Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023 | USA | 105 minutes | Cory Finley)
Aliens have made contact. They aren’t the grey, lanky kind so often portrayed, but a flat, squishy rectangle… think pink, fleshy end table with eyestalks. The Vuvv communicate through scratches and scrapes via pads at the end of their front appendages. Neither have they “come in peace” or aggression, they’re here to get access to humanity and our resources using commerce as the common language. After a few years, which is where our story picks up, we find the Earth no better off than it was before; but the elites, who didn’t need any help to begin with, live on floating islands far above the surface of the planet while the rest of the schmucks deal with what’s left of its depleting resources down below. In return for their new relationships with both rich and poor alike, the Vuvv offer a few technological advances like “printed” food a la Star Trek that doesn’t seem to taste nearly as good as Picard’s replicator fare, menial labor in service to them for doctors, lawyers and other acceptably smart humans and virtual education so those pesky teachers don’t get in the way anymore.
One young man, Adam Campbell (Asante Blackk), distraught and disillusioned with what his world has come to finds solace in a budding romance that, in turn for desperately needed income, turns into a Vuvv reality show. Things quickly fall apart between them, so he turns to art to cope. Meanwhile his mother Beth (Tiffany Haddish) does whatever she can to protect him from the fleshy bureaucratic overlords by sharing her home with one under the guise of its wife. With Adam’s provocative new mural on full display, he garners unwanted attention that pulls him into their world where he finds only frustration and betrayal.
I had to give this film time to settle and honestly, I still don’t know how I feel about it. I appreciate the existential metaphors about equity, race and the meaning of life, but it was almost too vague in each of these categories to make an impact. Solid acting, an embarrassment of riches when it comes to talent on the screen and so it wasn’t the way in which the scenes were delivered but the lack of story structure that left me hanging I think. I really loved what I was watching as I watched it but I felt confused and bewildered more than once. It felt almost too polished to be an indie film but at the same time it was too quirky, thought-provoking and open-ended to be a blockbuster. Think the feel of Yorgos Lanthimos’ The Lobster meets Wes Anderson with some Jordan Peele thrown in for good measure. I just don’t know what to say about this but if my thoughts intrigue you then it’s worth going and getting confused for yourself.
Landscape with Invisible Hand is wide release in theaters now, check local show times.
This piece was written during the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strike. Without the labor of the actors currently on strike, the film being covered here wouldn’t exist. More information about the strikes can be found on the SAG-AFTRA Strike hubs. Donations to support striking workers can be made at the Entertainment Community Fund.