I just saw this film and I was impressed. It is a story of two left-wing guys who go on a trek to the woods in Oregon. Mark (Daniel London) is married and soon to be a father, while Kurt (Will Oldham) is a pot smoking aging hippie still lost in space.
The film starts with Mark and his preganant wife Tanya in their suburban house, Mark sitting in the yard lost in contemplation, Tanya in the house killing the time.
It is clear that the couple does not have much to say to each other - which pretty much sets the tone for the rest of the film.
The phone rings - it is Kurt asking Mark to go for a camping trip to a really cool place. Mark is into it, but before he leaves he "clears it" with his wife whose reply is "you are going anyway, you do not need to ask for my permission." Then he packs his Volvo, gets the family dog in, turns the talk show radio on (Air America), drives to pick up Kurt and then off they go to the hot springs somewhere in the woods.
Most of the plot is filled with "driving" scenes - the guys get initially lost and drive around for a while, then they sleep along the road, then drive some more, buy gas, get some fast food, finally get to the hot springs and then drive back home. The landscape slowly changes from hideously ugly subrban wasteland, to a roadside trash dump, to the wilderness - but regardless of what it is - it is devoid of people. They only signs of human presence are cars, gas stations, and buildings.
There is not much of a conversation between them. Most of the talking is done by Kurt who either spurts hippie cliches or is totally confused. His main these seems to be running away from society to find a place where he can be alone and really think. Sort of like Waldo Emerson - except that Kurt's thinking is nonsensical gibberish for the most part - a theory of the universe as a tear drop that even Kurt himself cannot coherently express. Mark, on the other hand, gazes most of the time without any indication of what his emotions and thoughts (if any) are.
The only conversations in the film that make any sense are those on the talk show radio or in a fast food joint when the guys order food. It is obvious that Mark is alienated and bored with the old hippe Kurt, just as he is with his wife. At the end, the guys havde nothing to say to each other, and they come back to town. Mark drops Kurt in the city and drives back to his suburban home, and Kurt strolls aimlessly down the street. The last sense making, albeit very short, conversation in the film is when Kurt is asked for spare change by a panhandler - he initially says "sorry" but then gives the panhandler a coin.
The plot and the theme is somewhat similar to Alexander Payne's film _Sideways_, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sideways - but in the _Sideways_ is filled with fun and joy, and at the end the protagonist overcomes his alienation. No such luck in the _Old Joy_ . The protagonists are lost in space and alienated throughout the film and remain even more so at the end. The _Sideways_ is filled with warmth (beautifully conveyed by photography) - whereas the world in the _Old Joy_ is alien and distant - from the devoild of people suburban wasteland, to the majestic yet distant Oregon landscape. The only interaction with the nature the protagonists have is that with the family dog that marks takes along - oterise they seem totally lost in it. There is no way out - it is either alienating and ugly suburbia or th emagnifient yet distant nature.
I absolutely enjoyed the film. It is right on the target in expressing how I feel about the US left and the life in this country in general.
Wojtek
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