Night Moves

Three environmental activists join forces to plot industrial sabotage, but the real peril kicks in when they separate. Writer/director Kelly Reichardt follows her slyly revisionist wagon-train movie Meek's Cutoff with a tense political thriller, imbuing the genre with her perfectly honed style: observant, character-driven, beautifully shot and laden with ambiguity. A memorably quiet, unsettling tale of conspiracy and paranoia. It takes us some time to understand what makes temporary allies of jittery Josh (Jesse Eisenberg), Portland, Ore.-style alterna-chick Dena (Dakota Fanning) and genial rural recluse Harmon (Peter Sarsgaard), beyond it being a mission of considerable danger and secrecy. When things don't go exactly as planned, however, the three react very differently to the resulting fallout, becoming possibly greater threats to one another than the police or FBI personnel pursuing them. While still spare by mainstream standard, this is easily Reichardts most accessible work, carrying the observational strengths of Meek's Cutoff, Wendy and Lucy, and Old Joy over to a genuinely tense story that actually goes somewhere.  Dennis Harvey, San Francisco Bay Guardian