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Land Reviews

Wright and Bichir’s compelling performances, as well as stunning cinematography by Bobby Bukowski, make Land a worthwhile journey from the numbness of loss to the joys of finding peace within.

Full Review | Feb 13, 2024

For director/star Wright this film could have been something significant if she didn’t place herself second to the land she was filming on.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 17, 2023

Land is an outstanding feature directorial debut from Robin Wright, who also delivers one of my favorite performances of hers. An incredibly inspirational film that relies on its unforgettable visuals and an extremely engaging score.

Full Review | Original Score: A- | Jul 24, 2023

With Land, Robin Wright makes a noble attempt of presenting a sensible story about loss and endurance. Nevertheless, a weak script prevents it from happening.

Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 15, 2023

Robin Wright’s directorial debut, Land, is an exercise in stoic ambivalence. The problem is her film tips its hand too early and often; leaving little for its audience to care about and hang onto through the picture.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Sep 11, 2022

Wright describes her film as being about “resilience in the face of adversity“. It’s also a delicate study on the crushing effects of unchecked grief and an examination of both physical and emotional isolation.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 17, 2022

Wright's talents as an actor far outweigh her abilities as a director.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/10 | Jun 5, 2022

The film is nothing to write home about... but the locations are magnificent, and Wright gives it her all, delivering a fine performance alongside her helming duties.

Full Review | Nov 5, 2021

A bland melodrama about a woman who isolates herself in the mountains of Wyoming to seek to survive a certain personal trauma. Impeccable landscape photography, good performances and a real waste of time.

Full Review | Original Score: 1/4 | Oct 26, 2021

The stunning cinematography of Land creates a contemplative space for this study in contrasts about people dealing with grief.

Full Review | Aug 27, 2021

For all the conviction provided by Wright, usually excellent, it locks us out, leaving the audience struggling to understand while the adventure flags and becomes repetitive

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Aug 23, 2021

Wright is wonderful in the lead and good as a director, and the cinematography is exquisite.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 20, 2021

Land comes across in a more understated manner, partly because it ultimately deals with grief and forgiveness. Low key and heartfelt, Land proves fully grounded as a well-made, sensitive little film.

Full Review | Jul 16, 2021

Land is a measured film with a well-worn plot, and yet it still harbors some beautiful moments of mourning, crisis and uplift.

Full Review | Jun 24, 2021

I expected something interesting and artistic. I got something that looks nice but is utterly predictable.

Full Review | Jun 23, 2021

The result holds few narrative surprises, yet offers a quietly moving, solidly satisfying take on the rewards and challenges of going it alone.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 17, 2021

With a spectacular mountain setting and a committed central performance, this film remains watchable even if it's underpowered.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Jun 11, 2021

Overall, Land is a solid and timely film. Celebrating themes of redemption and human resilience, it captures the essence of the moment with no frills or fanfare.

Full Review | Jun 8, 2021

An almost silent drama that opens with color and beauty as [Robin Wright's] character is able to open her eyes to her reality, to her chosen loneliness. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 8, 2021

Drab, uninspired directorial debut doesn't offer anything in the way of excitement.

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Jun 8, 2021

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‘land’: film review | sundance 2021.

Robin Wright stars in and directs a drama centered on the self-imposed isolation of a woman in the throes of devastating loss.

By Sheri Linden

Sheri Linden

Senior Copy Editor/Film Critic

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Over the past year, many of us have become intimately acquainted with a “remote” approach to life and work. For the protagonist of Land , a woman stricken by unfathomable loss, remoteness is not a matter of cyber readjustments but an existential imperative. She turns away from what’s left of her life in the city — specifically, from people and their need for her to get “better” — and exiles herself to a mountaintop cabin, believing that she’s prepared for the wilderness. Land , which marks Robin Wright ‘s first time at the helm of a feature, poses some of life’s starkest questions with a simple, elemental force, and with deep wells of compassion.

After her work in front of and behind the camera for House of Cards , Wright is a practiced hand at simultaneous toplining and directing, but the film takes her double duties to a new scale and depth. As an actor, Wright has always expressed more through restraint than abandon. That sensibility is well matched to a story that revolves around tussles with death and the life-changing kindness of strangers. In the impressively unadorned drama, which will follow its Sundance premiere with a Feb. 12 theatrical release, Wright and her co-star, Demián Bichir, deliver performances that are compellingly contained and profoundly affecting.

Release date: Feb 12, 2021

Robin Wright on How Her Directorial Debut, 'Land,' Captures Resilience Amid Grieving

A friendship develops slowly between these two similarly wounded yet resilient souls, who respect and understand each other even though they know little about each other’s lives. In the performances of Wright and Bichir, what’s unspoken between Edee and Miguel is resounding. They have their playful exchanges too, notably in a campfire sing-along of Tears for Fears’ “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (its second showcase in a recent feature, after Ethan Hawke’s rendition in Tesla ).

