The promise of the West remains forever over the horizon for the pioneers of MEEK'S CUTOFF, who follow their cusssed trail hand (Bruce Greenwood) into a splinter convoy while migrating to Oregon. An expert, understated thriller that locates paranoia in wide-open spaces and parched vista, Kelly Reichardt's feminist Western suggests that the yoke of the social order still looms large over the unsettled frontier. Shot in Academy ratio 35mm and made to look like a strange antique artifact recovered from an heirloom chest, MEEK'S CUTOFF demonstrates the Western remains a vast, unexplored country even as the 21st century marches on.