Old Joy
- Daniel London: Mark
- Will Oldham: Kurt
- Tanya Smith Tanya
Old Joy is a film by Kelly Reichardt from the year 2006. It is based on a short story by Jonathan Raymond, which is in turn inspired by the photographs Justine Kurland. The film premiered in January 2006 at the Sundance Film Festival.
Action
Mark, who has built up with his pregnant wife Tanya a modest but secure existence, is invited by his old friend Kurt to take a trip to mineral springs in the forests of Oregon. Kurt is still the pot-smoking hippie, which it does not really matter if they get lost and not find the way.
So they stay at a place in the forest, on the standing around an old sofa and other garbage. When beer around the campfire slowly, something like an old familiarity, but Mark lives in a different world, and this distance is always noticeable. When they arrive the next day in the warm mineral springs and put into the hot water, they are very relaxed for a moment.
After the trip, Mark Kurt has settled in the city and goes home, Kurt pulls restlessly through the night streets.
Background
While Mark is on his way to pick up Kurt to the trip, you can hear the car radio a political discussion on the state of American society in the days of the administration of George W. Bush. It is discussed since the 1960s, the weakness of the political left.
When Mark has at the end of the film Kurt set down again, this discussion continues on the radio. This time it is the deterioration of the material circumstances of a "normal " family.
Criticism
" How ever, Old Joy ' is a wonderful example of how reflected the political in the private sector. Located in Oregon, one of the strongholds of American alternative culture, the resultant in 2005 and only now in Germany to be seen film gives a careful mood after Bush's re-election. Feeling a final defeat and being thrown back into the lone "
" Old Joy ' has the right timing. What could have been in such a film can not go wrong: took the passages that Mark and Kurt show when bathing, just a little longer, it would be a mounted art film. Only a little more dialogue and " Old Joy " would degenerate into Laber film. But as you can be happy on an experiment that invites contemplation. And to think about how life is going on. "
"Kelly Reichardt 's Old Joy ' is certainly not the film that reinvents the wheel, but just in its simplicity it is impressive. There are not many people two pieces that are feasible in the movies, but here you can learn even know how something like that goes. "
Awards
- 2006 Tiger Award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam
- 2006 Jury Prize at the Sarasota Film Festival
- 2006 Best Experimental / Independent Film at the Los Angeles Film Critics Association Awards