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June 06, 2006

Old Joy

Going back to nature

By Tram

Upon exiting a film festival screening of the Sundance hit, Old Joy, a flier stuck on a wooden pole caught my eye. It read: SEATTLE'S PROGRESSIVE TALK, AM 1090.

True, I had walked out of what many would simply refer to as "just a movie". But looking at that flier, I sadly realized that the world I was living in was simply an extension of Kelly Reichardt's world full of disillusionment. The spirit of Mark, a liberal who spends most of his days tuning into Air America transmissions, quickly hovered over me as I crossed the street.

The story is quite simple: Old pals Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (Will Oldham) reunite for a weekend camping trip in Oregon's Cascade Mountains. Naturally, the two men attempt to re-acquaint themselves with time that has since passed. At first, Mark and Kurt nostalgically remember the popular hang-outs they once frequented. But as the conversation on the road converges into the present, a serious — almost uncomfortable — mood prevails over them.

Mark has become a domesticated man. In between preparing for his wife's imminent birth to their first child, Mark spends a bulk of his recreational time meditating in his backyard and partaking in garden club meetings with his fellow tree loving neighbors. Slacker-ish Kurt, meanwhile, spends his days theorizing off-the-wall philosophies from math courses at a local college — in other words, a hippie without a (liberal) cause.

As the two pals gradually realize how different their ideals have diverged since the carefree, youthful days (the aimless Kurt feels inferior to Mark's carefully planned ways), Kelly Reichardt amplifies the tension with interrelated pairs of binaries: the past and the present, nature and mankind, the whole and the fragmented. On the long road ahead, we see beautiful long shots taken from the exterior window of Mark's moving car. Mobile reflections of the car's interior seating and of the exterior skies and forestry trees denote to this viewer's mind a world in which mechanization has since dominated the natural landscape.

Sight is not the only feature to behold in Reichardt's minimalist gem — sound also plays an important role as well. In the beginning and end segments of Old Joy, we see a Kurt-less Mark tuning into his presumably favorite radio station, Air America. The sounds of the airwaves sound paradoxically familiar and alienating; we hear radio host and distant listeners contentiously debating about the Democratic Party's past (whether or not LBJ was, indeed, the champion of the civil rights movement) and present (how the party has since lost its way with Middle America). And when Mark is trying to mend lost times with Kurt, their short time together is casually interrupted by cell phone calls by Mark's pregnant wife, Tanya (Tanya Smith).

In a fragmented society where everyone has the choice to tune into media outlets that reassure their values, perhaps it is fitting that the two men unexpectedly experience what Kurt refers to as "old joy" during a short visit to the warm springs. In a fleeting yet memorable moment, Mark and Kurt quietly resolve their differences, amidst the peaceful woodland noises — that is before returning back to the stoic white noises of the modern city life.

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