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"  In Kelly Reichardt&amp;#039;s Old Joy (2006), two counterculture buddies meet after years. One has found peace, but the other remains a wanderer, and gradually we see how lost he is. The movie captures the tensions and sadness of their reunion so perfectly that I assumed Reichardt was a man. But here she comes with Wendy and Lucy, starring Michelle Williams as a poverty-line Midwesterner whose drive to get work in Alaska is tested to the limit before she&amp;#039;s halfway there. The movie got raves at prestigious film festivals around the world. What draws her to stories of young people living on America&amp;#039;s margins? &amp;quot;Kurt in Old Joy was personal,&amp;quot; Reichardt says, recalling her own nomadic New York existence. &amp;quot;I didn&amp;#039;t have an apartment for a long time, just moved from friend to friend. Which was okay in my twenties, but not after.&amp;quot; Wendy emerged post-Katrina as Reichardt and her cowriter, novelist Jonathan Raymond, asked, &amp;quot;How do you pull yourself up if you have gumption but no net?&amp;quot; Reichardt&amp;#039;s unforced intimacy creates a portrait of America itself. She dives so deep inside her characters, you feel urgently connected to them, even to Lucy\u2014Wendy&amp;#039;s dog and Reichardt&amp;#039;s too. Based in Queens, she makes her movies around Portland, Oregon, where director Todd Haynes lives. He introduced her to Williams, superb as the movie&amp;#039;s strong but scarily vulnerable traveler. &amp;quot;I thought, She&amp;#039;s never gonna do this,&amp;quot; says Reichardt, whose microbudgets are legendary. &amp;quot;But she&amp;#039;d seen Old Joy, so she really got down and dirty with us.&amp;quot; The result is an everywoman for our times. Next? &amp;quot;A western,&amp;quot; she says with a grin, &amp;quot;from sort of the female perspective.&amp;quot; "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.elle.com/culture/movies-tv/reviews/a9589/lost-girl-283759/?click=smart&kw=ist&src=smart&mag=ELM&link=-SMT-ELM>