It only took a few years after the Vuvv made contact with Earth before they took dominion over the human population.  While the rich were welcomed to the hovering cities to serve the Vuvv, the lower class was left back on Earth.  The Campbell Family is one such who have been left behind, but Beth (Tiffany Haddish), a lawyer from before contact, is still able to afford a nice home for her and her two kids, Adam (Asante Blackk) and Natalie (Brooklynn MacKinzie).  When Adam and his girlfriend, Chloe (Kylie Rogers), accidentally break some Vuvv laws, and in order to avoid sending their families into generations of debt, they welcome a young and impressionable Vuvv into their home to observe human behavior. 

Cory Finley writes and directs Landscape with Invisible Hand, an adaptation of M.T. Anderson’s novel, which premiered at Sundance and was given a theatrical release through MGM.  Its studio backing marred its festival premiere with slight controversy as some felt it was not staying true to Sundance’s independent nature, however, the quirky film was defended by its cast as well as the festival programmers.  Running 105 minutes, Finley’s film presents a very distinct future for humans, but it does not become an overly dour prediction given the heart that Blackk brings to the screen along with the rest of the cast.  The film extrapolates many current issues we are facing, but because it takes these topics off into a world that is just adjacent to being totally absurd, Finley can really delve deep into the troubling roots of the problems we are facing. Dressing this dissertation up as a fun and zany hypothesis helps to keep audiences engaged as we do not immediately feel the weight of consequences pressing down on us. 

To say that Landscape is a film that is defined by its world-building is an understatement.  There is a lot of ground to cover and a lot of topics to tackle, and for the most part, Finley’s adaptation of the 160-page YA novel does a good job of contextualizing the fears and concerns of that targeted generation.  It is troubling then, that the MPAA affixed an R-rating to the film, and though there is a shocking – albeit brief – moment early in the film featuring a suicide, its rating is just another example of the lack of respect or agency which is often shown towards the up-and-coming generation.  They are the ones who are going to inherit the mess left behind and will have to contend with a dying world inhabited by a society that is rapidly fracturing and isolating itself.  Landscape validates their concerns and highlights the dangers of apathetic acceptance, but the rating will bar them from seeking this film out on their own which is a real shame.  A generous view may be that the MPAA is seeking to shelter them from this reality, but the younger generation is not ignorant of the challenges ahead and this rating on this film is really just one more instance of a fading power that refuses to step aside and justifies their stubbornness by infantizing their successors. 

The film is centered on Blackk’s Adam, a creative boy who is frustrated at the Vuvv way of life as well as the abandonment by his father (William Jackson Harper), and finds his outlet through painting.  Landscape takes a very loose framing device by intercutting Adam’s work chronicling his experience under the Vuvv citing the medium and year to help us understand the passing of time.  Blackk walks the line of being both confused and angry while also determined so that audiences are not turned off by his brash-at-times behavior.  He has a strong moral compass which he follows, but at the same time, he is still a boy and sometimes finds himself having wandered off course.  One such moment comes when he begins to talk to Chloe about turning off the “courtship broadcast” – a livestream of their relationship which the Vuvv watch as entertainment and the two are compensated for – because he does not want to broadcast each private moment between them to the universe.  In this way, Landscape begins to focus its ire at influencer culture, and just as audiences are settling in to be berated about inherent performance that goes into internet personalities, the film pivots and opens itself up to being a story about the widening wealth gap, resource and opportunity deserts, a struggling education system, shifting gender norms in the rise of the non-nuclear family, and a generation of disaffected youth. 

