Will Oldham

Between this and Kelly Reichardt’s Old Joy, Will Oldham was for a moment the face of male bonding in independent American cinema. In Rick Alverson’s empathetic film about the emotional aftereffects of serving in the war on terror, his amiably, comically persistent character hammers home tenderness.

After 12 years away, Kelly Reichardt returned to independent filmmaking with this small scale but beguiling portrait of two men, no longer young, not quite old, trying to resume a friendship. With a lush Oregon setting and precise social detail—a director hallmark—she made a road movie in miniature.