed in her worlds—the sounds of wood are chopped or a broom against a dirt floor pull you straight into the simplicity of the time. And the conversation is just one of those that warms you to the core—just two men from completely different backgrounds talking about their shared American dream.

But what if it wasn’t a dream?

Orion Lee as King-Lu and John Magaro as Cookie Figowitz in First Cow. Courtesy of A24.

Cookie talks about one day opening a bakery having studied under an English chef in Boston. King-Lu, the ever businessman, suggests they actually do it. Of course, there’s one problem. There’s no milk to put into the baked goods. Advantageously, Chief Factor (Toby Jones) has recently imported the first milk cow into the territory giving Cookie and King-Lu the chance to actually start their business by sneaking onto Factor’s property at night to milk the cow and sell the biscuits they make in the day. Of course, they’re an instant hit.

And truly, there’s not much more to the plot. Eventually, a wrench is thrown into their plan and they find themselves between a rock and a hard place, but Reichardt never overstates the stakes. Oddly, the resulting kerfuffle is almost comical in a way. However, the focus never strays from the film’s main focus: this unlikely central friendship.

In the time of the pandemic, civic unrest, and perhaps the worst year of many of our lives, First Cow reminds us of the simple joys of life—interesting conversation, a warm shelter, good food. It’s nothing more than that. It is a nice movie about nice friends and their nice business involving a nice cow. Yet, it feels consequential. Like everything I needed and wanted out a movie at this very moment.

First Cow is available to buy or rent on Prime Video.

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Hey! I’m Karl. You can find me on Twitter here. I’m also a Tomatometer-approved critic.

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Karl Delossantos

Hey, I'm Karl, founder and film critic at Smash Cut. I started Smash Cut in 2014 to share my love of movies and give a perspective I haven't yet seen represented. I'm also an editor at The New York Times, a Rotten Tomatoes-approved critic, and a member of the Online Film Critics Society.