From director Cory Finley of “Thoroughbreds” comes “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” an alien invasion drama that sounds like the title of a painting by David Hockney. In the manner of alien invasion films, “Landscape with Invisible Hand,” which is based on a 2017 YA novel by award-winning author M.T Anderson, is set on an alien-colonized planet Earth circa 2036.
To the “Star Trek”-y tune of a theremin, the film involves the take-over of our planet by beings known as the Vuvv, who hover around the planet on enormous spacecraft, although one of them cannot operate a TV remote. Although someone describes the Vuvv as resembling “gooey coffee tables,” the truth is they resemble plucked turkeys more than anything else (and so does the movie). Their language sounds like scratchy hiccups. They are the size of large turkeys, have a pinkish skin, eyes on long stalks, four limbs ending in pads, and they can communicate with humans using a translating device. Meat is “printed” by alien technology. Humans also eat something called “wheatmeal loaf.” Yum.
The film’s protagonists Adam Campbell (Asante Blackk, “This Is Us”) and Chloe Marsh (Kylie Rogers, “Yellowstone”) are high school students trying to contend with adolescence and the Vuvv all at the same time. Adult humans, who want to remain prosperous and in power, have become Vuvv collaborators, including the government. After English literature and then high school itself is canceled by the Vuvv, who insist education can be accomplished using “nodes,” high tech devices young people stick to their foreheads, Adam and Chloe scavenge the ravaged countryside for things to sell.
In the manner of reality show stars, Adam and Chloe then agree to let the Vuvv experience their budding romance via nodes. The Vuvv are spellbound by romantic human love. Adam and Chloe begin to earn enough viewership money to buy steak and wine for Adam’s mother Beth (Tiffany Haddish). Even Chloe’s family, who live in Beth’s basement, do better. Chloe’s very tall, disagreeable, older brother Hunter (Michael Gandolfini) expresses his rebel heart by shaving his eyebrows. The only character in the film who gets shorter shrift than Hunter is Adam’s little sister Natalie (Brooklynn MacKinzie). Television has nothing on it except reruns of 1970s TV series that are better than the film.
After Adam and Chloe are threatened with a ruinous Vuvv lawsuit, Beth agrees to let a Vuvv live in her house as her “husband,” even though the Vuvv are asexual. Beth receives a job offer from the “Bucket of Broth” business and decides to make some money “scooping soup.” Again, yum.
Director Finley gives a big piece of the film to Skeeter Davis’ 1960s self-pitying anthem, “The End of the World.” Adam, a budding artist, sketches portraits and eventually paints a huge, subversive mural on the side of the high school. He calls it, “Life Under Occupation.” The Vuvv love it.
It’s not that I didn’t care what was going on. Young people identify with Adam and Chloe and no doubt see the Vuvv as science-fiction expressions of their controlling parents. I get it. I just don’t want it in this form. “Landscape with Invisible Hand” resembles the similarly, if differently flawed 2013 Neill Blomkamp effort “Elysium.” My worry is that young people might read YA books and miss out on such science-fiction giants as H.G. Wells, Joanna Russ and Robert A. Heinlein. For what it’s worth, among the producers of “Landscape with Invisible Hand” are Brad Pitt, super-rich Megan Ellison, Anderson and Haddish. Adam’s very fine art was created by Atlanta-based artist William Downs.
(“Landscape with Invisible Hand” contains profanity and brief violence)
Rated R. At the Landmark Kendall Square and suburban theaters. Grade: C+