A beautifully photographed and acted slow-/anti-western drama about social classes, friendship, the means of milk production and the elusiveness of the american dream. While the meditative pace calls to mind Jim Jarmush's postmodern western classic Dead Man (1995), *First Cow* goes even further in stripping away any glamorous illusion about the old west, the scenery here being made up largely of dirt, mud and wet leaves and while the untouched nature sure looks beautiful, it's also threatening as hell... and so are other humans, of course.