FASTEST BUNS IN THE WEST (FIRST COW)

Do you think you have seen Westerns made from just about every possible angle?

Well, think again.

Kelly Reichardt's 'First Cow' fuses the prospector spirit of 'Goin' South' with the culinary delights of 'The Great British Bake Off' (or at least, its US equivalent).

An allegorical tale about a Jewish baker and a Chinese immigrant hitting upon a brilliant business idea in 1820s Oregon but eventually falling foul of a wealthy English landowner, it is a wonderful meditation on entrepreneurship and the American Dream.

Directed by Reichardt from a screenplay she co-wrote with Jonathan Raymond, it begins in the present day with a woman stumbling upon two skeletons in a shallow grave by a riverside as she walks her dog.

Reichert and Raymond transport us back to the 1820s as John Magaro's Otis "Cookie" Figowitz travels through Oregon's forests with a group of rough trappers.

The group harangue him for not finding enough food for them to eat.

Cookie, however, comes across Orion Lee's King Lu who is on the run for killing a Russian immigrant.

Helping him hide in his tent for the night and escape the following morning, he later runs into him again in a frontier town and takes up his invitation to stay in his shack in a nearby forest.

King Lu and Cookie bond as they talk about their hopes and dreams.

The Chinese immigrant aspires to owning his own farm, while the baker talks about his desire to run his own hotel and bakery for weary travellers somewhere warmer than Oregon.

Both know their dreams will cost money that neither has.

Tired of eating bread made from flour and water, Cookie wishes he could have milk to make decent scones.

Opportunity knocks when Cookie stumbles across a cow in a field, belonging to Toby Jones' English landowner Chief Factor.

Milking the cow at night, he bakes scones and soon craves honey to go with them.

However they both realise they have a potential business venture - provided they can keep their nighttime poaching of the cow's milk quiet.

Cookie and King Lu's hot cakes literally sell like hot cakes, with queues forming each day in the town to snap them up.

The duo are visited by Ewen Brenner's Lloyd who tells them to keep aside a cake for Chief Factor who wants to buy and taste one.

Wowed by the bun which reminds him of South Kensington, Chief Factor asks Cookie if he can bake a Clafoutis for him with blueberries, so he can impress Scott Shepherd's Captain.

The Captain is impressed but when Chief Factor invites him, Cookie and King Lu to see his pedigree cow after remarking her milk yield is surprisingly low, the friends fear their stealing of the milk for their lucrative venture may be exposed.

Reichardt, who is probably best known for the 2013 Oregon thriller 'Night Moves' with Jesse Eisenberg and  Dakota Fanning, crafts a really beautiful and unusual Western which bursts with atmosphere.

From the rattle of fire logs to the lapping of water against oars and the sizzle of a pan, Reichardt and her cinematographer Christopher Blauvelt plunge their audience in 1820s Oregon in the most vivid way imaginable.

Every sight, every sounds evokes a smell from the damp of the forest to every drop of honey and cinnamon dolloped onto Chief Factor's bun.

It is also a real masterclass in minimalist storytelling - with Reichardt just letting the images do the talking.

She draws out wonderful performances from Magaro, Lee, Bremner, Jones, Shepherd and the late Rene Auberjonois who appears as a Man with a Raven.

Magaro brings a real gentle quality to the part of the baker and you never doubt the good intentions of him and Lee, even if they have to resort to stealing milk.

Jones is terrific too as Chief Factor who marvels at Cookie's culinary skills but smarts when the duo's deception is revealed.

The milk of human kindness is in short supply as the film hurtles towards a mesmerising climax.

Few films in 2021 - maybe Chloe Zhao's 'Nomadland' and Denis Villeneuve's 'Dune' - are as evocative as Reichardt's in their use of nature.

A lot of this is down to Blauvelt's unobtrusive camera work and Reichardt's subtle editing.

Viewers will be reminded of the frontier spirit of Robert Altman's 'Buffalo Bill and the Indians' and Jack Nicholson's 'Goin' South'.

Nevertheless 'First Cow' feels truly original.

Few Westerns of the past few years have been as innovative.

'First Cow' is an absolute joy from its opening moments to its final set-up and it establishes Reichardt as a major filmmaking talent.

('First Cow' was released in UK cinemas on May 28, 2021)