Film

Old Joy

Cert: 18

Description: Expectant father Mark and his pal Kurt abandon their day-to-day lives in Portland, Oregon, and head out into the countryside for a well earned spot of male bonding and reminiscence. Setting up camp for the night, the two men rake over the coals of the past, hoping to rediscover memories of their childhoods together in Kelly Reichardt's touching drama, based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond.

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Dir: Kelly Reichardt.

Cast: Will Oldham, Daniel London, Tanya Smith

Country: US.

Year: 2005.

Duration: 73mins

Adrift in Bush's America

Escape: Daniel London and William Oldham are cast adrift in Bush's America

By Derek Malcolm
25 Jan 2007

Kelly Reichardt's film, based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond, has two old friends who haven't seen each other for ages, going off on a weekend together to the beautiful Cascade mountain range of Portland, Oregon.

One of them (William Oldham) is a hippie musician who fondly remembers the Sixties when it was good to be alive in a then-liberal America.

The other (Daniel London) has given up all that long ago and now wants a respite from impending fatherhood. They hardly know each other now and when they return will probably say farewell for ever.

The movie is a minimalist study, with scant dialogue, of two people cast adrift in Bush's America. It is beautifully shot but does no thinking for you whatsoever.

You would be perfectly at liberty to find it boring and empty, but also to understand the tiny resonances that have made it one of the best reviewed films of 2006 in America. Somehow it does strike home.