Meek's Cutoff
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Metascore
85 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 36 Critics What's this?

User Score
6.1 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 47 Ratings

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0 out of 10
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  • Summary: The year is 1845, the earliest days of the Oregon Trail, and a wagon train of three families has hired mountain man Stephen Meek to guide them over the Cascade Mountains. Claiming to know a shortcut, Meek leads the group on an unmarked path across the high plain desert, only to become lost in the dry rock and sage. Over the coming days, the emigrants face the scourges of hunger, thirst and their own lack of faith in one another's instincts for survival. When a Native American wanderer crosses their path, the emigrants are torn between their trust in a guide who has proven himself unreliable and a man who has always been seen as a natural born enemy. (Oscilloscope Films)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 32 out of 36
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 36
  3. Negative: 1 out of 36
  1. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    May 19, 2011
    100
    A mesmerizing cinematic journey that is often as arduous and spare as the lives of its hard-bitten protagonists.
  2. Arizona Republic
    Reviewed by: Bill Goodykoontz
    May 26, 2011
    80
    Greenwood is fantastic; his Meek occasionally lets down his facade of omniscience - but only occasionally. And Williams gives Emily not dignity exactly, but a calm, steely insistence on survival.
  3. New York Magazine (Vulture)
    Reviewed by: David Edelstein
    Apr 11, 2011
    60
    For all its indirection, Meek's Cutoff is an utterly conventional film. But it's worth asking whether Reichardt's drowsy rhythms, stripped-down scenario, and female vantage add up to something illuminating. And here's where she earns at least some of those plaudits she's been getting.
  4. New York Observer
    Reviewed by: Rex Reed
    Apr 6, 2011
    25
    Who goes to the movies for 104 minutes of punishment? Where is John Wayne, now that we need him?

See all 36 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 8 out of 18
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 18
  3. Negative: 8 out of 18
  1. 2GUI2
    9
    When something visually stunning is ignored, sometimes, in the movies, there is a feeling of disappointment and neglect that can distance the film right away from its viewer. But when, in a movie, every aspect and detail of beauty is carefully shown and appreciated, very much like in "Meek's Cutoff", we, the viewers, feel a warmth and desire to enter the picture and interact with all the little pieces that make it so great. Fortunately, in Kelly Reichardt's marvelous, minimalist epic film, those little pieces are spread through the screen and include both the characters and plot of the film as well as the insignificant but important surroundings of it. "Meek's Cutoff" is above everything an experience with the power of observation, managed so masterly and convincingly that you won't turn your eyes away.… Expand
  2. ZackLemcheck
    8
    In the name of all that's holy, let's never put any demands on the audience. If we did they might have to do some serious thinking about character dynamics, racial attitudes in the 19th century, trust and distrust of authority figures, the influence of landscapes in films, all sorts of stuff. Before you know it, you've got elitism.... the opposite of which, I guess, is the great common touch of mindlessness.… Collapse
  3. MaxTravis
    6
    In describing Reichardtâ
  4. MarcDoyle
    4
    Wow. As Joe says, it's certainly minimalist. But in a movie, I want more than what this movie is offering. You don't end a movie this way. I wrote a short story in college as part of a fiction-writing seminar, and I ended it in a similar way. I was roundly attacked by most everyone in the class as well as the professor - now I understand why. Michelle Williams is solid - so is Bruce Greenwood. Would I recommend that ANYone see this movie? Nope. Was the tension, the frustration, the desperation palpable? Absolutely. This would be a good movie-club type of movie to discuss among a group. It's the anti-There-Will-Be-Blood.… Expand

See all 18 User Reviews

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