Sightlines · reception
How Wendy and Lucy was received
2008 · Kelly Reichardt · Wendy and Lucy on Sightlines
The arc
Acclaimed from the start — it landed on many critics' 2008 top-ten lists — but its timing gave it a second life: opening right as the financial crisis hit, it came to be seen as the defining film of recession-era America, and its stature has only climbed as Reichardt's has.
What’s debated
The eternal Reichardt argument in miniature: devastating minimalism or 'nothing happens' — a film fans either call quietly shattering or accuse of mistaking slightness for depth.
Its footprint
It's the modern benchmark for the 'sad dog movie' — the film Letterboxd reviewers invoke, alongside Umberto D., to warn each other that a quiet 80 minutes can wreck you completely.
Where it stands
A cornerstone of 2000s American independent cinema and the film most often used to introduce people to Kelly Reichardt.
Did you know? Lucy was played by Kelly Reichardt's own dog, Lucy — a returning performer, having already appeared in Reichardt's previous film Old Joy (2006).
Named by the director
- Umberto D. (1952) — Reichardt pointed to De Sica's story of a man and his dog on society's margins as a touchstone for the film.
- Bicycle Thieves (1948) — Cited by Reichardt among the Italian neorealist films she and co-writer Jon Raymond were drawing on.
- Vittorio De Sica — Reichardt named De Sica and Italian neorealism as the model for telling a small story about poverty without sentimentality.