Sunday, January 24, 2010

Sweetgrass (Movie Review)


This slyly transcendental documentary consists of long, mostly wordless takes of sheep, cowboys, and the divine Montana mountains they wander through for 200 miles. Sweetgrass is austere enough to make Frederick Wiseman's films look like Jersey Shore episodes, yet it has its own suspense: It's there in the movements of the flock, seen at a God's-eye distance, and in the cranky grace of the cowboys, one of whom is such a cusser he could make Sarah Silverman blush.