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Movie Review: Landscape with Invisible Hand

Mike Tyrkus

Every now and then a film comes along that manages to reinvigorate a genre and causes filmmakers to reevaluate exactly what a film is supposed to pass along to an audience. With the new science fiction piece called Landscape with Invisible Hand, filmmaker Cory Finley has done just that – created a genre piece that transcends the genre to become great art.

Several years into the occupation of Earth by aliens called the Vuvv – which initially held the promise of prosperity for all and marvelous technological advances, that didn’t exactly pan out – humanity has grown complacent and, in many ways, stagnant. One thing the Vuvv are fascinated with is the human capacity to love and will pay interested humans to allow them to experience it via lives-tream broadcasts that are the main form of entertainment for the creatures.

These broadcasts can lead to steady incomes and better lives for the humans that mount successful ones. So, a young artist named Adam Campbell (Asante Blackk) and Chloe Marsh (Kylie Rogers) decide to share their budding romance with the Vuvv to make life a little more bearable for their respective families. Things go well for a while, until their initial spark burns out and they are accused of providing disingenuous entertainment.

Writer/director Cory Finley, who made his debut with 2017’s Thouroughbreds, delivers a wildly entertaining and engaging romance with a film that defies being pigeonholed into any singular genre. There is a bit of teenage angst here, mixed in with a splash of coming-of-age comedy, along with a healthy dose of introspective science fiction that perfectly meshes into a thoughtful and, occasionally, provocative piece that explores the nature of humanity and exactly what someone would be willing to do just to survive.

Asante Blackk and Kylie Rogers in “Landscape with Invisible Hand.” Photo by Courtesy of MGM – © MGM.

As far as the leads of the film go, both Asante Blackk and Kylie Rogers give superlative performances that manage to give the overall piece the resonance that makes it as enduring as it ultimately is. Tiffany Haddish also delivers as Adam’s mother (Beth) who, as a former lawyer, doesn’t see a lot of work in that profession in the post-Vuvv society. Meanwhile, Chloe’s father – played by Josh Hamilton – is so down on his luck that he isn’t above acting as a surrogate wife of one of the Vuvv (albeit not in any sort of inappropriate way) when Beth’s shirks her wifely duties. Throughout the cast, there is an honesty to the performances that makes everything even more engaging.

Though it may not be as revered by genre lovers as it deserves to be, Landscape with Invisible Hand proves to be a significant achievement in the science fiction genre in that it is a rare genre film that is much more powerful and poetic than many other films the classification has to offer.

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Mike Tyrkus

Editor in Chief at CinemaNerdz.com
An independent filmmaker, co-writer and director of over a dozen short films, the Editor in Chief of CinemaNerdz.com has spent much of the last three decades as a writer and editor specializing in biographical and critical reference sources in literature and the cinema, beginning in February 1991 reviewing films for his college newspaper. He was a member of the Detroit Film Critics Society, as well as the group's webmaster and one-time President for over a decade until the group ceased to exist. His contributions to film criticism can be found in Magill's Cinema Annual, VideoHound's Golden Movie Retriever (of which he was the editor for nearly a decade until it too ceased to exist), the International Dictionary of Films and Filmmakers, and the St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia (on which he collaborated with editor Andrew Sarris). He has also appeared on the television program Critic LEE Speaking alongside Lee Thomas of FOX2 and Adam Graham, of The Detroit News. He currently lives in the Detroit area with his wife and their dogs.

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