Old Joy

Kelly Reichardt perfected her personal craft of short story filmmaking with Old Joy, a minimalist portrait of a weekend camping trip shared by two 30-somethings in the Pacific Northwest. As the reunited friends amble through a misted wood, the constant, brooding tension between the two signals their painful realization of an imminent rupture. What ultimately makes Old Joy so complex and beautiful is what simmers beneath the surface, as each man—suffering from the political apathy of leftist America—searches in vain for the shadow of a past self who would certainly know how to connect to the other.