BITTERBRUSH

(director/writer: Emelie Coleman Mahdavian; cinematographers: Alejandro Mejía/Derek Howard; editors: Curtiss Clayton/Emelie Coleman Mahdavian; music: ; cast: Hollyn Patterson, Colie Moline; Runtime: 91; MPAA Rating: NR; producers; Su Kim, Emelie Coleman Mahdavian: Concordia Studio; 2021)

“Lets us see the grit it takes to be a working cowboy these days for a woman.”

Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz

Its title is taken from the vegetation of its western locale.

The filmmaker Emelie Coleman Mahdavian (“After The Curtain”) in this appealing nonfiction documentary takes a look at two young itinerant women cowboys, Hollyn Patterson and Colie Moline, working in Idaho at a rugged  job usually reserved for a man (being range riders). The ladies are signed-up to spend a four-month period living by themselves in a remote cabin herding cattle off a mountain range.

 It might be slow-moving fare and lacking a big story, but that doesn’t mean it didn’t catch my interest. I guess it lets us see the grit it takes to be a working cowboy these days for a woman.

We learn the girls have been together for maybe 5 years, but not much of their backgrounds is explored (except we get hints from time to time, like Hollyn has real marriage prospects in the future while the religious-minded Colie wants to have her own ranch one day). They seem to like living away from civilization. The ladies chat, take care of the many herding dogs, break in a colt, ride through a snowstorm, have no need for the Internet or smart phones or most modern conveniences, and seemed dialed-in to thinking this lifestyle is totally cool and has given them a sense of freedom.

It screened at the Telluride Film Fest. 

REVIEWED ON 1/23/2022  GRADE: B