So if you read anything about this movie, you’ll read that it’s about the 19th-century Oregon Territory, right; and that’s true, but also it starts off with a vignette in the present-day where a hiker stumbles on two skeletons in the woods, so… y’know, there’s a slight hint that it might not be a happy movie.

But the thing is, it mostly is! It’s mostly this movie about two friends and their little frontier donut shoppe, and how they’re stealing milk from this one rich guy’s cow (the first cow in the territory, see) to make their baked goods. It’s quiet and calm… except for all the other people around.

Because really, that contrast is the defining characteristic of the movie, the way that these small, gentle activities and friendships are embedded in this brutal, cruel, violent society. That contrast comes up throughout the movie, in the person of that rich guy (a kinda foppish guy who loves his baked goods, but also violently exploits other people, and reacts to slights with murder) and in just little vignettes, like a big bearded guy who brings a baby into a bar right before engaging in a knock-down brawl.

The movie is gorgeous, with a lushly saturated Pacific Northwest wilderness that’s practically a character in its own right. The movie is framed in a 4:3 aspect ratio, and it was surprising to me how strange I found that — I’m totally used to seeing that on old movies, or movies that are doing a deliberate retro aesthetic (like Cold War or The Lighthouse, which are both black and white movies), but seeing it on a 4K HDR wide-color-gamut movie was weirder than I would have expected. (Although there is a higher-profile recent example of that. As Zack Snyder said of his eponymous cut: “It’s in the same aspect ratio as First Cow. Those two movies share some common DNA, I think. I would love that in a double feature, First Cow and the Snyder Cut of Justice League.” I, uh, don’t see that common DNA myself, but okay.)

Recommended.