Landscape With Invisible Hand (Movie)

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    ‘Landscape With Invisible Hand’ Review: Hit Subscribe, Alien Overlords

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    The latest film from Cory Finley follows two teens on an alien-controlled earth who stream their love life to an extraterrestrial audience.“Landscape With Invisible Hand” mashes up the teen romantic comedy and alien-invasion horror genres to campy, mixed results. In an opening montage of paintings created by one of our high-school-age heroes, Adam (Asante Blackk), we’re introduced to a near-future in which an alien race known as the Vuvv has taken over Earth, not by force but through salacious dealings with the planet’s most enterprising capitalists. Over time, the Vuvv — who, far from ferocious creatures, resemble hermit crabs without shells and communicate by rubbing their paddle-like hands together — have rendered most Earth jobs obsolete with advanced technology, forcing humans to find creative ways to scrape together enough money to survive.While in art class, Adam falls for the new girl at school, Chloe (Kylie Rogers), and invites her struggling family to stay in the rundown house where he, his mother, Beth (Tiffany Haddish), and sister, Natalie (Brooklynn MacKinzie), are living. Tensions arise between Beth and Chloe’s father (Josh Hamilton) and brother (Michael Gandolfini) because the new arrivals can’t pay rent. This leads Chloe to suggest a “courtship broadcast,” where she and Adam stream their dating life to a paying alien audience — a sort of intergalactic Twitch channel, broadcast through futuristic implants. The Vuvv, who reproduce asexually, have a fixation on human dating culture and romance. It’s as unnerving and darkly funny as it sounds.Based on a young-adult novel by M.T. Anderson, “Landscape With Invisible Hand” is the director Cory Finley’s third feature after “Thoroughbreds,” and “Bad Education,” and like those prior films, it relishes in eerie discontent punctuated by oddball humor. But the plot never fully gels; characters ebb and flow in and out of the spotlight, and soon Adam and Chloe’s get-rich-quick scheme — and its strain on their relationship — falls by the wayside for a much stranger charade involving Beth and a young Vuvv who wants to play the role of a nuclear-family father. The one constant is Adam’s beautifully rendered artwork, which depicts the gradual creep of Vuvv control over human life through a teenager’s eyes.Finley’s allegorical gestures toward issues of class, race and authoritarianism are more than apparent, but the film’s tonal inconsistencies make the satire wobble. There’s certainly intention in the way Finley depicts the Vuvv’s injection of propaganda into the human school curriculum, and how he shows certain Earthlings, like Chloe’s father, eagerly prostrating themselves in front of the alien invaders. But despite real-world parallels, these thematic elements contain no bite. The Vuvv, with their blatant lack of empathy and outdated perception of human society, are treated as jokes from the beginning. As a result, even their most alarming threats to Adam and his family come across as slight and inconsequential, undercutting the film’s central theme of resiliency.Landscape With Invisible HandRated R for science-fiction violence and a space alien’s idea of intimacy. Running time: 1 hour 45 minutes. In theaters. More

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      Tiffany Haddish Dances to the Beat of Her Never-Ending Internal Soundtrack

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      The actress employs grapeseed oil for rough skin and an Eddie Murphy classic for rough days.This summer, Tiffany Haddish plays a marijuana-smoking cat (“The Freak Brothers”), a detective pulled out of retirement (“The Afterparty”), a psychic in a film based on a Disneyland ride (“Haunted Mansion”) and the mother of a child who broadcasts his love life to aliens (“Landscape With Invisible Hand”). For her, the mom is the most relatable.“I’ve raised my sisters and brothers,” she said in a phone interview from Los Angeles in June. “When I was married, I was raising my ex-husband’s kid. I know what it feels like.”The biggest reach was the psychic. Haddish, 43, said she’s no psychic, but she does set expectations. Every night before she goes to bed, she writes down what happened that day and what she wants to get out of the next one.“It always starts with ‘I am,’” she said. “I am going to break this man’s heart tomorrow because he’s on my last, last …”Haddish talked about the other tools — the tea, movies, music and dancing — she relies on to navigate her days. These are edited excerpts from the conversation.1GardeningMy backyard is full of things like celery, lettuce, tomato, cucumbers, basil — all the things that you need to survive. I started gardening when I was a kid. As an adult, I started growing vegetables as a way to escape from the shenanigans going on in my life. Even when I was homeless, I would grow cucumbers in a cup in the car window. It was like: If I can grow these seeds, I can do anything. They would die.2DogsRight now, I have an American bulldog named Slumber and a Maltese-Yorkie mix called Sleeper. Both of them are named after things I really want to do. I used to raise pit bulls, which I think are the sweetest, most obedient, friendly, helpful dogs ever. Pit bulls are way smarter than American bulldogs.3Hibiscus and Smooth Move TeasTraveling so much, I don’t know, something about being on airplanes gives me a little backup. So, at least once a week I like to drink some Smooth Move tea mixed with hibiscus tea.4‘Boomerang’It’s my go-to movie when I’m sad. It makes me laugh every single time, and it brings me joy. I turned over a Blockbuster Video back in the day ’cause they didn’t have it. I knocked over two racks on my way out. That’s when I decided to buy the movie. But I bought it at a different store. I had to leave that Blockbuster.5Alkaline Spring WaterIt’s my favorite water to drink. I don’t know what kind of island this is I’m on, so I definitely want some fresh alkaline spring water. I don’t want to drink purified water — I might as well just drink out the back of the toilet. I want to drink water from streams, springs, from the Earth.6Grapeseed OilI use it for everything. I use it to fry foods. Sometimes I put it on my elbows and knees. It makes all that crumpled-up skin nice and soft. Sometimes I put it all over my body. Grape seeds are really good for you. That’s why I’m so mad they took all the seeds out of grapes. You need them seeds. How you going to be fruitful? They’re trying to kill us, man.7Taylor SwiftIt’s funny because when she first came out, I was like, I don’t know about this. It’s kind of corny. Then they played those songs over and over on the radio, and the next thing you know, you’re like, yeah, jumping around and dancing. I can get with Taylor Swift. I have a good time with Taylor Swift’s music, reflecting on past things, past relationships.8DancingIt’s necessary. I try to dance every day. It keeps you young. Eating my food, I’m dancing. Trying on clothes, I’m dancing. There’s a soundtrack always going in my head.9WashclothsI like a good washcloth. I know a lot of people out here, they use soap and water and that’s it. Well, I beg to differ. You need something to remove the dead skin and the dirt. And even if you run out of soap, if you have a washcloth, you can always clean. When I go somewhere and they don’t have no washcloths, I’ll be feeling like people are dirty.10‘Heal Your Body’I’ve read the Louise Hay book “Heal Your Body” at least four or five times. I’ve been sick a few times. We all been sick here and there. The book has helped me to talk to my body and learn what’s affecting me, why I’m acting the way I am and why I got sick. It was very helpful to me. More