Old Joy

source: Old Joy

An intentionally tiny but lackluster film suffers many familiar trappings harbored by independent cinema despite the gentle pacing and authentic feel throughout. It is a film I dislike disliking, having so many of the lingering qualities that let each scene breathe on it's own time, something I highly respect and usually don't witness, especially coming from American filmmakers. But here, Old Joy unwisely fills much of the silence and sacredness with nothing but scenery and vague suggestion, which unfortunately totals up to little more then the glorified road trip it seems to be. You get the feeling throughout that director Kelly Reichardt wished to plunge viewers headfirst into experiencing this brief trek into the woods. At first, this technique flourishes with completely immersed realism, effortlessly making viewers the third participant on this little expedition with finely calculated, low budget camera integrity that feels as one with the actors. However, it eventually becomes apparent that this enticingly voyeuristic direction remains a simple distraction in working around a script of very little worth. Though there may be more implied in the work then what is outwardly manifested, Old Joy still leaves entirely too much up to viewers with it's slightly offensive approach at telling less, meaning more, but hardly putting in the effort to bridge that gap. By the movie's ending, clocking in at a strikingly short 76 minutes, it seems hardly anything was accomplished short of beginning to articulate the meaning of it's title. With a little more character development and an outcome that actually had something to say, Old Joy could have been the lazy westerners Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter..and Spring with all of it's meditative and reverential odes to nature, but here we are left only with a skeleton script and an overindulgence of quiet contemplation to make up for it. The only two characters really in the film, Will Oldham and Daniel London, are decent enough as the two old friends who reunite for a weekend in the woods. Alt-country sensation Oldham may not have the timing of a professionally trained actor, but it ends up working out fine for this project, only bringing a more realistic credibility in the rare instances he is actually explaining himself. The constant feeling of something more being implied then what we have been given to work with is inescapable though, and ends up sinking this potentially effecting film into a mediocre, if slightly hypnotic, insignificant vacation piece.

I viewed this movie last night at our local theater and have to say that I was extremely disappointed. Never before did I think pretentious, shoddy dialogue and almost an hour of landscape shots could land a film as "exhiliarting." Add to that a dash of extremely overdone homoeroticism (just wait until the hot springs scene) and you easily see why i wanted to "punch necks." This film is another example of art overdone. To even compare this film to Sideways or Brokeback Mountains is comparing that of Home Alone to Once Upon A Time In The West just because they both have a little kid in them. If you want to see a film that has the most minimal plot ever conceived by man then I do suggest this film, or if you're having a very hard time going to sleep at night, just pop this guy in. May God have mercy on those who see this and smite those who made it.

**!!!massive spoiler alert, i give the whole thing totally away!!!** everyone else said it better than I'm going to, but I still wanted to chime in to offset the people calling it a precious little gem (and i hereby will never read a Manohla Dargis review again). This is what happens when filmmakers spend too much time reading about films, and filling themselves up on self-important preciousness. Two un-self-aware guys, one a ditzy burnout, the other with all the resolve of a wet dishrag, kill a day and a half. the part where they were relaxing in the water was nice. they drive around some. there's a dog who likes sticks. seriously, that's pretty much it. curious that such a quiet placid movie had me ready to punch out my monitor. very glad to see lots of other people felt the same way. what a pointless piece of indulgence. about as significant an accomplishment as an intimate portrait of a jar of mayonnaise slowly turning bad. YAWN.

A case of the Emperor's new clothes syndrome. Once we have been told that something is understated, subtle and delicate, it is easier to nod wisely and agree than to come out as an uncultured clod and say "There's nothing there." In plenty of 'art' films, very little happens for long periods, but at least there is usually some kind of artistic purpose, or pretension to one. Reproducing the barrenness of long car journeys and halting conversations between people who no longer understand one another, the wetness of water and the greenness of trees, is not such a purpose. It may not be easy to reproduce these things. You have to edit your script very carefully to rid it of anything so artificial as narrative or drama, and probably lug your equipment over some difficult terrain, but Oscars are not awarded for that. One critic praises it, more or less, for sending him to sleep. Though short, at one hour and a quarter, it seemed quite long, and would have seemed longer if I had known that there was no twist, no resolution, no explanation, no catharsis, no bang and hardly even a whimper.

