Screened as part of NZIFF 2014

Night Moves 2013

Directed by Kelly Reichardt

Jesse Eisenberg, Peter Sarsgaard and Dakota Fanning are eco-activists in Kelly Reichardt’s skillful political thriller set in a world of shifting loyalties and tensely debated ethics.

USA In English
112 minutes DCP

Director, Editor

Producers

Neil Kopp
,
Anish Savjani
,
Chris Maybach
,
Saemi Kim
,
Rodrigo Teixeira

Screenplay

Jon Raymond
,
Kelly Reichardt

Photography

Christopher Blauvelt

Production designer

Elliott Hostetter

Costume designer

Vicki Farrell

Music

Jeff Grace

With

Jesse Eisenberg (Josh Stamos)
,
Dakota Fanning (Dena Brauer)
,
Peter Sarsgaard (Harmon)
,
Alia Shawkat (Surprise)
,
Kai Lennox (Sean)
,
Logan Miller (Dylan)
,
Katherine Waterston (Anne)
,
James Le Gros (feed factory clerk)

Festivals

Venice
,
Toronto
,
London 2013; Tribeca
,
San Francisco
,
Sydney 2014

Elsewhere

Three environmental activists join forces to plot industrial sabotage, but the real peril kicks in when they separate. Writer/director Kelly Reichardt follows her slyly revisionist wagon-train movie Meek’s Cutoff with a tense political thriller, imbuing the genre with her perfectly honed style: observant, character-driven, beautifully shot and laden with ambiguity.

“A memorably quiet, unsettling tale of conspiracy and paranoia. It takes us some time to understand what makes temporary allies of jittery Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), Portland, Ore.-style alterna-chick Dena (Dakota Fanning) and genial rural recluse Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), beyond it being a mission of considerable danger and secrecy. When things don’t go exactly as planned, however, the three react very differently to the resulting fallout, becoming possibly greater threats to one another than the police or FBI personnel pursuing them. While still spare by mainstream standard, this is easily Reichardt’s most accessible work, carrying the observational strengths of Meek’s Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy, and Old Joy over to a genuinely tense story that actually goes somewhere.” — Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian

“Reichardt takes this volatile story and handles it with care and precision, as if transporting unstable nitroglycerin. Night Moves, on balance, is the perfect name for a film that walks in shadow; a hushed and coiled thriller in which the characters struggle to find the line between civilisation and nature, conviction and crime…” — Xan Brooks, The Guardian