Film Review: LANDSCAPE WITH INVISIBLE HANDS: Spin Over Substance Enlivens Quirky Rendition of Sci-Fi Adaptation [Sundance 2023]

Landscape with Invisible Hand Review

Landscape with Invisible Hand (2023) Film Review from the 45th Annual Sundance Film Festival, a movie directed by Cory Finley, starring Asante Blackk, Brooklynn MacKinzie, Kylie Rogers, John Newberg, Tony Vogel, Tiffany Haddish, Josh Hamilton, Michael Gandolfini, Christian Adam, and Dev H Patel.

Inspired silliness is the hallmark of Cory Finley’s film adaptation of M. T. Anderson’s YA novel of the same name.

No doubt about it, Landscape with Invisible Hand is a really fun ride, despite the gravity of the circumstances. There’s lots going on at several levels, and despite some of the narrative gaps there are plenty of compensations. Anderson often uses themes of consumer caveats, especially as they relate to young adults.

The film takes place in a future dystopian Earth, conquered by an alien race known as the Vuvv, bearing a sort of reverse Pandora’s box. Instead of releasing evils into the world, they produce a cornucopia of technological marvels.

And like the box in the myth (actually, the ancient Greek translates as ‘jar’), one item was left behind countering the others preceding it. Yes, there was a catch, the ‘fine print’ — and a familiar one. Only the richest, who had colluded with the aliens, could afford the bounty. The rest of the global population, among them high schooler and artist Adam Campbell, were left in abject poverty.

After the Invasion

The film opens with footage of Adam’s paintings, like a PowerPoint presentation, titled and dated. The works, folk art style, are quite good, showing chronological milestones of economic decline after the Vuvv’s arrival.

The once upscale suburban neighborhood is now a tattered slum where Adam lives with his younger sister, Natalie, his mother, Tiffany, a former civil rights attorney turned fast food worker. But they managed to keep their house, a rare asset in the post conquered world.

A New Economy

The film makes a curious distinction between professional and financial success, at least for the human population. For example, in one scene a chauffeur for a mucky-muck Vuvv official had once been a neurosurgeon. Yet this servile position, aboard one of the Vuvv mother ships floating above, is a favored class and entitles him to snazzy creature comforts.

The humans down below, however, have one characteristic ritual that fascinates the Vuvv and carries significant market value — courtship. To the evidently asexual Vuvv, romance is premium entertainment, something like a premium cable package including the Spice Network. The Vuvv pay top dollar for telecasts by way of head-band hardware that monitor the trysts. (Incidentally, this hardware has also replaced the classroom; education via telepathy.)

Adam and his classmate Chloe have both already felt a promising spark between them. Adam is smitten, but Chloe is pragmatic. They decide to capitalize on this novel gig industry. At Adam’s invitation (and his mother’s chagrin), she has been living with her father and uncle in the basement, and she sees an opportunity to offset their mooching. She and Adam don the headgear devices and broadcast their hormone sodden jolts of starry-eyed infatuation up to the overlords.

Sure enough, the bucks start rolling in, and the household can afford something more than processed gelatinous blocks available to the unemployed for their meals. And things are just fine until the bloom fades from the rose of adolescent intimacy, and Adam and Chloe go their separate ways. Not so fast, claim the Vuvv, who bring suit against them for fraud, claiming fake affection during the period leading to the breakup. They demand restitution in the form of a refund that will put the entire household out on the street.

Vuvv Down to Earth

To be fair, there are other plot points that also directly relate to teen angst, such as single parenting, corporate control of public schools, community solidarity, economic inequality, and so forth. But all of these lose impact, to one degree or another, in the scheme of things. Instead the real twist of the story is meeting the Vuvv for the first time as individuals.

At first glance, the fleshed out Vuvv are startling but not frightening, and gradually show their own quirky charm. Shaped like end tables, they communicate by rubbing their upper tentacles together, using a voice synthesizer to simulate pared down English. As we come to understand the Vuvv’s mercenary culture, the more reasonable (and akin to our own) it seems. Eventually you may find it hard not to like the little buggers. 

The Deals

Tiffany, Adam’s mom, musters her courage and strikes a deal with her son’s accuser, thus eliminating the debt — a female Vuvv whose son is especially curious about human marriage. A ‘shotgun wedding’ is arranged, and Adam has a Vuvv stepfather. Interestingly, the stepfather’s fascination with human marriage is rooted in TV shows from the 50s, and insists that his new family behave accordingly. It’s not hard to guess the outcome.

From here on, the narrative loses focus. In a fit of rebellion — and reminiscent of Pleasantville — Adam decides to paint a fresco on the brick wall of his former school, a montage of his experiences since the Vuvv invasion. His stepfather follows him and takes a gander. Instead of punishment, the Vuvv hire Adam to produce more of the same on the mother ship, at a seven-figure salary.

Final Thoughts

Landscape with Invisible Hand is a somewhat derivative yet audacious spin on the alien invasion trope. It clips along at a nice pace. Some subplots are handled well. In particular, the conflicts between the cohabiting families in the Campbell household convey remarkable emotional impact; it’s easy to understand both sides of the arguments.

Others don’t go anywhere, or not far enough. For example, Adam’s father pops up in the dead of night soon after Tiffany’s wedding. He has a brief, apologetic heart to heart with Adam, takes a quick peep at sleeping Tiffany and her ‘Husband,’ then leaves without a farewell or explanation.

The last scene, meant to be uplifting, is particularly disappointing. Adam rebelled again, refusing to lecture on his fresco, graffiti inexplicably added. He reneges on the deal and returns to his neighborhood, where he begins another fresco with Chloe once again at his side. Serviceable but a little shoddy, we wonder if this opus could better expand on its potential as a limited series.

Rating: 8.0/Rating

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