River of Grass

{{For|the book|The Everglades: River of Grass}} {{Use mdy dates|date=February 2026}} {{Infobox film | name = River of Grass | image = River of Grass film poster.jpg | caption = Theatrical release poster | director = Kelly Reichardt | producer = Jesse Hartman | screenplay = Kelly Reichardt | story = Jesse Hartman Kelly Reichardt | starring = Lisa Bowman Larry Fessenden Dick Russell Stan Kaplan Michael Buscemi | music = John Hill | cinematography = Jim Denault | editing = Larry Fessenden | released = January 1994 (Sundance Film Festival) {{Film date|1995|10|13}} (limited theatrical) | distributor = Strand Releasing | runtime = 76 minutes | country = United States | language = English | gross = | budget = }}

'''''River of Grass''''' is a 1994 American independent film directed by Kelly Reichardt in her feature film directorial debut.<ref>[https://www.npr.org/2016/03/10/469640316/reichardts-river-of-grass-reissued-a-first-film-at-a-fast-pace Movie Review: RIVER OF GRASS : NPR]</ref> Reichardt wrote the screenplay from a story by her and Jesse Hartman. It was selected for the Sundance Film Festival and the Berlin International Film Festival,<ref name="Walker" /> and was nominated for the Sundance Grand Jury Prize and four Independent Spirit Awards.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news |last=Dretzka |first=Gary |date=January 12, 1996 |title=Film Nominations Are Independent-minded |work=Chicago Tribune |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1996/01/12/film-nominations-are-independent-minded/ |url-status=live |access-date=October 4, 2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130521135435/http://articles.chicagotribune.com/1996-01-12/news/9601120025_1_vegas-nominated-odessa |archive-date=May 21, 2013}}</ref>

The film is set in the Broward and Dade Counties of Florida, between Miami and the Everglades (nicknamed "the River of Grass"). The story concerns two unhappy runaways who attempt to flee South Florida after getting involved in a shooting incident. Inspired by Terrence Malick's ''Badlands'' (1973), the film subverts common crime drama and road movie tropes;<ref>{{Cite web |title=River of Grass and Its Sources |url=https://www.ifccenter.com/series/river-of-grass-and-its-sources/ |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=IFC Center |language=en-US}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Lei |first=Alex |date=2019-05-23 |title=Revisiting Kelly Reichardt's Debut, RIVER OF GRASS |url=https://www.filminquiry.com/river-of-grass-reichardt/ |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=Film Inquiry |language=en-us}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=Burns |first=Sean |date=2016-03-18 |title=Indie Director Kelly Reichardt's 1994 'River Of Grass' Comes Out Of The Shadows |url=https://www.wbur.org/news/2016/03/18/kelly-reichardt-river-of-grass |access-date=2025-05-30 |website=WBUR-FM |language=en}}</ref> Reichardt explained that she and Hartman wanted to understand "how the lone-rebel, a fixture in every road movie, could exist in the '90s when even the Burger King slogan tells you to 'Break the Rules.'"<ref name=":1" /> The film ultimately suggests that the protagonists are as interested in fleeing their unsatisfying lives back home as they are in fleeing the police.

==Plot== Cozy is a dissatisfied housewife in her thirties who feels no emotional connection with her children. She lives in Dade County with her husband, and also her father, Jimmy, a taciturn crime scene investigator and erstwhile jazz drummer. When Jimmy loses his gun, his loutish boss suspends him, and the gun is found by Lee Ray Harold, a deadbeat living in adjacent Broward County with his elderly grandmother. When Harold threatens his grandmother with the gun, his grandmother kicks him out of the house.

Driving and shooting the gun recklessly, Lee nearly runs over Cozy as she walks to a local bar. Cozy confronts Lee in the bar, and Lee buys her a drink. He convinces her to break into a friend's home and swim in the pool. While Lee shows Cozy how to use the gun, the owner of the pool comes out to investigate, and the gun goes off.

Believing they have killed the man, Cozy and Lee hide out in a hotel and engage in various low-level shenanigans, including stealing and selling vinyl records from Lee's grandmother to pay for gas. Lee considers robbing a grocery store only for another robber to hold up the store instead and make off with the cash. Lee then tries to get money back from a pair of unused Greyhound Bus tickets to New York, but then flees the terminal when the ticketing agents regard him with suspicion.

The police forensics lab reveals that Lee's gun was the same gun that Jimmy lost. Lee encounters their supposed victim, alive and well, but does not tell Cozy. The police consider putting out an APB for the two, but without a victim, the police don't see them as a high priority, and Jimmy persuades his colleagues to hold off.

When Lee is pulled over at a toll station and the policeman lets him off with a warning, Cozy realizes that they are not wanted for murder. Lee tries to explain his deception; Cozy shoots him and drives away. The film ends with Cozy stuck in traffic.

