While on her way to Alaska, Wendy stops in Oregon and runs afoul of the law trying to get food for her dog Lucy. After a detour to the local courthouse, Wendy discovers Lucy is missing. Wendy and Lucy is far more than a frothy tale about a girl who loses her dog. In her previous film Old Joy, Kelly Reichardt has crafted a delicately layered story about life’s mundanities taking on monstrous proportions when one has very little, and the true cost of freedom in relation to economic reality. Small gestures take on equally massive meaning when wendy comes to rely on the kindness of strangers. Heartrending and -warming without being overly sentimental, Reichardt once again looks at people living on the precipice of utter destitution and desolation while existing within the framework of suburban American anonymity.