Old Joy has this “otherworldly peacefulness about it.”
By S Simmons. Filed in Editing, Movies |
In a world of Borat and The Departed (both of which I loved) it’s refreshing to see something as magical as Old Joy. Many would not understand it; most would not like it. But a mass audience will never see it anyway. It is the kind of movie that will be sought out by those fans of independent film who know exactly what they are getting into. Old Joy tells the story (or at least a part of the story) of two old friends. They get together and drive to an overnight camp in the mountains. The kinda get lost, have some lunch, shoot a BB gun, find the hot springs they are looking for, and then return home. Oh, and they take a dog and talk a lot too. That’s pretty much it. What makes Old Joy so refreshing is that it is more of an “art†piece that anything else. Director Kelly Reichardt should be commended in that she has the confidence in her abilities and her story that she that she just lets the movie flow even though it at first looks like there is no story there. But upon reflection you see that the story is very deep… except that the view must fill in a lot of that story by on their own. That is exactly the kind of description that would turn many people off. Those are not the type of people that this film was made for anyway. It is refreshing to see a piece that oozes with the director’s confidence. Every shot is deliberately composed. Every edit is precisely placed. The film has a lyrical, meandering quality that reminds me a lot of David Gordan Green’s All The Real Girls. When you use a term like “meandering†to describe a movie then a lot of people would take that to mean boring. And a lot of people would find Old Joy (and All the Real Girls for that matter) boring. But you have look beneath the surface. Sure that is a long shot out the window but it is the countryside these two friends may or may not have passed many times before. There are layers of history in those glances that a shallower movie can’t touch. Old Joy also reminds me of Vincent Gallo’s The Brown Bunny. It uses a lot of the same techniques but really has nothing to say. The only reason Gallo uses a 2-minute plus shot out the front window of his van is because it’s his movie and he can. It all leads up to a climax that is shock value and nothing more. The climax of Old Joy happens long after you leave the theatre, something even the biggest Hollywood blockbusters can’t match.
