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The result is an intimate, coolly insinuating portrait of conspiracy in action, and viewers may be surprised at how tense they find themselves - and how invested they have become -as Josh, Dena and Harmon prepare to execute their mission. Instead, the film focuses on procedural details, all the tiny ways in which the best-laid plans can go awry acquiring 500 pounds of ammonium nitrate fertilizer without arousing suspicion, for instance, turns out to be a trickier proposition than they expected. Thus, apart from a few doom-laden statistics about the sorry state of marine biodiversity, the characters here don’t spend too much time mouthing off about their political agendas, as they’re already on the same page anyway. Together they plan to blow up a nearby hydroelectric dam and send a message to those who think it’s OK, as Josh puts it, to “kill salmon just so you can run your fucking iPod every second of your life.” But Reichardt, whose past several films were subtle expressions of liberal despair, proves just as willing to confront the delusions of the extreme left, and her focus here is the point at which vaguely stated ideals become irrevocable realities. Writing with her usual scenarist, Jon Raymond, the director makes effective early use of establishing shots, silences and scraps of conversation to establish the secret plans of Josh (Eisenberg) and Dena (Fanning), two Oregon-based environmentalists who have been radicalized to the point that working on agricultural communes and raising awareness at documentary screenings are no longer enough.Īnd so they purchase a small boat (whose name gives the film its title), acquire fake IDs and meet up with Harmon (Sarsgaard), an older ex-Marine who knows a thing or two about explosives. “Night Moves” is, instead, precisely the sort of intelligent, measured thriller Reichardt’s admirers would expect from her brand of patient realist filmmaking, a picture that starts slow but quietly gets its hooks into the attentive viewer.

performance of Fox Searchlight’s far flashier eco-terrorist thriller “The East” may provide a useful point of comparison.) With its genre elements and name leads ( Jesse Eisenberg, Dakota Fanning and Peter Sarsgaard), “Night Moves” is unlikely to draw the same critical attention as the more rarefied “Wendy and Lucy” and “Meek’s Cutoff” it’s neither the commercial sellout that purists may have feared nor the sort of revelatory breakthrough that would spell major crossover potential.

Reichardt has expanded her scope and stretched her talents with every feature since rising to indie prominence with the microbudget two-hander “Old Joy” (2006), and it’s been fascinating to see her retain her personal-cinema principles while adapting to the challenges of a more expansive (and expensive) canvas each time out.