The chemistry that Adam fosters with Chloe is what drives the opening half of the narrative as the two begin to tiptoe closer to and around a relationship but are unsure of how best to address the awkwardness of the “courtship broadcast.”  Rogers plays Chloe with a steely resolve as a girl who has always been on the move from home to home, or more than likely stop-over to stop-over.  She enjoys the comfort and luxury of the Campbell house and the attention she receives from Adam, but the allure of the massive payouts from their broadcast drives a wedge between the two.  It is a testament to both Blackk and Rogers that their relationship is so quickly and genuinely felt by audiences and an audacious move on behalf of Finley to fracture that relationship that provided so much heart to the opening of the narrative.  The fallout of the breakup is a point of tension through the back half, but more so than before, Landscape becomes Adam’s story as he adapts to life under the Vuvv; an experience that becomes magnified for him when in order to avoid fines, his family allows a Vuvv to live with them and fill in the role of father figure. 

The Vuvv are cute little overlords.  Fleshy and pink, a little slime that gives them a sheen, and about the size of a large toaster oven, they walk around on four limbs with paddles for feet/hands and have two antennae on the top of their bodies where their eyes are located.  They have mouths, but they speak by rubbing their paddles together, and as the sound is pretty much unreplicatable to humans, they have translator speakers that can be used.  The young Vuvv that comes to live with the Campbells is a sponge for human culture and despite being added into the scene during post, the cast all achieve great comedic timing when dealing with his misogynist antics.  Haddish has some of the best lines against the Vuvv and does incredibly well with the interactive sequences in this second half as she spars with her new Vuvv husband, and later Mr. Marsh (Josh Hamilton) channels his best Jim Carrey as he dons the blond wig and floral apron, taking over the coveted role of homemaker for the Vuvv after Beth gets a job out of the house. 

The Marsh family also includes Hunter (Michael Gandolfini), Chloe’s older brother, who is desperately trying to break into the field of Vuvv servitude for the lifestyle and affluence that comes with it. Gandolfini is hilarious in the role as he grows over time in his assimilation of Vuvv culture seeking to exploit it while growing equally resentful of Adam who is seemingly favored by the alien race while doing nothing particularly special to earn it. Because the film is so concerned with current issues, Hunter, especially given some uninformed and heavily slanted comments about racial inequality, puts the film in passing conversation with the state of racial history in the classroom and the fate of equality and diversity programs in the country, and despite being written in 2017, these are both timely topics given recent Supreme Court rulings and threats to dismantle the Department of Education in America.

For all the fun back home, the second half of the film really revolves around Adam converting the closed-down and boarded-up school into a mural about his life under the Vuvv. It is a culmination of all the pent-up, watered-down, and swapped-out feelings from what the boy has been dealing with since first contact, and while the message is delivered, it would have been nice for it to be expanded on since it is such a pivotal piece of the story. The completion of the mural ushers in the third act of the film where the Vuvv expert on human art is brought in and offers Adam a life-changing commission to bring his art to the outer Vuvv communities. Ultimately, it falls through as Adam is unable to bring himself to commodify his art – add that to the list of topics that Landscape seeks to examine – and he returns back home to live in poverty but stays true to his art and that genuine approach helps to mend his relationship with Chloe, though the film ends before we can see if Chloe is ready to work towards a genuine relationship. That rush to finish is something that really holds Landscape back from being as effective as it could be. In its effort to discuss so much, the narrative never gets a chance to really expand on the ideas in a fittingly robust way. 

Finley’s adaptation is still a very enjoyable work that has such a clear vision for the near future that it is impossible not to get swept up in the fantasy and the whimsy of it all. The exposition is a little blunt, but not so much that it turns audiences away from the film and once we are caught up to speed Finley really begins to lean into the weird aspects of this new world. There is so much heart in Landscape and while it may leave us wanting a little more and not quite stick the landing, it is a delightful little film with an incredibly committed and talented cast that fully believes in the project. Landscape with Invisible Hand may not have the answers to the concerns and questions of its characters – and its audience – but it ends with the feeling that everything will be okay. It may feel a little too saccharine given how so much is still left ultimately unresolved, but with any luck, this film will find its audiences and give them the courage to stand up for what they believe in and by doing so, create the change that is desperately needed.