Elsewhere, the stirring minor-key string score is a fine match for this story’s quiet directness and its yearning mix of calamity, beauty, deprivation and unexpected gifts. Without a drop of self-congratulatory “enlightenment,” Land occupies a wild terrain of ineffable tenderness.

Venue: Sundance Film Festival (Premieres) Distributor: Focus Features Production companies: Big Beach, Flashlight Films, Nomadic Pictures, Cinetic Media Cast: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Kim Dickens, Brad Leland, Sarah Dawn Pledge, Warren Christie, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong Director: Robin Wright Screenwriters: Jesse Chatham, Erin Digman Producers: Allyn Stewart, Lora Kennedy, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf Executive producers: Robin Wright, Marc Turtletaub, Eddie Rubin, Chad Oakes, Michael Frislev, John Sloss, Steven Farneth Director of photography: Bobby Bukowski Production designer: Trevor Smith Costume designer: Kemal Harris Editors: Anne McCabe, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen Music: Ben Sollee, Time for Three Sound designer: Paul Hsu Casting: Jackie Lind 89 minutes

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‘Land’ Review: Robin Wright Crafts a Simple and Gentle Story of Healing | Sundance 2021

‘Land’ plays out pretty much as you’d expect it to, but that doesn’t diminish its impact.

Robin Wright has had an impressive acting career ranging from classics like The Princess Bride to thoughtful indies like The Congress to the first streaming hit with House of Cards . She now makes her directorial debut with Land , a quiet, character-driven drama that uses Wyoming’s gorgeous scenery for scope while never losing sight of the human stakes at the core of its story. It’s the kind of movie that could invite easy derision (“Buttercup goes camping har har har”), and yet the earnestness of the lead performances from Wright and co-star Demián Bichir always keeps us riveted in this lovely story of friendship and redemption.

Edee (Wright) has decided to become a hermit living off the land following a devastating personal tragedy. She’s basically living on the verge of suicide but made a promise to her sister Emma ( Kim Dickens ) not to inflict any self-harm. Instead, she decides to make a go of it living in a cabin in the secluded Wyoming wilderness, but is ill-equipped to survive in such a place. She comes close to death until she meets local hunter Miguel (Bichir). Although Edee is cautious of forging any new bonds, she and Miguel begin a friendship as he teaches her not only how to live in the wild, but how to live again in the world.

Land is an almost overwhelming simple story, and perhaps in a different time and place I wouldn’t have the patience for it. Perhaps if this were my fifth movie of the day on Day 6 of the Sundance Film Festival where I was there in person and exhausted, I wouldn’t fall for its charms. But I saw it at home (where Sundance will be this year as it’s conducted digitally) and I saw it after almost a year of being cooped up indoors and missing human connection. Between this and Nomadland , I’m fully willing to admit that I can easily be won over by any movie where a protagonist goes outdoors, takes in the natural beauty of our country, and makes new friends. That reality has now morphed into a fantasy during COVID, but it’s a fantasy that can be fulfilled on the other side of this pandemic.

But credit for the film’s charm must also go to Wright, who never needs to overwhelm the audience or lean on stylization to tell her story. This is the kind of movie that uses direct and effective cinematography to convey information like early in the movie where an emotionally distant Edee is filmed in dark interiors while the bright sunlit environs of her surroundings shine in the background. Wright knows what she’s doing, and rather than solely aiming for nice compositions (and the location gives her plenty of those), she’s always grounded in Edee’s emotional state and growth. That, coupled with the reliably terrific performances from Wright and Bichir, make for a movie where we’re invested in the characters even though we can see how the story will likely unfold.

I’m also grateful that Land isn’t about twists or reveals. The narrative is straight as an arrow, and there’s something comforting in this basic tale of pain and healing through personal growth and goodhearted relationships. Land may not be particularly deep, but not every indie drama has to be complex and layered if it hits the right emotional notes. In her first movie behind the camera, Wright plays those notes like an old pro.

For more of our Sundance 2021 reviews, check out the links below:

Eight for Silver
John and the Hole
How It Ends
Marvelous and the Black Hole
On the Count of Three
The Sparks Brothers
Street Gang: How We Got to Sesame Street

Review: A moving story of grief in the wild, Robin Wright’s directing debut doesn’t fully ‘Land’

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The Times is committed to reviewing new theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic . Because moviegoing carries inherent risks during this time, we remind readers to follow health and safety guidelines as outlined by the CDC and local health officials. We will continue to note the various ways readers can see each new film, including drive-in theaters in the Southland and VOD/streaming options when available.