== Cast ==

* Lisa Donaldson as Cozy * Larry Fessenden as Lee Ray Harold * Dick Russell as Jimmy Rider * Stan Kaplan as J.C. * Michael Buscemi as Doug

==Themes and conception== Reichardt grew up in the part of Florida the film depicts.<ref name="NYT review" /><ref name=":1">{{Cite web |date=October 1, 1995 |title=Kelly Reichardt by Todd Haynes |url=https://bombmagazine.org/articles/kelly-reichardt/ |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220827103220/https://bombmagazine.org/articles/kelly-reichardt/ |archive-date=August 27, 2022 |access-date=2022-10-04 |website=BOMB Magazine}}</ref> She has described the film as "[a] road movie without the road, a love story without the love, and a crime story without the crime."<ref name="Walker">{{citation |url=http://calendar.walkerart.org/event.wac?id=5640 |title=River of Grass |publisher=Walker Art Center |access-date=April 26, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110927003349/http://calendar.walkerart.org/event.wac?id=5640 |archive-date=September 27, 2011 }}.</ref> Her subsequent films, such as ''Wendy and Lucy'' and ''Meek's Cutoff'', involve similar themes, of people trying to leave a place but frustrated by their lack of resources.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Longworth |first=Karina |author-link=Karina Longworth |date=April 14, 2011 |title=Meek's Cutoff: Go West, Young Women |work=LA Weekly |url=https://www.laweekly.com/film/meeks-cutoff-go-west-young-women-2169970 |url-status=dead |access-date=April 26, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180802041048/https://www.laweekly.com/film/meeks-cutoff-go-west-young-women-2169970 |archive-date=August 2, 2018 |quote=Meek's Cutoff, like all of director Kelly Reichardt's previous features (River of Grass, Old Joy, Wendy and Lucy), is essentially a road movie about both the unequal distribution of power and resources and the frustrations of the disenfranchised.}}</ref> Of that theme, Reichardt said, "I guess it's just a good setup for different kinds of searching: question-asking, looking for the next place to go, what are you looking for, what are you leaving. All those things are good for grounding it in getting from point A to point B."<ref name="AVC interview" >{{citation |last=Adams |first=Sam |url=https://www.avclub.com/kelly-reichardt-and-jon-raymond-1798225326 |access-date=April 26, 2011 |date=April 26, 2011 |title=Interview: Kelly Reichardt and Jon Raymond |publisher=The A.V. Club |archive-date=September 8, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210908125039/https://www.avclub.com/kelly-reichardt-and-jon-raymond-1798225326 |url-status=live }}.</ref>

==Festivals and theatrical release== ''River of Grass'' debuted in competition at the Sundance Film Festival in January 1994, and then played at the Berlin International Film Festival in February 1994. Its theatrical debut was in New York City at The Public Theater on August 4, 1995, which was followed by a limited release in the U.S. on October 13, 1995. It was shown at the Buenos Aires International Festival of Independent Cinema on March 30, 2009.

===Re-release=== In January 2015, distributor Oscilloscope Laboratories launched a Kickstarter in order to digitally restore the film.<ref>{{cite web |last1=McNary |first1=Dave |title=Sundance: Oscilloscope Joins Kickstarter Campaign to Restore 1994's 'River of Grass' |url=https://variety.com/2015/film/news/sundance-oscilloscope-joins-kickstarter-campaign-to-restore-1994s-river-of-grass-1201417984/ |access-date=25 January 2016 |website=Variety}}</ref> In December, the Sundance Film Festival announced that they would be showing a special screening of the film at the 2016 Sundance Film Festival.<ref>{{cite web |date=December 17, 2015 |title=Sundance Institute Adds Seven Films And Events For 2016 Sundance Film Festival |url=https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/seven-films-and-events-added-for-2016-festival |access-date=25 January 2016 |website=sundance.org |archive-date=30 January 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160130050720/https://www.sundance.org/blogs/news/seven-films-and-events-added-for-2016-festival |url-status=live }}</ref> A limited theatrical re-release was planned for March 2016.<ref>{{cite web |date=December 18, 2015 |title=Watch the Exclusive Trailer for the Re-release of Kelly Reichardt's Lost Debut River of Grass |url=http://www.papermag.com/kelly-reichardt-river-of-grass-sundance-1515647125.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151220232537/http://www.papermag.com/kelly-reichardt-river-of-grass-sundance-1515647125.html |archive-date=December 20, 2015 |access-date=25 January 2016 |website=Paper}}</ref>

==Critical reception== ''The New York Times'' film critic Stephen Holden described ''River of Grass'' as having "the look and feel of a sophisticated home movie featuring everyday people instead of actors." He praised the film's evocation of "a sense of suffocating ennui," but criticized the story as too "sketchily told" and the dialogue as too "fragmentary" for the film to cohere.<ref name="NYT review">{{citation |last=Holden |first=Stephen |authorlink=Stephen Holden |url=https://movies.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE0DF1430F937A3575BC0A963958260 |access-date=April 26, 2011 |title=River of Grass: Too Bored to Be Bad |work=The New York Times |date=August 4, 1995 }}.</ref>

==Accolades== {| class="wikitable"  |- !Year ! Ceremony ! Recipient ! Category ! Result |- |1994 | Sundance Film Festival<ref name="Walker" /> || Kelly Reichardt || Grand Jury Prize: Dramatic || {{nom}} |- | rowspan="4" |1995 | rowspan="4" |Independent Spirit Awards<ref name=":0" /> || Lisa Donaldson|| Best Debut Performance || {{nom}} |- | rowspan="3" | Kelly Reichardt || Best First Feature || {{nom}} |- |Best First Screenplay|| {{nom}} |- | Someone to Watch Award || {{nom}} |}

==References== {{reflist}}

==External links== *{{IMDb title|0110998}} *{{Rotten-tomatoes|River_of_Grass}}

Category:Films directed by Kelly Reichardt Category:Films set in Florida Category:Films shot in Florida Category:Everglades in fiction Category:1994 films Category:American drama films Category:1994 directorial debut films Category:1994 independent films Category:American independent films Category:1994 American films Category:1994 English-language films Category:1994 comedy-drama films Category:English-language comedy-drama films Category:English-language independent films