Old Joy

Kelly Reichardt's intimate and easygoing piece follows old friends attempting to reconnect on a weekend jaunt through the Oregon Cascades to a hidden hot spring. Nothing really happens on the trip, partly because the free-spirit (and apparently unemployed) navigator (Will Oldham) tokes up as they pull out of town and quickly loses his way (though never his confidence in giving directions). The driver (Daniel London) doesn't care, or so it seems, but at moments you can feel the bristle of annoyance under his placid expression. "Old Joy" captures both the ephemeral pleasure of the company of old friends and the chasm between them created by years and life choices, and the dynamics shift from moment to moment under the calm but brittle surface. The beauty of the film is how Reichardt brilliantly captures those moments with lucid simplicity. A misspoken word casts a chill over a conversation, a charged look, a stiffening of body language, and then that space between them collapses as they stretch out and forget the rest of the world under the soothing spell of a lazy road trip where the journey is the destination. Also includes commentary by director Kelly Reichardt and cinematographer Peter Sillen with filmmaker Michael Alereyda.