Wind River
Voltage Pictures | Release Date: August 4, 2017 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
73
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 44 Critic Reviews
Positive:
35
Mixed:
8
Negative:
1
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
100
Chicago Sun-TimesRichard RoeperAug 10, 2017
Writer-director Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River is a stark and beautiful and haunting 21st century Western thriller, filled with memorable visuals and poetic dialogue — and scenes of sudden, shocking, brutal violence. Read full review
90
Los Angeles TimesKenneth TuranAug 3, 2017
The focus here is always on character and storytelling and the acting that brings it all alive. With thrillers this good becoming a lost art, Wind River is definitely one to savor. Read full review
90
The New York TimesGlenn KennyAug 3, 2017
An actor before he was a screenwriter, Mr. Sheridan clearly spent a lot of his time learning about filmmaking on movie sets; his direction is assured throughout. Read full review
90
TimeStephanie ZacharekMay 24, 2017
It does show us, in threads deftly woven, how circumstances can push hard against people, making everyday living a battle. Read full review
88
ReelViewsJames BerardinelliAug 10, 2017
Lambert’s three-dimensionality elevates Wind River above the norms of the traditional crime movie so that, in addition to delivering the expected tropes, it provides a richer, more fulfilling experience. Read full review
88
Movie NationRoger MooreAug 10, 2017
[Renner] and Sheridan and some terrific, under-used supporting players...give Wind River a somber, grim grace and the relentless forward motion of a thriller. Read full review
88
The Seattle TimesMoira MacdonaldAug 9, 2017
You have undoubtedly seen many films that cover, generally, about the same territory as Taylor Sheridan’s Wind River.... But you probably haven’t seen one quite like “Wind River,” a movie less interested in examining the crime than in uncovering the icicle of grief at its core. Read full review
88
ObserverRex ReedAug 8, 2017
It’s one terrific, offbeat and heart-pounding thriller set in the frozen wilderness of a Wyoming Indian reservation that never ceases to surprise, enthrall and pump the adrenaline with an energy that stuns. Read full review
88
TheWrapClaudia PuigAug 4, 2017
With its chilly, atmospheric and convincing story, Wind River has the feel of a richly immersive novel. It’s not perfect.... But the mood is tense, the characters are well-drawn and director-screenwriter Taylor Sheridan has crafted some of the best dialogue of any movie this year. Read full review
88
USA TodayBrian TruittAug 3, 2017
Renner, in one of his best roles, lends a weathered depth to Cory but also surprising intelligence to the character deemed “Sherlock Snow.” Read full review
85
TheWrapSteve PondJan 24, 2017
On the surface a tense investigative piece with Renner as a regular Sherlock of the snow, it also slips in cogent and damning points about the limitations and dead ends virtually forced on many residents of Native American reservations. Read full review
83
Entertainment WeeklyLeah GreenblattAug 3, 2017
For all its well-worn outlines, the narrative exerts its own fierce, clenched-jaw grip: a cautionary campfire tale that reminds us it’s not merely the end that matters, it’s the style and skill of the telling. Read full review
83
The PlaylistNoel MurrayJan 24, 2017
Sheridan pares his story and characters down to their barest essentials, making a movie that comes off sometimes as slight, but which ultimately delivers the goods for those who like smart takes on life-or-death macho adventure. Read full review
80
The GuardianPeter BradshawSep 10, 2017
Sheridan is emerging as a master of the Mexican standoff, the shootout, the stomach-turning crime scene, the procedural office politics, but he’s also adept at tuning into the vulnerability and strength of the women and men called in to uphold the law. Wind River is a smart and very satisfying movie. Read full review
80
Total FilmMatt GlasbySep 4, 2017
Sheridan directs as well as writes for the first time, and delivers a superb thriller with a powerful chill that gets in your bones. Smart, tense and soulful. Read full review
80
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzAug 10, 2017
As with all of the films he writes, Sheridan takes us to places that are foreign to many of us, yet immerses us so deeply into the sense of place that everything feels familiar, recognizable. It’s a trip worth taking, making “Wind River” another stop on the unique cinematic travelogue Sheridan is building. Read full review
80
Time OutJoshua RothkopfAug 4, 2017
Sheridan can’t quite shake a hint of Silence of the Lambs–esque familiarity, but that’s a wonderful standard to be reaching for. More to his credit, he fills his thriller with sharp observations among his Native American characters (not merely paid lip service), as well as the sudden crack of gunfire. You learn to look for tracks and clues; it’s a film that makes you a better viewer. Read full review
80
New York Magazine (Vulture)David EdelsteinAug 3, 2017
Although the resolution to the mystery wouldn’t do credit to a third-rate thriller, it’s crazily powerful — sudden and bloody but with no real catharsis, just a sense of waste and a feeling of, “What now?” I’m not sure how Sheridan would answer that — not that an artist really needs to. Read full review
80
The TelegraphRobbie CollinMay 22, 2017
Wind River confirms the director as a rising talent who can be trusted to beat his own enticing path through inhospitable ground. Read full review
80
The Hollywood ReporterTodd McCarthyJan 24, 2017
The film yanks the viewer to attention with its keen sensitivity to the rough winter conditions and limited prospects faced by the locals. It also features one of Jeremy Renner’s best recent performances, but does fall into some traps when it ventures into Tarantino and Peckinpah territory. Read full review
