One of the best parts of attending Sundance, or any film festival, is discovering movies that weren’t even on my radar. I stumbled across Landscape with Invisible Hand during some downtime at the end of the festival, and now I’m grateful I didn’t miss out on one of my favourite discoveries at Sundance.
Writer-director Cory Finley’s Landscape with Invisible Hand is a dystopian sci-fi alien invasion movie. That description checks lots of boxes, but the film can’t be defined by these narrow genre labels.
Years ago, an alien race of venture capitalists called the Vuvv colonized the Earth. Their takeover of Earth wasn’t a War of the Worlds-style invasion so much as a corporate takeover. They treat the planets like investments in a financial portfolio.
The Vuvv transformed humanity into a society of haves and have-nots. The wealthy ascend to thriving communities floating in the sky while the rest of humanity remains below, fighting for leftover scraps.
Adam (Asante Blackk) is a teenage high school student who’s grown up during the Vuvv’s occupation. His dad ran off some time ago to find stable work. And now Adam, his mom, and his little sister scrape by from day to day.
Life under the Vuvv is a real kick in the nuts, but Adam finds refuge through painting — he’s a gifted artist who paints portraits of the world he sees around him.
One day Adam meets a new girl at school, and it’s obvious they’ve got the hots for each other. Chloe (Kylie Rogers) and Adam plot to transform their natural chemistry into a reality show for their alien overlords. The Vuvv don’t understand love and sexual attraction, so they pay to watch folks act stereotypically human.
Adam and Chloe’s plan works too well, bringing in some much-needed dough. But once their real feelings start to fizzle, their misleading act sparks a scandal among the Vuvv.
On the surface, Landscape with Invisible Hand looks like a cutesy family sci-fi flick. Don’t let the quirky score and adorable little squishy aliens fool you. This story has some bite. First off, the film drops a couple F-bombs and packs an R-rating. Most importantly, it tackles heavy themes about propaganda, corporate greed, and class warfare.
There’s so much going on in the movie that I looked up whether Jordan Peele is attached. Peele jam-packs his films with incisive social commentaries and clever easter eggs. And Landscape with Invisible Hand comes from the same mould. It’s not as densely packed with ideas as Us or Nope, but there’s a lot to process. It’s an ideal companion piece for District 9.
Finley explores themes of colonization, capitalism, government bureaucracy, racial sublimation, and cultural appropriation. That’s a ridiculous amount of ground to cover in 94 minutes. The film does bite off more than it can chew, though.
Finley steps away from certain characters and plot threads right as they’re getting interesting. And he introduces some ideas that aren’t examined thoroughly. Overall, Landscape with Invisible Hand succeeds more often than it stumbles.
At the end of the day, I love the movie’s ambition. Landscape with Invisible Hand is a thoughtful, offbeat, and entertaining coming-of-age story with a clever sci-fi premise. Finley creates a twisted vision of tomorrow to make an urgent statement about the world today.
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