The seasons pass swiftly in Robin Wright’s “Land,” a visually pristine, emotionally obvious drama in which time flies and heals some but not all wounds. A story of implacable grief giving way to tentative hope, the movie follows a desperately sad-eyed woman named Edee (Wright) deep into the mountains of Wyoming, where she begins a life of solitude for reasons that are at once intensely private and not especially hard to figure out. As the years fall away, marked by cycles of autumn leaves, winter icicles and other natural wonderments, Edee’s emotional shell begins to fall away too, and on a similarly predictable schedule.

We first meet Edee as she’s making her way up the mountain, stopping briefly in town to gather supplies, load up a U-Haul and toss her cellphone, mid-ring, into the trash. She’s done with other people, as becomes clear when she arrives at a remote cabin in the woods, an edge-of-the-world perch that suggests her seeming indifference to whether she lives or dies. But while Edee can cut herself off from any contact with the outside world, she can’t short-circuit her painful memories — namely, the apparitions of her husband and young son, their happy smiles frozen in ignorance of whatever mysterious tragedy awaits them.

Other things Edee can’t do, apparently: hunt, chop firewood or keep a hungry bear from devouring her rations. Ursine visitors aside, “Land” is decidedly not “The Revenant,” as wilderness survival stories go, and I mean that largely as a compliment. Wright and her cinematographer, Bobby Bukowski, aren’t interested in rubbing the viewer’s nose in mud and viscera, and while Jesse Chatham’s screenplay makes similarly strategic use of tragedy as a narrative device, Edee is not motivated by a desire for revenge. Initially, the movie pushes more in the direction of “Wild,” another portrait of an emotionally bereft woman seeking refuge in extreme isolation, but Chatham’s more linear story has little of that movie’s bristling, time-hopping energy.

Robin Wright and Demián Bichir sit on a porch in the movie "Land."

Wright, making her feature filmmaking debut (after years of directing episodes of “House of Cards” ), seems keen to pare away essentials and steep us, for a while, in the tough rituals of everyday survival. The physical details are properly transporting, from the gloomy outhouse that greets Edee upon arrival to the cacophonous animal sounds that fill the air on her first night. (The movie was mostly shot, under suitably difficult conditions, on Moose Mountain near Banff National Park, in Canada’s Alberta province.) As lashing rain gives way to falling snow, the scenery gets prettier and incrementally more lethal. The near-death experiences that befall Edee in quick succession — that brush with the bear, the growing likelihood of death from exposure or starvation — grow naturally out of her harsh environs, even as they suggest an almost metaphysical intensification of her grief.

For all Wright’s skill at marshaling resources across this physically demanding production, it’s her unsurprisingly precise, delicate work in front of the camera that gives this story its initial pull. Edee may no longer want (or know how) to live, but her survival instincts inevitably kick in, sometimes against her own will. Instincts alone aren’t enough, of course, and “Land” would likely be even shorter than its fleet 89-minute running time were it not for the arrival of Miguel (Demián Bichir) and Alawa (Sarah Dawn Pledge), passing Good Samaritans who nurse Edee back to health. Miguel sticks around for a while and comes back every so often, briefly raising the specter of romance. But his growing bond with Edee remains both platonic and practical-minded, as he replenishes her dwindling supplies and teaches her the basics of wilderness survival.

The specifics of the situation are only faintly sketched in; there are passing references to a nearby Indigenous reservation where Alawa lives and works as a nurse and to which Miguel delivers clean water. But while Bichir’s low-wattage charm makes Miguel a calming presence — he and Wright have a touching, bittersweet rapport — there’s never any real doubt or mystery about the narrative function he serves here. He’s there to coax Edee away from the edge of the cliff and hold up a mirror to her own tragedy, to provide a sympathetic shoulder even if she isn’t quite ready to cry on it yet. He’s also there to sing along to Tears for Fears and his other ’80s pop favorites, an amusingly awkward detail that would be more endearing if it didn’t feel so calculated to endear.

And it’s that calculation that finally makes “Land” play more like a tidy, tactful study of physical endurance and emotional recovery than a fully sustained immersion in Edee’s experience. The film’s beauty is undeniable, but it remains a pictorial, surface-level kind of beauty, one that glosses over the muck and sweat of its protagonist’s various second-act breakthroughs, whether she’s planting a garden or gutting her first carcass. Here and elsewhere, the therapeutic power of nature is treated as a given, rather than a genuinely life-altering discovery. “Land” is a movie of hard truths that go down a little too easily, a story as terse but never as elemental as its title.

