KELLY REICHARDT, RANKED

Few contemporary filmmakers capture the inner cries of our times with greater eloquence than Kelly Reichardt. Haunted by economic doldrums and fractured working-class psyches, her films are meditations on a mercurial America, pondering the present through bracingly frank snapshots of small-town life and the tenuous bond between individuals and nature. From 1994’s “River of Grass” to 2008’s “Wendy and Lucy,” her 14-year filmmaking career offers us an indelible look at characters who hail from the fringes of American society, both by choice and by circumstance.

My recap of Reichardt’s...