First Cow
Short description
First Cow is set in the Oregon Territory of the 1820s, where a quiet, skilled cook named Cookie has joined a party of fur trappers. He forms a friendship with King-Lu, a Chinese immigrant also looking to make his way in the frontier. The two men start a small business selling fried cakes to the homesick settlers, but their venture depends on a secret ingredient: milk taken at night from the territory's only cow, a prized animal belonging to a wealthy local landowner.
Kelly Reichardt directed and co-wrote the film with Jonathan Raymond, working from Raymond's novel. It sits between Certain Women and Showing Up in her filmography, following earlier features such as Wendy and Lucy, Meek's Cutoff and Night Moves. John Magaro plays Cookie and Orion Lee plays King-Lu, with Toby Jones, Ewen Bremner, Scott Shepherd and Gary Farmer in supporting roles. Neil Kopp, Anish Savjani and Vincent Savino produced. The film runs 122 minutes.
Made for about 2 million dollars, First Cow earned roughly 1 million dollars worldwide, a modest return. Audiences rate it 7.1 out of 10 on IMDb across some 24,000 votes and 7 out of 10 on TMDB from a much smaller sample of 559 votes, while critics gave it 8.4 out of 10 across 224 reviews, a notably warmer response than either audience group.
What's left behind the scenes
- The film's visuals were inspired by the works of American artist Frederic Remington (1861-1909), renowned for his depictions of the Wild West.
- Before filming began, lead actors John Magaro and Orion Lee underwent training with a wilderness survival specialist. They learned how to skin squirrels, build fires, and sleep in the rain.
- Prior to filming, John Magaro studied cookbooks from the early 19th century and prepared dishes using these antique recipes during production.
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