Rated: PG-13, for thematic content, brief strong language and partial nudity Running time: 1 hour, 29 minutes Playing: Starts Feb. 12, in general release where theaters are open

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‘Land’ Review: A Broken Soul Rebuilds in Robin Wright’s Beautiful Solo Show

After directing episodes of 'House of Cards,' Robin Wright is ready to fly on her own, making what feels like the mainstream equivalent of a Kelly Reichardt movie.

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Robin Wright spends most of “ Land ” alone, but that’s not how her character Edee sees it. Newly widowed and raw with sorrow for reasons left (mostly) unsaid, Edee abandons nearly everything about her old life and buys a cabin on the side of a mountain in Wyoming — barely a shack, really, with no running water or electricity, surrounded by wilderness. Isolation serves a specific purpose for Edee, one that Wright, in a directorial debut so pure and simple it speaks to enormous self-confidence, has better instincts than to reveal outright.

It takes maturity to make a film like “Land,” a human mystery that trusts audiences to supply their own answers. So often, first-time helmers feel tempted to use their movies as show-offy sizzle reels for all they can do, getting in the way of the material. When actors transition, it can be even more self-indulgent, as frustrated performers try to demonstrate the full range other directors have denied them.

So bless Wright for paring “Land” down to a beautiful haiku, and for delivering a performance that’s ambiguous and understated in all the right ways. Wordless for long stretches, it’s very nearly a solo show — though there’s wisdom in the way she uses Demián Bichir as well. His character, Miguel, doesn’t appear until about midway, empathy embodied.

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Watching these two interact softens the film, and the anger Edee’s still processing. One can imagine a different approach in which we’d learn more about her background, but co-writers Jesse Chatham and Erin Digman let Wright’s performance speak for itself. In her hands, we recognize that Edee is strong and capable. This woman has lost her husband and son. Rather than exploiting her suffering, Wright shows us what Edee does with it — how she turns that pain into something proactive.

Edee stocks up on the barest provisions, escaping from everything she built over the previous half-century. All of this happens over the opening credits, accompanied by the Staves’ acoustic cover of Bruce Springsteen’s “I’m on Fire” that translates the song’s pent-up sexual desire into something more anguished: “Sometimes it’s like someone took a knife, baby, edgy and dull / And cut a six-inch valley through the middle of my skull.”

Feelings like that are cause enough to flee. Or as Edee puts it in one of the film’s precious few flashbacks, “Why am I here? At all?” If she could fly away to the moon, maybe she would — although there’s a specific reason Edee has chosen this place, a million miles from anywhere. Folded up and stashed in a shoebox, that explanation is perhaps the one detail the movie could have done without. But then, “Land” might have been too minimalist if she’d withheld the clue. (The same goes for what happened to Edee’s family.)

Whatever our baggage, the movie offers a vicarious opportunity for introspection and connection — with Wright’s character, of course, but also with the one person Edee allows in during this period of self-imposed exile, a man named Miguel (Bichir) with an emotional backstory every bit as complicated.

How strange to get “Land” within months of Chloé Zhao’s “Nomadland,” in which Frances McDormand’s Fern abandons the idea of home following her husband’s death. There are parallels, too, with ex-husband Sean Penn’s “Into the Wild” or Kelly Reichardt’s off-the-grid rambles, though Wright resists the heady art-house austerity of such indies.

Spare as her approach may be, Wright has actually made a very accessible film. Without ever explaining herself fully, Edee clearly decided to check out of civilization — a choice whose implications the director slowly unpacks over the slender film’s 80-odd minutes. Has she chosen this mountain as a place to die? Or is she open to survival, engaging with that instinct on its most primitive terms?

At one point, Miguel saves her life. Clearly, there’s decency in his actions, but more important is the idea that he sees his own experience in what Edee’s doing, and the sense of communion between them is cathartic. Healing is a process, and everyone deals with their wounds differently. “I’m here in this place because I don’t want to be around people,” Edee tells Miguel, and he makes himself scarce, without abandoning her entirely.

Nor is she alone on the mountain. Early on, Edee sees her husband, Adam (Warren Christie), and son, Drew (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong), fishing alongside her in a stream, or running through the woods. And she smiles. This is a surprising response in a film that’s so much about tragedy, but a critical one in understanding the film. When Robin Wright smiles, it’s brighter than the sun. That’s a power she’s always had as a performer, a radiance, and she uses it here to counterintuitive effect.

Wright rejects the misery-porn tropes. Instead of wallowing in the pain — or pantomiming all the red-eyed, ugly-cry histrionics that have earned actors Oscar nominations over the years — she changes the tense on Edee’s feelings, from past to present. “Land” unfolds in the here and now, focusing on how Edee deals with each new challenge.

Wolves run by her window at night. A bear ransacks the cabin. She runs out of food and fuel for the stove. These scenes are so basic as to be banal, but it’s the immediacy that counts. When faced with debilitating depression, even the sunrise can seem daunting — although you’ve seldom seen any as gorgeous as this. DP Bobby Bukowski alternates between intimacy and isolation, gazing upon Edee as she gazes out, while also giving us time to appreciate her surroundings.