80
Screen DailyFionnuala HalliganJan 24, 2017
Wind River can be thrilling and it owns the ability to surprise and shock throughout. Read full review
75
Tampa Bay TimesSteve PersallAug 17, 2017
The movie's strength is Sheridan's knack for vivid characterization through little more than casual remarks and consistent voices. Read full review
75
The Globe and Mail (Toronto)Barry HertzAug 10, 2017
Sheridan knows how to craft a tidy whodunit – and a late-act switch in perspective works better than it should – but he eventually leans toward sermonizing instead of storytelling, a well-intentioned move that edges the story just this close to melodrama. Read full review
75
San Francisco ChronicleMick LaSalleAug 9, 2017
An impressive effort and an impressive result that opens up a world that most of us have never thought about and renders it with sorrow and vividness. Read full review
75
Boston GlobeMark FeeneyAug 9, 2017
All three actors are excellent. So’s Gil Birmingham, as the victim’s father. Read full review
75
RogerEbert.comChristy LemireAug 4, 2017
Sheridan drops us in and we know this place immediately; his storytelling is meaty but efficient, and his pacing moves along at a steadily engrossing clip before ultimately exploding in a startling blast of violence. Read full review
75
Rolling StonePeter TraversAug 3, 2017
Yes, his direction hits a few tonal bumps; he could have been tougher on his screenwriter on tightening the plot twists. No matter. Wind River packs an elemental power that knocks you for a loop. Read full review
75
IndieWireDavid EhrlichJan 24, 2017
Wind River may not blow you away, but this bitter, visceral, and almost parodically intense thriller knows what it takes to survive. Read full review
70
Wall Street JournalJoe MorgensternAug 3, 2017
The storytelling doesn’t measure up to the spectacular scenery; at several points the narrative veers sharply off-course into Tarantino-tinged violence, some of it patently silly. But the generally somber tone is interesting, the performances are involving. Read full review
70
Village VoiceBilge EbiriAug 3, 2017
Sheridan’s feel for psychology and setting are in fine evidence here. Wind River’s landscapes are forbidding and beautiful. Read full review
70
VarietyOwen GleibermanJan 24, 2017
Wind River adds up, and skillfully, but in the end it’s not all that exciting. It’s a vision of the new American despair — not an inner-city movie, but an inner-wilderness movie — and it could have used another twist or two. Read full review
67
Austin ChronicleMarjorie BaumgartenAug 9, 2017
Sheridan’s screenplay, despite some very nice touches and his typically laconic dialogue, is the weakest of his recent trilogy in terms of building tension and mystery. Nevertheless, it succeeds well enough on its own terms. Read full review
67
The A.V. ClubA.A. Dowd Aug 2, 2017
Driven by another of Nick Cave and Warren Ellis’ murmuring folk soundtracks, Wind River turns out to be the weakest of Sheridan’s loose trilogy — the one with the thinnest characterizations and the toughest time disguising its subtext as plainspoken townsfolk rapport. Read full review
63
Philadelphia Daily NewsGary ThompsonAug 10, 2017
It’s here that Sheridan’s genre instincts get the best of him, and Wind River gives way to lurid exploitation. Read full review
63
Washington PostAnn HornadayAug 10, 2017
Although Sheridan has approached the setting with the sensitivity and respect of his deeply empathic protagonist, the film still bears a slight but inescapable whiff of cultural tourism. Read full review
60
EmpireAndrew LowrySep 11, 2017
Taylor Sheridan’s flair for creating heartland epics is undimmed, but it’s hard not to wonder what someone with more directing chops, and the will to hit the accelerator, would have done with it. Read full review
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonAug 3, 2017
While there’s no reason to crack a lot of jokes to lighten the mood, it can start to feel like the movie relies too heavily on despair, to the point of capitalizing on its characters’ suffering — and, given the realism of Sheridan’s films, the suffering of people like them. Read full review
60
CineVueJohn BleasdaleMay 23, 2017
Though it can't bear too much comparison with Sicario, Wind River is far better than its title suggests and a promising directorial debut. Read full review
58
Christian Science MonitorPeter RainerAug 4, 2017
The film is gracefully directed around the edges, but the core story, a kind of existential murder mystery, is swallowed up by a series of increasingly outlandish plot devices involving drug runners and Tarantino-esque shootouts. Read full review
58
The Film StageJordan RaupJan 24, 2017
Let down by muddy characterization and a choppy directorial style, the drama finally coheres in its final act to deliver the uncompromising thrills that have been Sheridan’s trademark. Read full review
50
ConsequenceDominick Suzanne-MayerAug 10, 2017
Wind River is also a potent example of how form isn’t always enough when the story is as frequently unnerving for unintentional reasons as it is for the horrors it aims to present. Read full review
50
Chicago TribuneMichael PhillipsAug 10, 2017
Wind River is roughly 50 percent strengths, 50 percent contrivances. Often they collide in the same scene. Read full review
50
ScreenCrushMatt SingerJan 24, 2017
The crime story, involving the hunt for the men who murdered this girl, is strictly by-the-numbers (and there are a few clue that still don’t fit together in my mind) but Sheridan proves himself a surprisingly effective director of action. Read full review
38
Slant MagazineChristopher GrayJul 29, 2017
When Taylor Sheridan is left to his own devices, his work seems more abrupt and shallow, no more so than when he resolves all of this film's lingering questions in one unremittingly nasty sideswipe of a flashback. Read full review
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