The Pacific Northwestern: First Cow
February 17, 2026
In 1820, a cook and a Chinese immigrant team up to steal milk from a prized cow, the first and only in the Oregon Country.
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Tuesday, February 17, 2026
“History isn't here yet. It's coming, but we got here early… We can take it on our own terms.”
Otis "Cookie" Figowitz (John Magaro), a soft-spoken chef with a proclivity for mushroom foraging and sweet treats, abandons a group of antagonistic fur trappers to shack up with King Lu (Orion Lee), an enterprising Chinese immigrant on the run. Drifters full of dreams but low on bones, stones, and ingots, the pair find inspiration with the arrival of the first dairy cow to the region. Midnight milk heists enable their pursuit of a modest oily cakes empire, but their palette-cheering success attracts the attention of the titular bovine’s wealthy owner. Set in 1820 when westward expansion had yet to fully reach Oregon Country, Kelly Reichardt’s melancholic buddy film quietly explores the multicultural possibilities of building a new world and capital’s class-based barriers inhibiting that progress. An early casualty of the pandemic shutdown, First Cow deserves to be experienced on the big screen to fully appreciate its lushly verdant beauty, the tender depiction of male friendship, and Stephen Malkmus noodling on a fiddle.
- Director: Kelly Reichardt
- Principal Cast: Dylan Smith, Rene Auberjonois, Todd A. Robinson
- Country: USA
- Year: 2019
- Running Time: 122 min.
- Producer: Neil Kopp, Vincent Savino, Anish Savjani
- Screenplay: Jonathan Raymond, based on his novel
- Cinematographers: Christopher Blauvelt
- Editors: Kelly Reichardt
- Music: William Tyler
- US Distributor: A24