Old Joy (2006)
Directed by: Kelly
Reichardt.
Written by: Jonathan
Raymond and Kelly Reichardt.
Starring: Daniel
London (Mark), Will Oldham (Kurt), Tanya Smith (Tanya), Robin Rosenberg
(Waitress), Keri Moran (Lawnmower).
Old
Joy is one of the most quietly moving films about male friendship I have ever
seen. It’s one of those films that will leave many complaining that nothing
happens, but if you’re paying attention, a lot happens – everything really. It
centers on a weekend camping trip taken by two old friends, who have drifted
apart for reasons never explained, but easily to intuit – and how they come
back together, if only briefly.
Mark
(Daniel London) is married with a kid on the way, and a job and while he seems
quietly content, he doesn’t hesitate when his old friend Kurt (Will Oldham)
gets back in touch, and suggests a weekend camping trip in the nearby mountains
– and a visit to a hot spring there. Kurt is the opposite of Mark – still
drifting in his life, with no real direction – he talks of plans, but you doubt
he’ll ever follow through on any of them, and spends much of his time still
getting stoned. Mark has moved on from whatever high school, or college,
friendship they had – but Kurt is still holding on. You get the sense that Kurt
wants to reconnect, because Mark is far from the only friend Kurt has been
disconnected to over the years – whereas for Mark, the weekend is an excuse to
get out of his impending fatherhood for a couple of days.
The
film is quiet and subtle – and only 76 minutes long. A lot of time is spent
with the pair of them in the car – listening to talk radio lamenting the
ineffective Democrats for not doing more to stand up to Bush (oh, what innocent
times 2006 seem today). Kurt says he knows where they’re going – but of course,
he doesn’t. Because Kurt is played by Will Oldham, he talks – a lot – about his
plans, about his thoughts and opinions about the universe (including lamenting
the fact that when he took a course of physics, he knew more than those
teaching it – although he doesn’t have “the math” to back up what he’s saying.
Mark is quieter – more in his own head than connecting with Kurt.
The
film never spells anything out for the audience – it doesn’t need to. We
recognize immediately why these two used to be friends, and why they aren’t so
much anymore. Words aren’t needed for that – it’s all there in the interactions
between these two men, and the great performances by London and Oldham.
Whatever connection hey had is broken, but you can see its remnants there, and
how both make concessions for the other one – not calling them out on things
that if they were closer, they may well have. It leads up to that scene at the
hot springs, where perhaps, for a moment, that connection is restored.
This
is the film where you really do start to see what would become director Kelly
Reichardt’s signature style coming through. She has an unflashy, unhurried
style. She sits back and observes, and lets the characters interactions tell us
everything, without explicitly telling us anything. You have to intuit a lot in
her movies, because she doesn’t spell it out.
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