“A triumph of modesty and of seriousness that also happens to be one of the finest American films of the year . . . Working with her cinematographer, Peter Sillen, [Reichardt] opens up a world of enchantments.”—Manohla Dargis, The New York Times

A hit at Sundance and winner of Rotterdam’s prestigious Tiger award, the slow-burning and quietly devastating Old Joy catapulted Reichardt to greater acclaim with its superb, moving portrait of a waning friendship spurred on by the existential anguish of adulthood. Indie folk icon Will Oldham is charmingly laconic as pot-smoking lost soul Kurt, who entices his old friend and father-to-be Mark (a lanky, beatific Daniel London) to steal away for a night of male bonding at the Baghby Hot Springs in Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. As the two hike into the plush, inviting greenery, their trek through this sublime landscape becomes fraught with metaphoric and philosophical weight. Suffused with a simple, understated grace (there are hints of Malick, but on a much more restrained and intimate scale), Old Joy withholds as much as it reveals, allowing for subtle emotion and uncertainty to guide the two men’s parenthetical getaway. Elegantly shot on Super 16 by filmmaker-cinematographer Peter Sillen, and featuring a wistful score by Yo La Tengo, Old Joy limns the ineffables of friendship, growing apart, and the weight of societal expectation. “An elusive and haunting meditation on the passing of a friendship. Against a radiant backdrop of decay and rebirth, nothing needs to be said; everything in this lovely film is crystalline” (David Edelstein, New York Magazine).