If you’re on Wright’s wavelength, then it doesn’t matter that you personally would never deal with an equivalent crisis by running away to Wyoming. This is how Edee has chosen to cope, and her story can be taken literally or as a metaphor. It feels real enough, and yet, for an hour and a half — best experienced in the cocoon of a cinema, if you can do so safely — Wright invites us all to retreat from life’s distractions and do a bit of healing up there on that mountain.

Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (online), Jan. 30, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 89 MIN.

Production: A Focus Features release and presentation of a Big Beach, Flashlight Films production, in association with Nomadic Pictures, Cinetic Media. Producers: Allyn Stewart, Lora Kennedy, Leah Holzer, Peter Saraf. Executive producers: Robin Wright, Marc Turtletaub, Eddie Rubin, Chad Oakes, Michael Frislev, John Sloss, Steven Farneth.
Crew: Director: Robin Wright. Screenplay: Jesse Chatham, Erin Digman. Camera: Bobby Bukowski. Editors: Anne McCabe, Mikkel E.G. Nielsen. Music supervisor: Susan Jacobs.
With: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Sarah Dawn Pledge, Kim Dickens, Warren Christie, Finlay Wojtak-Hissong, Brad Leland.

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Land (2021) Review

04 Jun 2021

Land (2021)

Robin Wright ’s directorial debut follows a trail beaten by recent female-led films about living off the grid: notably Jean-Marc Vallée’s Wild , Debra Granik’s Leave No Trace and Chloé Zhao’s Oscar-winning Nomadland . Although the scenery is just as awe-inspiring here, Land cleaves too close to familiar ground. Its unimaginative script pales in comparison to its free-spirited predecessors.

Much of the film plays out as a grim, silent montage of naïve Edee failing at self-sufficiency.

Wright stars as Edee, a woman who retreats to a precarious cabin high in the mountains of Wyoming following a personal tragedy. She is far from suited to the cabin life, which is more hardcore than cottagecore. Much of the film plays out as a grim, silent montage of naïve Edee failing at self-sufficiency. Her hands bloom with blisters after hacking firewood; she can’t hunt, her crops wither and she’s soon eating cold tuna from a can while shivering through her first winter. In one fearsome moment, a bear circles her outside privy, swiping at the walls. Be thankful, then, that Land frequently cuts away to those distractingly verdant mountain views for relief.

Intermittent flashbacks to Edee’s memories of a sunnier past life help explain her rash behaviour. Wracked by grief, at some level she’s hoping the elements will win. And that’s what she’d get, if gruff Miguel ( Demián Bichir ), a local hunter, didn’t step in to save her, with medicine and patient lessons in survival skills. From that point on, the film’s horizons narrow dismally to Miguel’s sacrifice and Edee’s redemption, amid some affable but forgettable banter between a diffident, self-absorbed heroine and her enigmatic saviour. For Edee, sadly, Wyoming’s landscape and its native culture are just a prop for her own therapy. And Land ’s pat conclusion is liable to leave you yearning for something as unpredictable as the weather, as broad in scope as the view from her rickety porch.

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Land review – Robin Wright heads into the wild for tame drama

The actor makes a muted directorial debut with a conventional film about a woman going off the grid after a devastating tragedy

Sundance 2021: which films might break out this year?

I n Robin Wright’s conventional, competent directorial debut, Land, the actor (who has previously shown adeptness behind the camera for various episodes of House of Cards) takes us somewhere we know a little too well. Edee (played by Wright), is an urban-dwelling woman whose grief has distanced her from society, as grief often does, making her crave solitude, choosing self-inflicted actual loneliness rather than the more uncomfortable alternative – feeling lonely when there are so many others around. So she packs up and moves to a remote cabin in the Rockies, without any way of contacting the outside world, and tries to start a new life, alone.

When Jean-Marc Vallée, Reese Witherspoon and Nick Hornby brought Cheryl Strayed’s memoir Wild to the screen back in 2014 (the story of an urban-dwelling woman who travels into the wilderness after a major loss – ding ding ding), there was an acute awareness of the potential familiarity and limitations of the story, of a one-character drama hinged on the restorative power of nature. So Strayed’s experience was adapted with unusual flair in an evocative and immersive film about what it feels like to really be alone, how memories can domino into one another, how a sound can lead to a flash of something horrible or sad or sweet, transforming a theoretically simple trek narrative into a distinctive tapestry of emotion and regret. In Land, Edee isn’t on the move in the way that Cheryl was, but there’s an undeniable feeling of deja vu here (strong hints of Chloé Zhao’s far superior Nomadland also do it absolutely no favours).

