Landscape With Invisible Hand: A Spoiler-Filled Discussion

***As the title would suggest, full spoilers for Landscape With Invisible Hand follow***

https://open.spotify.com/episode/5gGko2QfPYZzMqDZl3tk3k

When I walked into Landscape with Invisible Hand, I knew nothing about it besides the trailer I had seen before two previous movies. After watching it, I found out it was based on a book which makes a ton of sense upon completion. There is definitely a feeling that there are grander ideas in play where, had this movie instead been a miniseries, there would have been more time to develop some of the grander ideas. That is not to say that Landscape with Invisible Hand is bad, it just feels like its shotgun-like approach to what it is trying to be an allegory for falls flat and does bring down the movie to an extent.

What Worked

The most interesting aspect of the movie is the world it sets up where this alien race called the Vuvv show up and take over humanity as benevolent rulers. The class warfare waged as the poor try to get into the good graces of the Vuvv so they can elevate their position in society is an interesting allegory for reality. One of the best scenes in the movie comes from this idea, namely where Mr. Marsh and Adam are sitting in the basement watching the news and playing into the debate over whether the Vuvv are actually benevolent or if they're making life worse for the people still living on Earth.

The other aspect that really works is the visual aesthetic of the world. While the things that are more traditional down on the planet look fairly similar to real life as it is now (positing that JanSport is unlikely to change their backpack design in the next ten to fifteen years) the science fiction designs of the lab grown meat, the floating cities, and how the Vuvv technology works looks very interesting. It is also impressive that the Vuvv aliens and the cities in the sky look as real as they do considering how low the budget is.

What Didn't Work

One of the lesser issues with this movie is that the acting performances are a little inconsistent. Some of it is the movie's fault because the relationship between Chloe and Adam is designed to be doomed from the beginning, but there is no point where the chemistry between the two feel realistic. Tiffany Haddish has a great performance and William Jackson Harper has a great small role, however Michael Gandolfini is not great as Chloe's brother (he's meant to be annoying but he goes way too far above and beyond the call of duty) and Josh Hamilton's Mr. Marsh is a little inconsistent.

The other big issue is that the movie tries to take the narrative in too many directions and none of them are properly developed. The courtship stream angle is interesting, as is the lawsuit that results from it, however it does not stick around long enough to be the issue. The family drama between the Marsh family and the Campbell family could have also been an interesting class warfare story where the upper class is pushing a divide between the two different lower income classes who are both struggling to make things work. The same also applies for the story with Beth (Tiffany Haddish) having to feign a marriage with one of the Vuvv to keep them out of the lawsuit and the story about how Adam's art becomes commoditized by those it is criticizing is also an interesting angle, neither of which get's properly developed.

How You Should Watch This Movie

Again, like The Pod Generation, we have a solid science fiction movie with an interesting idea that is spread too thin. That said, Landscape with Invisible Hand similarly would work best in a distraction-free environment because there is a lot of subtlety and nuance to the world being built where watching without the distraction of a cell phone or other things of that nature would make for a better experience all around. On the other hand, this is only a movie worth rushing out to see if you see it on a schedule and you are not confident that it will not be in theaters long enough in your market for you to wait for a matinee. Since MGM distributed it, it will probably end up on Amazon Prime in short order.

★★★★