Cow

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Andrea Arnold’s fiercely independent filmmaking has taken her from arthouse darling, with low-budget critical successes such as Fish Tank (2009) and American Honey (2016), to helming the entire second season of HBO’s Big Little Lies. Her latest swerve is into cinéma vérité documentary. This one sinks down in the muck with two dairy cows — a mother and child — as they are herded through the daily routines of industrial milk production. The close proximity to these large, gentle creatures and the intimacy of the camerawork imbues the film with palpable tenderness, while at the same time offering a privileged vantage point into an often invisible industry. ~Travis Weedon