“I’m done being a superhero.” An international movie star who’s become synonymous with her intergalactic onscreen persona in a wildly successful television show, Muriel (Kim Taff) has reached her creative breaking point. She confesses as much to her boyfriend Joe Fulton (Bill Sage), a former director of romantic comedies who’s begun his own self-reflective shift toward a simpler life by applying to work as a groundskeeper at the local cemetery. Such epiphanies occur throughout the climactic hangout session of Hal Hartley’s great new film Where to Land, a shaggy and spellbinding ode to shifting gears despite everyday life’s crippling opposition to change.
Much like the great slapstick auteur Preston Sturges, Hartley has always been able to tap into the contradictions, uncertainties, and swooning emotions of a specific era much sooner than any of his contemporaries. His best films always grapple with apocalyptic undertones, and Joe’s simple desire to spend his time working manual labor sets in motion a series of misunderstandings with loved ones that inevitably reveals a very vital, very modern dilemma: what do we actually value when the end is near?
As Joe decides to draft a last will and testament that will make things easier, the implication that he might be dying achieves the antithetical result. Those closest to him begin panicking, inadvertently forcing each to recalibrate what the future might look like. Joe, on the other hand, begins the practical process of taking stock of his physical belongings. But Hartley sees this as just a bridge to address our modern infatuations with not only financial and emotional certainty, but the conformity that inevitably follows.
Hartley’s circular dialogue remains fresh as ever, opening up avenues of discussion and consideration in surprising ways. Each character plays a part in questioning whether their own view of the world is sustainable, carving out just enough space to stand on their own in a swirling vision of New York City that is constantly juxtaposing blustery, windy exteriors with cozy interiors.
Where to Land is a reunion of the director’s beloved regulars. Playing the earnest and quiet groundskeeper Leonard, Robert John Burke goes against his usual fierce intensity to conjure up what becomes the personification of endurance. Sage has been with Hartley just as long, and Joe becomes something of a stand-in for the director’s own artistic evolution that has made him one of the most important, lively filmmakers of the last 30 years.
By the time it leaves Joe and company abuzz with possibility in a communal space, Where to Land feels less like a reckoning of ideology than a rekindling of purpose. Through its effortlessness we begin to realize how scattered and frantic things have become; it seamlessly critiques America’s modern culture of assumption and opportunism, something that threatens to derail us from seeing what matters most in our daily lives. A true marvel of a movie, it’s equally enthralled by wind in the trees and a momentary pause in a conversation, patiently waiting for us to discover its calming power.
Where to Land begins a theatrical run on Friday, September 12.