Wright decides to tell her story in the most straightforward way possible, without any real energy or singular style, relying solely on the barest of bones to keep it all together. As an actor she’s skilled at taking on characters whose restraint hides something more complex but there’s not enough bubbling under the surface in Edee to keep us engaged (she’s defined by her trauma and little else). We know all too well that the tragedy that led her here will be teased with flashbacks and then revealed in an emotional finale (Wright shoots flashbacks as though they belong in an indigestion relief commercial, which is … ineffective). She’s strong enough to make it work for a while (until we realise what little there is to come) and there is a simple sort of satisfaction to watching her grow more accomplished at living in the wild. But we remain vaguely invested because of her commitment as an actor rather than her ability as a director, a dual role made even harder by a mostly rote script from Jesse Chatma and Erin Dignam.

For a film that so often chooses quietness over noise, when dialogue does arrive, it’s discordantly heavy-handed (“If I don’t belong here, I don’t belong anywhere,” Edee says with a straight face) and, after a solid start, with the script seemingly sticking to Edee’s dogmatic isolation, a sort of semi-love interest is lazily introduced, played well enough by Demián Bichir. As Edee reaches her low point, in comes a handsome, similarly aged saviour, Miguel (“I can’t take money for doing the right thing,” he tells her, halo out of shot) and their friendship-relationship edges the film into even more mechanical territory – guess who’s also suffering from a great loss?

With grief being the driving force of Edee’s character and the film at large, there’s not enough specificity in how it’s experienced or spoken about to fill the empty space, a sort of generic TV movie-level view of how someone processes loss (Tom Geens’ under-seen 2015 drama Couple in a Hole went from a similar starting point but travelled to a far more interesting place). There are stabs at something knottier, such as an all-too-brief discussion about Edee’s privilege (at one moment, Miguel tells her, “Only a person who has never been hungry would think starving is a way to die”) or the repercussions of one’s selfishness (with others forced to step in to help patch up Edee’s half-thought plan) but they don’t lead anywhere substantial or strengthen what’s essentially a character study of a character not really worth studying.

There’s stunning scenery throughout Land but it’s sort of a given when shooting in such a beautiful location and Wright never really manages to do anything especially artful with it to distinguish her work, we never really know her as a film-maker as we do as an actor – it’s something that could have been directed by anyone. It’s by no means the disaster it could have been, with history showing us too many actors who’ve tanked on the other side of the camera, but there’s just not enough here to make it a worthwhile retread through familiar territory, proof of Wright’s basic competency as a director but nothing more. At one point, Edee says to Miguel’s dog: “Looks like we’re finally getting the hang of this, huh?” Not quite yet, I’d say.

Land is screening at the Sundance film festival and will be released in the US on 12 February, and on 4 June in UK cinemas.

First look review
Sundance 2021
Sundance film festival
Robin Wright
Drama films

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DVD & Streaming

Content Caution

A woman (played by actress Robin Wright) sits in front of a log cabin with a thoughtful expression on her face.

In Theaters

February 12, 2021
Robin Wright as Edee; Demián Bichir as Miguel; Sarah Dawn Pledge as Alawa; Kim Dickens as Emma; Warren Christie as Adam; Finlay Wojtak-Hissong as Drew

Home Release Date

April 27, 2021
Robin Wright

Distributor

Focus Features

Movie Review

Someone looking on from the outside would likely say her choices didn’t make much sense. But to Edee, they were the only way to survive.

She had suffered a crushing loss and was drowning in grief. And so, she cashed out her life in a world filled with too many raw-edged reminders, threw away her phone, stockpiled canned goods and bought a deserted, dingy cabin on an inaccessible Wyoming mountainside.

No electricity. No running water. Nothing but an old crumbling outhouse. Living in those conditions may sound insane, but to Edee it was the only way to stay sane. Being completely cut off and isolated and surrounded by nothing but thick forests of trees, snow-capped peaks and beautiful mountain vistas was Edee’s only way to emotionally and mentally survive.

Of course, there’s also physical survival to consider. And on that front, Edee isn’t doing so well. Howling snow storms, destructive animals, and a lack of hunting and trapping knowledge can leave you starving and on the verge of death out in the wilderness.

That’s exactly where Edee is now, huddled on the frozen cabin’s hard wood floor. She too weak to get wood, too weak to start a fire, too weak to move.

And then the ice-covered cabin door crunches open. And a pair of snow crusted boots steps in. Survival, it seems, comes in many forms.

Positive Elements

A passing hunter named Miguel saves Edee, having noticed on the way back from a hunt that her chimney was no longer issuing smoke. And after nursing her back to health, he promises to stop in occasionally—respecting her wish to stay away from people—and to teach her how to hunt and care for herself.

