Jules (film)
2023
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Aug 18, 2023 · Landscape with Invisible Hand. It’s 2036 AD, and space aliens have not only landed on Earth, but also maybe forever changed the economy, too. That’s the main premise of “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” a satirical sci-fi comedy based on M.T. Anderson’s award-winning young adult sci-fi novel. Adapted and directed by Cory Finley ...
Aug 17, 2023 · Landscape With Invisible Hand Rated R for science-fiction violence and a space alien’s idea of intimacy. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters.
- Claire Shaffer
- Cory Finley
Ambitious and unpredictable, Landscape with Invisible Hand struggles to get some of its ideas across, but remains a bold blend of sci-fi and social commentary. Years into a benevolent alien ...
- (87)
- Cory Finley
- R
- Asante Blackk
- "To Serve Man" meets "eat the rich" in this flawed but ambitious sci-fi satire
- The 25 Best Sci-Fi Movies
- What's the best sci-fi comedy?
- Verdict
By Erik Adams
Updated: Aug 19, 2023 12:20 pm
Posted: Aug 19, 2023 12:13 pm
It can be difficult to watch Landscape with Invisible Hand and not feel a bit like the boxy, slug-like race at the center of its alien-invasion allegory. As introduced in the M.T. Anderson novella of the same name, the vuuv look upon humanity with a mixture of fascination and condescension, their keen (but shallow) fixation on romance and visual art fueled by having evolved beyond both as a species. Craning their artfully rendered eyestalks in the direction of an aspiring painter like Adam Campbell (Asante Blackk), the vuuv slap and scrape their textured, paddle-like appendages together and their Alexa-like translation devices burble out “What purpose does it have?” Given its near-future United States of widespread unemployment, shuttered schools, and financially devastating terms of service, the purpose of director Cory Finley’s anti-capitalist satire is never in doubt. And yet you may still find yourself staring intently at Landscape with Invisible Hand and puzzling: A concept this potent and imaginative, in the hands of such an exciting and promising young talent – shouldn’t it be better?
In an exceedingly clever and almost too-close-to-home touch, these disruptors from beyond the stars eliminate toil and inefficiency across their latest global acquisition and pass none of the savings on to the majority of Earthlings. And so a stratified society only becomes more so, as represented by the hovering vuuv settlement that renders Adam’s hometown into the corporate-architecture version of a Boston album cover and the upstairs/downstairs dynamic the big-hearted teen inadvertently creates when he invites the family of new-kid-in-town Chloe Marsh (Kylie Rogers) to crash at the Campbell house.
That cracked rom-com setup mostly just gives Finley the opportunity to demonstrate his flair with a close-up.
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When Adam and Chloe fall in like with one another, they hatch a scheme to bail their folks out of financial jeopardy: Turning their budding relationship into a monetized livestream for the TV-obsessed vuuv, broadcast via the neural “node” that enables the kids’ immersive, high-tech curriculum. At first, this development is positioned as the nucleus around which Landscape with Invisible Hand orbits, but its cracked rom-com setup mostly gives Finley the opportunity to demonstrate his flair with a close-up. The story actually being told here is an ensemble piece indebted to the slice-of-life vignettes that make up Anderson’s book.
Men in Black
Idiocracy
The World's End
Back to the Future
The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension
Galaxy Quest
Landscape with Invisible Hand is brimming with ideas and storylines, but they never come together as a satisfying whole. The visual ingenuity director Cory Finley demonstrated in Thoroughbreds and Bad Education is on display here – and it works well with slimy, slug-like CGI aliens – but the sci-fi satire lacks an Anya Taylor-Joy, Hugh Jackman, or ...
Jan 26, 2023 · ‘Landscape with Invisible Hand’ Review: A Good-Looking Yet Shallow Sci-Fi About Life Under Alien Rule Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (Premieres), Jan. 23, 2023. Running time: 105 MIN.
Feb 2, 2023 · Landscape With Invisible Hand — directed by Cory Finley ( Thoroughbreds, Bad Education) and based on the 2017 young adult novel by M.T. Anderson — depicts a depressed, dryly humorous society ...
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Nov 16, 2023 · Landscape with Invisible Hand: Directed by Cory Finley. With Asante Blackk, Tiffany Haddish, Kylie Rogers, Brooklynn MacKinzie. When an occupying alien species' bureaucratic rule and advanced technology leaves most of Earth impoverished and unemployed, two teenagers hatch a risky plan to ensure their families' futures.
