By David Poland poland@moviecitynews.com
NY Post Brings 'Old Joy' Dog Thisclose to the A-List
Over the last 24 hours, The Times has offered not one but two glowing write-ups about Kelly Reichardt’s riveting Old Joy, which won acclaim at Sundance and Rotterdam before finding an audience at this year’s New Directors/New Films Festival. But as usual, a typically classy Manohla Dargis review and a sober, striking profile of Reichardt by Dennis Lim are no match for the one and only V.A. Musetto, who obviously has more Old Joy over at the Post than he knows how to handle:
“I didn’t really know how long Old Joy would be,” Reichardt confided. “I just sort of figured it would be whatever length it is meant to be.”
It was meant to be 76 minutes, which seems just right to tell the story of two aging hippie pals – Mark (Daniel London) and Kurt (Will Oldham) – who reunite for a weekend camping trip in the Oregon mountains.
They take along a dog, Lucy, who just happens to be Reichardt’s. It was her screen debut.
“She loves being included,” her proud owner said. “She doesn’t like being left alone. She was easy and great to work with.”
Truth be told, Lucy the dog originally had a much bigger part in the film, but her species’ distance from Mark and Kurt’s more central struggles with aging, affluence, generational identity, politics and nature led Reichardt to slash her role to almost nothing. Hence Old Joy‘s 76-minute running time.
Meanwhile, rumor has it that Lucy is fuming with her publicist about her exclusion from both Times pieces. Jesus. Leave it a guy from the Post to harsh poor Reichardt’s mellow.