In fact, Miguel’s gentle and regular acts of self-sacrifice pave a path for Edee to move back toward more healthy choices. “Have you thought of what you want your life to look like moving forward?” he asks her. A nurse friend of Miguel’s gives of herself to help Edee, too.

Eventually we discover that the friendship Miguel and Edee establish helps them both in powerful ways.

Spiritual Elements

A native American shaman waves smoke over a dying man’s bed.

We can draw spiritual lessons from Miguel’s self-sacrificial actions. It’s clear that selflessness is woven deep into his character. [ Spoiler Warning ] And we learn later that his choices are, in part, an expression of personal repentance.

During her isolation, Edee imagines seeing loved ones who have died.

Sexual Content

Though it’s not intended to be titilating, we see Edee’s bare back and the side of her breast when she is stripped and wrapped in blankets in an effort to raise her core body temperature. She also stands with her bare back to the camera and washes herself. In another scene she lies down outside in a large tub of water. We see her bare shoulders, perhaps a bit of breast nudity (albeit very briefly) and legs.

[ Spoiler Warning ] Edee imagines her deceased husband crawling into bed with her and kissing her face and neck. She and Miguel, however, never cross any physical lines of friendship. He even sleeps in the back of his truck in the dead of winter out of respect for Edee and to avoid any misconceptions.

Violent Content

Life in the wild is hard. Edee’s hands become badly blistered from the work she does a with a saw and an axe. A large bear attacks the outhouse that Edee is stuck in and then enters her cabin and tears it apart. Other growling animals rip up the garden Edee is attempting to plant. She also is forced to jump into a quick flowing river to retrieve an important item she accidentally dropped in the current.

Winter storms batter and freeze the protagonist, too, as winter winds make it nearly impossible to get food, water or wood. The cabin freezes up. Edee loses a large part of her food supply and nearly starves to death at one point.

Edee also considers suicide several times. Early on, after a tragedy strikes, she openly questions why she still lives on. She talks with her therapist and her sister about ending it all. Later, after great hardship, she jams a rifle barrel under her chin and only stops from pulling the trigger because of a memory of her pleading sister. After that moment, Edee pins up her sister’s name in big letters on the cabin wall as a reminder to stay strong. Later, she also pins up pictures of loved ones for the same bolstering effect.

As Miguel teaches Edee how to trap and hunt, she carries and drags dead animal carcasses. And we see her and Miguel butchering bloody meat and skinning a suspended deer.

Edee is given an IV drip when severely dehydrated. We see a man in bed, dying of cancer.

Crude or Profane Language

A use of “h—” and three or four exclamations of “Oh my god!” Someone also uses the British crudity “bloody.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other negative elements.

The camera examines Edee’s outhouse toilet, which is swarming with flies.

If you’ve seen the trailer for Land , a film starring and directed by the very talented Robin Wright, you know exactly what to expect from this film. It’s a quiet movie about a woman steeped in overwhelming grief, who isolates herself from a world of painful reminders. From the brink of suicide, she must find a way back to some modicum of healing—one agonizing step at a time. It’s a journey she’s only able to make thanks to an unexpected friendship with a kind stranger who gradually becomes a caring friend.

The acting here is intimate and moving, the cinematography, beautiful. Land declares that gentle kindness and self-sacrifice can equal grace in the face of extreme hopelessness—a message brimming with spiritual parallels.

That said, this won’t be a film for everyone. Its pacing is measured; its sadness and sense of loss are disturbingly palpable; and its conclusion is both optimistic and bittersweet.

All of these elements combined might make Land a thoughtful cinematic journey of recovery for some, but a potentially dark road for others.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Robin Wright on Making Her Directorial Debut With Land

"I wanted to make a film about kindness and human resilience."

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Robin Wright made her directorial debut with Land , about a grieving woman who retreats to the Wyoming Rockies.
Land is available to watch in theaters and stream at home starting on February 12.

The mountains were calling Edee Mathis, the protagonist in Robin Wright's feature directorial debut, Land , and she decided to go. Whether or not she was prepared for the mountains was another story. Out February 12, days after its Sundance premiere, Land is the sparse, surprisingly hopeful tale of a woman who retreats into a glimmering and cruel Wyoming Rockies after her life collapses.

"It's very difficult when you're seeing the people you love be in pain because you're in pain," Wright tells OprahMag.com of Edee's decision to retreat to the woods and throw away her phone. After Miguel (Damien Bichir), a fellow off-the-gridder, saves her from a near-death experience, Edee learns she may not be able to make it on her own after all. Based on Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam's screenplay, Land is about "kindness and human resilience," Wright says.

director actor robin wright left on the set of her feature directorial debut land, a focus features release credit daniel power focus features

Wright has directed herself previously, stepping into a leadership position in House of Cards when her co-star Kevin Spacey was fired from the show for sexual assault allegations.

