No joy

Try to romanticize a post-hippie reunion | John Dawson

Few besides film critics have seen Old Joy, Kelly Reichardt's experimental art-house film about two old hippie friends that is now available on DVD. But the film—which is unrated but would probably earn an R rating for language and drug use—garnered glowing reviews from secular critics. (New York Times critic Mahohla Dargis called Old Joy "one of the finest American films of the year.")

Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (Will Oldham) are old friends who have grown apart over the years until Kurt invites Mark to a weekend camping trip into Oregon's backcountry. Mark approaches the trip with a sense of foreboding—the kind of foreboding you get when you know you're about to spend more than a day with an insecure pot-head hippie loser who never grew up and never seems to shut up. That's Kurt. He's annoying, but post-hippie guilt won't allow Mark to turn him down.