First Cow (2020)

— Behind every great fortune lies a great crime.

Stealing the milk is an amazingly witty metaphor for colonial exploitation given this is both illegal and quite clearly unsustainable from the outset.

Is that a crow on René Auberjonois's shoulder? For what its worth, he's listed in the official credits as 'Man with Raven'.

• 1½ cup whole milk, warm, preferably stolen in dark of night
• 1 packet instant active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup warm water
• 2 whole large eggs, lightly beaten with a whisk made of reeds plucked from the river’s edge
• 1¼ stick unsalted butter, melted
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 48 oz animal lard—just an astonishing amount of lard—for frying
• cinnamon and honey for finishing

1. Pour the packet of yeast into the warm water and let sit for five minutes.

2. Meanwhile, scoop all 48 ounces of lard—yes, all of it—into a big Dutch oven. Heat on medium-high until the lard is melted and really, really, really hot. When you drop a tiny bit of dough into it, it should sizzle and start to brown pretty quick.

3. In a big mixing bowl, whisk the milk, melted butter, and eggs until combined. Add the yeast and water and stir.

4. In a separate bowl, mix the sugar, flour, and salt. Add to the wet ingredients and stir until combined. Add a little more milk if it doesn’t seem as thin as the dough Cookie used.

5. Drop little 1/3-cup spoonfuls into the hot oil. Use a big slotted metal spoon or other frying tool to poke them around as they bubble. Turn ’em over if one side is getting dark faster than the other. Scoop them out and place them on a paper towel–covered plate.

6. Drizzle with honey, sprinkle with cinnamon, and hope the governor never asks why they taste so good.

— Dan Kois (Salon)

Telling are the parallels between the small wooden barge that transports Evie to her new home in Oregon and the monstrous metal boat that gradually crosses Blauvelt’s boxy, Academy [actually 4:3] ratio frame.

— Brian Eggert (Deep Focus Review)

Reichardt and cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt film [the cow], particularly in that first shot, as though she were a unicorn or a dragon, practically glowing with some sort of internal magic or riches. Which, of course, is accurate—the cow’s arrival [awakens] in Cookie dreams of biscuits and cakes only possible with milk.

— Allison Shoemaker (RogerEbert.com)

The cow of the film’s title is its most significant female presence, for First Cow is fundamentally about relations between men.

— Patricia White: Women Auteurs, Western Promises (Film Quarterly)