River of Grass Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.5
Video		4.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

River of Grass Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman May 26, 2025

There's a somewhat famous acronym in my home state wherein SNOB stands for Society of Native Oregon Born, and it probably goes without saying that at least a subset of that group might be responsible for an ambience that is often encouraged with the catchphrase "keep Portland weird". That doesn't stop interlopers from helping to "weird-ify" both Portland in particular and Oregon in general, and in that regard a salient example might be found in Kelly Reichardt, who has repeatedly located (and shot) her films in the Pacific Northwest, despite ostensibly being a denizen of another place that has definitely kept weird, namely Florida. I expound upon "weirdness", Portland, Oregon and the Pacific Northwest, not to mention Reichardt herself, in both my First Cow Blu-ray review and my Showing Up Blu-ray review*, which may provide some related reading interest for some.

*Maybe a bit weirdly (in my estimation), this film also had a 4K release from A24 which I also reviewed, for those interested.

River of Grass had a Blu-ray release in Region A courtesy of Oscilloscope Pictures several years ago, and Michael Reuben's River of Grass Blu-ray review provides ample plot information, a list of supplements and Michael's reaction to that disc's technical presentation.

River of Grass Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

River of Grass is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Radiance Films with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 1.33:1. Radiance sent only a check disc for purposes of this review, and so I'm not privy to any information an insert booklet might impart, but the disc includes a brief restoration featurette documenting Oscilloscope's efforts to "rescue" the film from relative obscurity, and one assumes this is based off the same master that provided Oscilloscope's own release with its source. That said, a cursory comparison of screenshots between the two releases pretty clearly shows how much darker this Radiance release is than the Oscilloscope release. That may increase at least the perception of suffusion, but it may also tend to point out the already rather heavy layer of grain courtesy of the 16mm source element. The palette, while darker here, still looked completely natural to my eyes, and blues and reds are especially evocative (blues in particular). Detail levels are typically excellent given the context of a smaller millimeter source.

River of Grass Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

River of Grass features a DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 Mono track that capably supports the film's good use of ambient environmental effects and underscore. The restoration featurette mentions a number of issues that were ameliorated on the soundtrack, including pops, hiss and cracks, and I certainly didn't hear anything problematic. Dialogue is rendered cleanly and clearly throughout. Optional English subtitles are available.

River of Grass Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary by Kelly Reichardt and Larry Fessenden


• So Mayer (HD; 21:25) offers Mayer's overview of Reichardt's work.


• Larry Fessenden: Invisible Man, Renaissance Man, Monstrous Midwife (HD; 16:36) is an appealing visual essay quasi biography of Fessenden by Anton Bitel.


• "Drive By" Outtakes (HD; 10:50)


• Restoration Featurette (HD; 2:44)


• Trailer (HD; 1:37)

Radiance sent only a check disc for purposes of this review, but their website lists their usual assortment of packaging extras.

River of Grass Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

In his interesting supplement included on this disc, Anton Bitel details a whole laundry list of films that River of Grass may echo, including everything from Gun Crazy to Bonnie and Clyde to Badlands to Natural Born Killers , and Bitel points out that the last named feature actually came out at around the same time this one did, which may account at least in part for the relative lack of renown for this effort. This certainly doesn't have the (relatively) big budget feel of some of the aforementioned films, but that may actually redound to the benefit of this film's gritty, lived in atmosphere. Technical merits are generally solid and the supplements very interesting. Recommended.