Wind River (15) ****

Dir: Tyler Sheridan

With: Jeremy Renner, Elizabeth Olsen, Gil Birmingham

Running time: 111mins

THERE are several shocking statistics that were used to inspire Wind River, a grim but supremely compelling new thriller from Tyler Sheridan, the writer (now also turned director) behind Sicario and Hell Or High Water. Primarily, there was the fact that while missing person statistics are compiled for every other demographic in the US, none exist for Native American women. Worse still, incidences of rape and sexual assault against American Indian women occur at four times the national average, as revealed by The New York Times.

Sheridan’s film lays bare the emotional and physical consequences of this appalling information. Hence, while it plays out like a conventional murder-mystery on the surface, albeit one that’s set amid unfamiliar territory, it’s got a lot more going on besides.

Just as he did with the first two films in his so-called "frontier trilogy", Sheridan uses his film to dissect an American problem, or failing, and present it in a way that could kickstart a wider conversation.

The story follows professional animal tracker Cory Lambert (Jeremy Renner) and fish-out-of-water FBI agent Jane Banner (Elizabeth Olsen) as they attempt to find the men responsible for raping and murdering a young American Indian woman whose body has been found amid the frozen wastelands of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming.

For Lambert, the case has a profound emotional connection, given the grief he harbours for his own late daughter – herself a victim of the aforementioned statistics given that questions remain unanswered about the circumstances surrounding her death.

For Banner, on the other hand, the case offers a startling wake up call to the grim reality of the reservation, where – according to yet more statistics – life expectancy is a mere 49 years of age and unemployment rates are higher than 80% – and where heavy snow is a particularly unforgiving element to also have to survive.

Sheridan, here making his feature film debut behind the camera, handles the dual responsibility of writing and directing with confidence. In terms of look and feel, he has clearly learned well from both Denis Villeneuve and Scotland’s David Mackenzie, who brought his first two screenplays to the screen. The action is muscular and exciting, the landscapes spectacularly captured and the characters are richly defined. Viewers will immediately be able to appreciate this belongs in the same filmmaking arena as Sicario and Hell Or High Water.

Of the performances, Renner is on career-best form as a man still struggling to come to terms with his own anger, yet who views the case as a chance to right a wrong. But Olsen is every bit as good as the rookie Fed who is forced to learn fast, particularly given the male dominated environment she finds herself in.

There’s brilliant support, too, from the likes of Graham Greene, as a dry-witted fellow law enforcement officer, and – most notably – from Gil Birmingham, as the grieving father of the victim, whose emotionally raw scenes with Renner are among the film’s most affecting.

Sheridan captures the harsh environment of Wyoming brilliantly, juxtaposing its natural beauty with an ever-present danger, and thereby imbuing the film with a secondary character of its own. And he also does a brilliant job of ensuring the film’s messages hit home without feeling like it’s being preachy or manipulative. He doesn’t talk down to his audience.

That’s not to say the film is entirely perfect. Sheridan’s decision to attempt to wrong-foot viewers during one pivotal exchange and show the actual rape and murder feels like a bad – and unnecessary – choice. He is a clever enough writer to have already conveyed the brutality of the assault, which makes his decision to belatedly show it borderline exploitative.

If anything, it opens up a separate debate about the unspoken need for so much entertainment to depict violence against women.

In most other respects, Wind River is a gripping, thought-provoking and superior genre piece that underlines Sheridan’s burgeoning reputation as one of the most exciting new filmmakers working in America today. It’s a film with an astute social conscience that isn’t afraid to hold present injustices to account.

Rob Carnevale