If you’re a longtime reader of X-Men comics you’ll get this: there’s a dimension called Mojoworld, where the people are pacified by watching the lives of its people and its superheroes in an endless stream of televised footage. Basically, our lives are their entertainment. That’s pretty much the concept behind Landscape with Invisible Hand, the latest film from Thoroughbreds and Bad Education director Cory Finley.
The film takes place on an Earth that has been invaded by a superior alien race, who proceed to take away our jobs, leaving few opportunities to make a living. It’s into this reality that an artistic young man and a young woman fall in love, and decide to broadcast their courtship as entertainment for the aliens who are obsessed with human culture. It doesn’t go well.
Asante Blackk, Kylie Rogers, and Tiffany Haddish star, joined by Josh Hamilton, Brooklynn MacKinzie, Michael Gandolfini, and William Jackson Harper in a small but key role. The film is based on M.T. Anderson’s 2017 novel, adapted by Finley.
This was the last movie I saw at Sundance this year, ending my personal streak of bad movies to close out the festival. I wrote, “Finley establishes a fun, loopy tone, but this isn’t a laugh-out-loud kind of movie. It’s just really odd and clever, and should find an audience who like their sci-fi on the weird side.”
Landscape with Invisible Hand opens on August 18th.
Years into a benevolent alien occupation of Earth, the human race is still adjusting to the new world order and its quirky coffee table-sized overlords called the Vuvv. Their flashy advanced technology initially held promise for global prosperity, but rendered most human jobs – and steady income – obsolete. When 17-year-old artist Adam Campbell (Asante Blackk) and new girlfriend Chloe Marsh (Kylie Rogers) discover the Vuvv are particularly fascinated with human love and will pay for access to it, they decide to livestream their budding romance to make extra cash for themselves and their families. Life is good, for a while, until the flame of their teenage love fizzles out and they’re forced to make very different, absurdly life-altering sacrifices for their families.