Review: Night Moves
Directed by Kelly Reichardt • 2013 • 112 min
Kelly Reichardt’s newest film tackles environmentalism from the perspective of three American eco-terrorists. But it is less about the ethics of violence and the effectiveness of activism than it is a character study of one young man’s motivations and the aftermath of his actions. Building slowly, the film is a meditative portrait of American environmentalism, basking in the heterogeneity of the movement/community, refusing to pigeonhole its members. Even its central focus, three individuals seemingly unified by their shared crime, fractures quickly in the aftermath of their actions.
Night Moves opens with Josh (Jesse Eisenberg) and Dena (Dakota Fanning), travelling across Oregon to meet up with Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), a disgruntled former Marine. Josh is the central orchestrator of their plan to bomb a hydroelectric dam, but it is clearly Dena’s money and Harmon’s know-how that allow them to move forward. After the fateful act, they part ways, and the film begins to delve into its central themes in earnest, focusing primarily on Josh and his dissatisfaction and paranoia.
As the three work together, we catch a glimpse of their differing motivations. Harmon complains about golf courses in the American desert and the water wasted on them. Likely a veteran of one of the Gulf Wars, his attitude towards American consumerism and desert landscapes is perhaps tinged with resentment. Or perhaps his social standing comes into play - does he have to water the green to maintain his meager lifestyle? Using her parents’ fortune to bankroll her activism (and purchase the titular “Night Moves” power boat), Dena’s motivations appear to stem from a life of comfort and plenitude. Josh presents himself straightforwardly, seeking only that people start talking and thinking.
In reality, Josh wants people to see the world as he does, and resents those who would question him. The others share his myopia. Harmon brushes off statistics about sea life depletion, expressing a desire to go fishing before the fish run out. And Dena looks to a documentary filmmaker for answers on what to do to make a difference in the world. While she is told that large acts won’t save the environment, that small day-to-day actions hold the key, her assault on the dam suggests that the question appeals more than the answer.
When he returns to the organic farm where he lives and works, we see that Josh is something of a loner in a community of environmentalists, most of whom don’t seem to share the ideals of any of our three protagonists. As news reports begin to come in about the dam, along with reports of a missing man last seen camping downstream, his employers and colleagues mostly show disdain for the act of destruction. A dialogue is certainly taking place. People are talking, yet Josh has failed. Dena’s pragmatic coldness similarly begins to falter in the face of tragedy. If Harmon keeps it together, it’s not clear whether this is a product of determination or detachment.
With a mixture of suspense and moody paranoia, Night Moves is Reichardt’s first step away from the road movies she has previously confined herself to. And yet the film shares the aimless journey, eccentric Americana, and modern-day Depression setting of Old Joy and Wendy and Lucy and the dark hopelessness of Meek’s Cutoff. Reichardt is a master of slow-paced character-studies, and her interest in journeys is reflected in Night Moves‘ investment in geography. The distances between points in Oregon, the many shots of car and boat rides, the isolation of the three protagonists when they return home - all of these features of the film create a rich sense of space and mobility, shifting the focus away from the violence and tragedy that frame the narrative to better engage with its characters.
Night Moves is a welcome addition to the suspense genre, and to Reichardt’s own body of work. A distinct, masterful voice in American cinema, Reichardt proves, once again, how versatile her abilities are, all while maintaining the signature style that made her earlier films such a pleasure to watch.