Restraint is one of the most powerful ways of getting a message across. Less truly is more and the reason is, when space exists between the lines, you're required to fill it in. Kelly Reichardt's Old Joy is a small, quiet film with a lot of room between the lines. Introspective and at times, subtly poignant, OJ is refreshingly sparse, yet complex at the same time.
To her credit, Reichardt takes a relatively hands-off approach to the story telling, which explores the distance between two old friends, what keeps them together and ruminations on why they've drifted apart. Since its release in 2006, critics have heaped praise on OJ, some of it warranted and some of it hyperbolic, yet somewhere in between exists a fair representation of what it really is: a short, micro-budget feature that is both flawed and insightful.
To her credit, Reichardt takes a relatively hands-off approach to the story telling, which explores the distance between two old friends, what keeps them together and ruminations on why they've drifted apart. Since its release in 2006, critics have heaped praise on OJ, some of it warranted and some of it hyperbolic, yet somewhere in between exists a fair representation of what it really is: a short, micro-budget feature that is both flawed and insightful.