I didn’t know that Kelly Reichardt had made a film previous to this one until a few minutes ago, so I’m having to tamper a lot of my gushing over it for being such a strong debut as I’m writing this. Reichardt certainly seems to be a director ‘of the times;’ she shows very strong sentiments toward the environment (city versus ‘the outdoors’) and economy in her films, especially showing the tension between the lower and middle classes. In Old Joy, Mark is representative of a ‘comfortable enough’ mindset, as he and his wife are about to have a child, seemingly because that’s what people do, even though they do not seem to have the time or funds to appropriately raise a kid. Kurt, clearly of a lower class (I’m still not sure whether he is homeless or not), sees through the veils of society in a very hippy/hipster way, fittingly ‘one’ with nature. He lures Mark away from the domain where he aims to address and identify what exactly it is that has come between the two of them as friends. The film’s themes of growing apart and the awkwardness of visiting the past are universally presented and are successfully applicable to any viewer’s sense of change, but I think Reichardt’s central examination is of the tensions that exist between classes, and she uses two best friends as the the vehicle for her exploration of this idea. Mark and Kurt have probably been friends since high school, if not before that, and were presumably of the same social class at one point. But Mark’s conservative tendencies and Kurt’s hipsterism drove their lifestyles apart, and thus it now seems impossible for the two to continue any sort of genuine friendship. Kurt does break his silence at the campfire on the first night of their trip, but he quickly retracts his concern and hides it away again; the film is so effective because of the constant tension between Mark and Kurt that remains stubbornly hidden. Thus, everything between them feels false or artificial in some way, and I felt like when Kurt gets out of Mark’s car at the end of their trip and then waves goodbye with a hammy smile that they would probably never hang out with each other again.
The sauna scene at the end of their trip is so relaxing to watch. The sounds and greens combine for a kind of ‘Pure Moods’ effect. Then Kurt gives Mark a massage and I just about fell asleep it was so calming. I’m prone to falling asleep during massage scenes in films, so I saw it coming and sat up and rubbed my eyes to keep myself from succumbing to the looming unconsciousness. This film has a very special and simple idea and presentation, and I’m glad that Wendy and Lucy proved that it wasn’t a fluke. Reichardt is one of my favorite American filmmakers right now, and I am looking forward to her upcoming period piece (?).