River of Grass (1994)
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59% of users liked it
(99 ratings)
River of Grass has all the elements of a conventional road movie: a car, a gun, criminal plans, and young lovers on the run from an angry father who also happens to be a suspended police officer. But writer and director Kelly Reichardt has instead taken these familiar elements and fashioned an… More River of Grass has all the elements of a conventional road movie: a car, a gun, criminal plans, and young lovers on the run from an angry father who also happens to be a suspended police officer. But writer and director Kelly Reichardt has instead taken these familiar elements and fashioned an anti-road movie, a deadpan film that is more existentialist comedy than crime drama. The young lovers in question are Cozy, the cop's daughter, and Lee Ray, a shady character from the wrong end of town. Lee Ray comes into possession of a pistol, and soon he and Cozy find themselves unintentionally involved in a shooting. Fearing capture by the law, the two make plans to leave town, committing a series of robberies on the way. However, they don't manage to get very far; indeed, the film's central premise is how the romantic myth of lovers on the lam proves disappointing in the face of a far more pedestrian reality. This well-received, low-budget indie was shot on location in South Florida, placing its story against an appropriately depressed landscape of sun-bleached strip malls, barren highways and overgrown, swampy fields; the title is another name for the Florida Everglades. ~ Judd Blaise, Rovi
- Directed By
- Kelly Reichardt
- Written By
- Jesse Hartman, Kelly Reichardt
- Genres
- Drama, Art House & International, Comedy
- In Theaters
- Aug 4, 1995 Wide
- Studio
- Wellspring Media Inc.
Critic Reviews
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Emanuel Levy, EmanuelLevy.Com
This minimalist yet revisionist indie feature (Reichardt's debut) is a highlight of the 1994 Sundance Film Fest.
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Rob Gonsalves, eFilmCritic.com
There's an element of wit in Reichardt's minimalism here that isn't present in her later, more somber work.
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Christopher Null, Filmcritic.com
Plenty of fun but not really that memorable
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Cast
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Larry Fessenden
as Lee
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Dick Russell
as Jimmy Ryder
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Lisa Bowman
as Cozy
- Michael Buscemi