Ever since seeing this film I have a new purpose in life – to drag this film through the mud whenever I can. There are some people in this world who think that if a film is not mainstream, then it automatically attains some sort of elevated artistic status and can only be appreciated by those with a higher intelligence (even though they secretly enjoyed Die Hard 4 much more). Old Joy is one of these films that carries this incredible pretension to the limit. At the same time, I am not one of those people whose sole idea of a good film is restricted to the typical Hollywood blockbusters. I love a film that invites me to think, rather than just forget about as soon as the credits start rolling. However, in my opinion, Old Joy was more brain-dead than anything that Michael Bay has inflicted upon the world. Please do not mistake lack of action and dialogue, coupled with lingering shots of leaves and water, as the hallmarks of an intelligent film. Before watching this film, I was perhaps expecting a more melancholic version of Sideways or an American version of Mike Leigh's classic camping farce, Nuts in May. Instead, Old Joy was just a more boring version of the old BBC testcard, where the little girl is playing noughts and crosses. The director also seems to have some sort of Volvo *, as the camera spends an inordinate amount of time in an old Volvo estate, treating the viewer to a good examination of the dashboard design. I have a Volvo and I love it, but I don't wish to spend my free time looking at one in a film. I am sorry, but I have to rank this film as the worst I have seen. In fact, due to its terribleness, I am actually thinking of buying it on DVD and then, whenever I have a bad day, to come home and mercilessly kick it around the house. But that would still involve putting some of own money into the pockets of the criminals who were responsible for this travesty and I cannot stomach the thought of that. Perhaps instead some photo printouts of the director and the 2 actors, to be kept in the bathroom for when the toilet paper runs out.

First of all, what's with this indie film trick of limiting the soundtrack to a few bars of acoustic guitar here and there? "Bubble" did the same thing and until I recalled who directed it I was thinking "this is REALLY a first film". "Minimalist" doesn't begin to describe this film. This is what I call the "Japanese soup" school of art - that is, like certain Japanese soups which to a Westerner are barely more than salty hot water, but apparently are full of flavor to connoisseurs, some films (and writing, etc.) expect the consumer to meet it well more than half-way. Basically, I kept waiting for this film to begin. I got early on that these guys had gone down different paths. Yeah, OK... If you really really like listening intently to a film and savoring every subtle nuance to find the ever-so-delicately hinted sense of the thing, you'll probably like this film. If you want a film - even a subtle and slowly paced film ("Hard Eight", "The War Zone", etc.) - to MAKE you want to watch it, once you've given it a little time, this isn't the one.

if i could give it a negative 10 rating, it still wouldn't be low enough. about 85% of this movie had no dialogue. despite the fact that several people on this site believe you don't need dialogue to make a movie, there wasn't even enough to get you interested. there was no character development. the dog was more entertaining than these idiots. whoever decided to make this movie must have gotten bored with lighting their cigars with $100 bills. i saw people walking out of the theater before the movie was over and other people were visibly upset that they actually paid money to watch this disaster. i am going to blacklist everyone involved with this movie so that i do not have to be subjected to this type of torture again.

Perhaps 1 out of 100 movies are so unbearable to me that I have to walk out of the theater; this was one of them. I live in Oregon, and I know how beautiful it can be, but the camera did not capture this beauty. I know people who can act, but these two cannot. This movie isn't just slow, it is pointless, and I didn't care one bit about either character. We are hit over the head with "signs" of tension between them and "issues" that each of the characters apparently has, but I was put to sleep by the film's refusal to lay those things out in the open. (Well, at least not in the first 45 minutes -- the film, by the way, is only 76 minutes long; one redeeming feature for those who actually hold out until the end.)

I had to check this page just to make sure that I was not the only clod who thought this film was a fraud. I am so relieved to read the other comment; one which I could have written myself. Without a POV, or a real purpose, this film could have been made by anyone at all given a car and a camera. That is not to say the camera work wasn't good, because at times the composition and framing were great, but the images did not speak outside the frame. If this had been made as a short, it could have worked quite nicely, but filmmakers need to respect the audience of whom they are asking a substantial time commitment. I am not sure how Will Oldham got involved in this project, but he deserves a much better "vehicle" for his fine talent.