When God provides you lemons, pour your self a tequila with a twist. Is that how the saying goes? Anyway, MUBI has prolonged its attain into eccentric cinema with its newest launch, Magic Farm, a narrative centered on a dysfunctional TV crew that tries to profit from their work expertise after venturing into the fallacious nation. Author-director Amalia Ulman (who made waves together with her wonderful debut, El Planeta) is from Argentina and builds a unusual little movie round her pretty South American stomping floor, with an added satirical edge within the type of dopey People who suppose they’ve what it takes to journey to a different world and pull off tv “magic.”
Led by the timeless Chloë Sevigny, Magic Farm is not for everybody, however Ulman exhibits promise and refuses to provide into narrative norms. Be ready for deadpan humor and purposefully useless ends, which elevate suspicions that possibly she’s simply smarter than the remainder of us doubters.
From New York With Angst
Magic Farm
3
/5
- Launch Date
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April 25, 2025
- Runtime
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93 Minutes
- Director
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Heidi Ewing
- Writers
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Heidi Ewing
- Standout supporting performances throughout the board, delivering a whole lot of laughs.
- Argentina supplies a beautiful setting.
- The movie is simply too meandering at occasions, and appears to not know methods to finish.
- Actors like Simon Rex and even Sevigny appear underutilized.
The dysfunctional nature of the TV crew stays a robust level in Ulman’s movie throughout the board. “Why is everybody being imply to me for no cause?” whines producer Jeff (a hilarious Alex Wolff) early on within the group’s enterprise journey. Nicely, possibly it is since you botched the voyage, Jeff! He and the manufacturing firm’s head honcho, Edna (Sevigny), are tasked with producing a kind of TV docuseries episode a couple of native musician within the space.
But, as soon as they arrive in Argentina, take a wild guess if issues truly go in accordance with plan. In attempting to trace down a famed native musician to profile for his or her on-camera piece, the language barrier inadvertently leads them astray — and into the fallacious a part of South America. Such hiccups present efficient comedian reduction and are particularly useful when Ulman’s story meanders and loses momentum at sure factors.
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They’ve traveled from the Massive Apple, the place Edna’s biz accomplice Dave (the maniacally humorous Simon Rex) is first launched within the movie’s comedic chilly open. Edna is the crew’s on-air expertise, interviewing their topics on the road whereas the remainder of the group fumbles with scripts and gear behind the lens. After Dave travels with them right down to Argentina, he shortly has to enterprise again to the U.S. — a missed alternative since Rex’s cannabis-fueled character confirmed promise as a central determine for the remainder of the movie. However then he is gone! Who would not love seeing Rex in any movie, actually, particularly after Oscar-winner Sean Baker showcased the performer in his indie gem, Pink Rocket? Oh effectively.
No less than Edna’s different colourful crew members — Jeff, Elena (performed by Ulman herself) and Justin (Joe Apollonio) — present sufficient energetic banter set in opposition to the modest, sun-drenched Argentinian backdrops in Dave’s absence. The sexually charged Justin flirts with their lodge’s pudgy receptionist (the terrific Guillermo Jacubowicz). The equally charged (however hetero) Jeff will get cozy with native dancer Manchi (a standout Camila del Campo). Sevigny falls a bit into the background, like co-star Rex, as does an intriguing B-story a couple of native well being disaster that is affecting Argentinians.
Bask within the Absurdity of ‘Magic Farm’
Given the story’s larger points at bay — AKA the looming well being disaster — you’d suppose there could be a degree the place the American characters put their foolish trials and tribulations apart and attempt to make an actual distinction of their new neighborhood. However as a substitute, Ulman leans into the absurdist vibes during, generally to a fault. And earlier than you understand it, issues for the TV crew really feel proper again the place they began in Act 1, to some extent.
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A number of the greatest storytellers have embraced round narrative of their movies, such because the late Stanley Kubrick (see: A Clockwork Orange, Eyes Large Shut), and a case could possibly be made with Ulman’s story right here. Nevertheless, with a high-caliber model like MUBI backing Magic Farm, viewers won’t be keen to just accept the way it all wraps up, as a substitute wishing there was one thing extra enlightening within the ultimate act. Possibly that’s simply Ulman attempting to problem viewers and welcoming them to delight in meaningless quirks, thereby giving so-called “quirky” classics like Napoleon Dynamite a run for his or her cash.
Amalia Ulman Stays a Director to Watch
When Magic Farm has a assured imaginative and prescient, it really works very effectively. Simply await these modern object-POV digicam angles; for a comparability, Breaking Dangerous followers may recall a standout episode when the digicam lens was mounted to Jesse’s shovel throughout that digging scene. Plus, director Ulman is aware of methods to suck you proper in with some maximalist opening-credit graphics.
Regardless, for the reason that movie’s finish end result feels a tad underwhelming, one has to surprise if these additional stylistic touches are as a substitute simply compensating for sure pitfalls in different areas. Possibly we’re being too harsh. Hey, there is not any denying that the formidable Ulman has our consideration for her subsequent function movie. She is definitely inspired to proceed treating her audiences to settings outdoors the drained United States. From MUBI, Magic Farm will likely be launched in choose theaters beginning April 25, 2025.