Wendy and Lucy

Dir. Kelly Reichardt. 2008, 80 mins. 35mm. With Michelle Williams, Lucy the Dog. Michelle Williams is Wendy, a young woman traveling with her dog Lucy to Alaska in search of a job at a fish cannery. When her car breaks down in suburban Oregon, Wendy finds herself broke, alone, and hopeless. Adapted, like Old Joy, from a story by Jonathan Raymond, Wendy and Lucy echoes Vittorio De Sica’s neo-realist classic Umberto D in its spare, compelling portraiture of contemporary American poverty and alienation.