Old Joy

Nothing much happens in Old Joy, yet it has all the depths of a lonely walk in an unpeopled forest. Simply put, a young man on the verge of fatherhood takes a trip with a college friend who cannot find his place in the world. But with her camera low to the ground, director Kelly Reichardt shoots with a gravity reminiscent of the great Japanese director Yasujiro Ozu. Her characters converse quietly, baffled by the routes their lives have taken, awed by Oregon’s forests and the embers of a fire flying into the night sky. Every gesture is fraught with meaning, every sentence a subtle revelation, and when the characters part with seeming casualness, we’re left reeling in our melancholy. 309 Oak Street S.E., Minneapolis; 612-331-3134; www.mnfilmarts.org/oakstreet