''Old Joy'' is a 2006 American

road movie A road movie is a film genre in which the main characters leave home on a road trip, typically altering the perspective from their everyday lives. Road movies often depict travel in the hinterlands, with the films exploring the theme of alienatio ...

written and directed by

Kelly Reichardt Kelly Reichardt (; born March 3, 1964) is an American film director and screenwriter. She is known for her minimalist films closely associated with slow cinema, many of which deal with working-class characters in small, rural communities. Reich ...

and based on a

short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...

Jonathan Raymond Jonathan Raymond is an American writer living in Portland, Oregon. He is best known for writing the novels ''The Half-Life'' and ''Rain Dragon'', and for writing the short stories and novels adapted for the films '' Old Joy'', ''Wendy and Lucy'', ...

. The original soundtrack for the film is by

Yo La Tengo Yo La Tengo (YLT; Spanish for "I have her") is an American indie rock band formed in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1984. Since 1992, the lineup has consisted of Ira Kaplan (guitars, piano, vocals), Georgia Hubley (drums, piano, vocals), and James M ...

and included on the compilation soundtrack album '' They Shoot, We Score''.

Plot

''Old Joy'' tells the story of two friends, Kurt and Mark, as they reunite for a weekend camping trip in the

Cascade mountain range The Cascade Range or Cascades is a major mountain range of western North America, extending from southern British Columbia through Washington and Oregon to Northern California. It includes both non-volcanic mountains, such as the North Cascades, ...

and Bagby Hot Springs, east of

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous ...

. Kurt lives a hand-to-mouth hippie lifestyle, while Mark has moved on from that scene and gotten a proper job and a house. The film is a story of friendship, loss and alienation. For Mark, the weekend outing offers a respite from the pressure of his imminent fatherhood. Tagging along for the ride is Lucy, Mark's dog.

Critical reception

''Old Joy'' received favorable reviews from critics. The review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wan ...

reported that 85% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 94 reviews — with the consensus that "a serene, melancholy beauty permeates this meditative film."

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created by Jason Dietz, Marc ...

reported the film had an average score of 84 out of 100, based on 24 reviews. ''The'' ''New York Times'' called it "one of the finest American films of the year". The film appeared on several critics' top ten lists of the best films of 2006. *2nd - Ella Taylor, ''

LA Weekly ''LA Weekly'' is a free weekly alternative newspaper in Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 1978 by Jay Levin, who served as president and editor until 1991. Voice Media Group sold the paper in late 2017 to Semanal Media LLC, whose par ...

'' *4th - Marc Mohan, ''

Portland Oregonian ''The Oregonian'' is a daily newspaper based in Portland, Oregon, United States, owned by Advance Publications. It is the oldest continuously published newspaper on the U.S. west coast, founded as a weekly by Thomas J. Dryer on December 4, 18 ...

'' *4th - Scott Tobias, '' The A.V. Club'' *4th - Ty Burr, ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' *8th - Lisa Schwarzbaum, ''

Entertainment Weekly ''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular ...

'' *10th - Wesley Morris, ''

'' The film also won awards from the

Los Angeles Film Critics Association The Los Angeles Film Critics Association (LAFCA) is an American film critic organization founded in 1975. Background Its membership comprises film critics from Los Angeles-based print and electronic media. In December of each year, the organiza ...

, the

Rotterdam International Film Festival The International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) is an annual film festival held at the end of January in various locations in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. Since its foundation in 1972, it has maintained a focus on independent and experimental fi ...

, and the

Sarasota Film Festival The Sarasota Film Festival is a film festival located in Sarasota, Florida and is held in April. Its mission is "to celebrate the art of filmmaking and the contribution of filmmakers by hosting an international film festival and developing year-lo ...

. Neil Kopp won the Producer's Award at the

Independent Spirit Awards The Independent Spirit Awards (abbreviated Spirit Awards and originally known as the FINDIE or Friends of Independents Awards), founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic gla ...

for his work on ''Old Joy'' and '' Paranoid Park''. In reviewing

The Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home video, home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scho ...

's Blu-ray release of the film, critic Svet Atanasov of Blu-ray.com was disappointed with ''Old Joy'', stating that though Reichardt is a gifted director, "

he film He or HE may refer to: Language * He (pronoun), an English pronoun * He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ * He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets * He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' ...

is so introverted that it quickly creates the impression that it wishes to be left alone.... instead of bringing the viewer closer to the campers the film essentially gives them more space to figure out how they feel about their friendship and lives."

References

External links

* *
''The New York Times'' review
by Dennis Lim
''Old Joy: Northwest Passages''
an essay by

Ed Halter Ed Halter is a film programmer, writer, and founder of Light Industry, a microcinema in Brooklyn, New York. He currently teaches at Bard College, where he is Critic in Residence. Criticism His writing has been featured in ''Artforum'', ''The B ...

* ''Old Joy'' script
HTML
an
PDF
at Scripts.com
2006 Reichardt interview
at ''Reverse Shot'' — Themes, politics, characters, filming, influences, music. {{Kelly Reichardt 2006 films 2000s road movies American road movies Films based on short fiction Films directed by Kelly Reichardt Films set in Oregon Films shot in Oregon Films shot in Portland, Oregon Films shot in 16 mm film 2006 independent films 2000s buddy films 2000s English-language films 2000s American films