Even with that experience, Land , which was filmed over the course of 29 days atop Moose Mountain in Alberta, Canada , posed extreme challenges. "We lived the movie that we shot," Wright says. She slept in a trailer on the top of the mountain, near Edee's cabin. "It was so cold in that cabin. All the breath you see, that's the real deal." Since nature was an integral part of Edee's arc, Wright says, filming there was necessary.

Speaking to OprahMag.com, Wright tells us about bears visiting the set, communing with nature, and whether or not she'd recommend Edee's lifestyle.

You said that you "lived the movie" you made. What was it like switching between actor and director in that environment?

I had three great female producers on the set all day every day that were my backbone. Could not have done it without them. When I'd get in front of the camera and do the job of acting, they would take the reins. I would get in the emotional place needed, do a take or two, and then lean out the cabin door and say, "Should I do it again? Do you think we need something different?" They would give me notes. They were very helpful.

Much of this movie is about trust—trusting other people and letting them in. Did it feel like you had that kind of environment on set?

Completely. You're blessed to feel that trust because it takes half of the weight off of your shoulders. It's a lot to direct—a lot of questions are being posed to you all day, every day. Then, you switch hats and become an actor. My hats go off to them . We're all directing the movie. It's not just one person ever. Everyone's a participant and that's the beauty of it. It's the collaboration.

I heard bears visited the set. Have you been surprised by how much of the press conversation has revolved around them?

The bears were exciting and really scary too. Thank goodness we had our bear whisperer.

What was the most daunting part of filming Land ?

I have to say the bears. The bear wanted to be our roommate. He showed up one day and got a hamburger off the craft services table and that was all she wrote. He wanted a hamburger every day so he returned every day. We would have to sometimes pause shooting and everyone had to be very still, no movement. Our bear whisperer would get out there with this little instrument that made this sound that would shoo him off.

We had a bear scene in the movie. We couldn't even have a real bear on set because the wild bears would have been a risk for the trained bear. Then we were laughing. We were like, "Maybe if we got the trained bear, maybe he wouldn't have come out of his trailer. Maybe he would have been a diva bear."

robin wright stars as "edee" in her feature directorial debut land, a focus features release credit daniel power focus features

There are moments in which Edee is quite unprepared. How self-aware is Edee about her mission?

It's not even a decision of survival versus suicide. It's, I need to erase myself and become anew. Because that person that was , the existence that I once knew will never be again. It is a recreation. It is a rebirth—but when she gets up there, no matter how many manuals she read about how to survive in the wild, nature's a beast and it kicks her butt.

Then, what I keep calling an angel, comes into her life. She redeems herself. She's like, "Yes, I can see the light." That generally takes somebody else helping guide you to that realization.

While playing Edee, you had to learn survival skills. You literally skinned an animal.

I was trying to hold my stomach from being sick when I was skinning the animal. That was really tough. I don't think I could do that for real.

Edee lasts two years on the mountain. Did you give any thought to how long you might last in a cabin like that?

I did. I was thinking I could probably last a weekend or a week up there. I've always laughed during these interviews with Damien where I'm like, "I think I would be much more comfortable if I had my mountain man friend, Miguel, with me."

While watching, I thought of those stories of people who were in nature when the pandemic started and returned to a different world. Did you think of them?

Very much so. If we could all imagine disconnecting from our devices...what an amazing feeling that must be, to just not have any of that noise. You just bring your books that you love or music that you want to hear. It's incredible medicine to do something like that. But I know it's a necessity for our work, especially now with everything being from home.

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The movie reminded me a bit of Wild or Eat Pray Love —women leaving their lives behind.

Everybody grieves in their own way. We were trying to get myopic with this one person's journey. We're not claiming to state that we know what everybody goes through in the end—if they come out on the other side. But the beautiful, empowering and uplifting ending of this movie spoke to where we are right now, what we've been enduring for the last four years and this last year in particular. There's light at the end of the tunnel. It generally happens with the help of the kindness and compassion of another human being. I wanted that movie to be made, that message to be shared because I feel like we as society need more of that and less ugliness.

Is that the reason you wanted to make this movie?

It was that very thing. I wanted to make a film about kindness and human resilience, because that's a much more positive message than all the tweets that we had to to listen to for the last few years.

For more ways to live your best life plus all things Oprah, sign up for our newsletter!

Elena Nicolaou is the former culture editor at Oprah Daily.

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Focus Features

Summary Edee (Robin Wright), in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to liv ... Read More

Directed By : Robin Wright

Written By : Jesse Chatham, Erin Dignam

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Robin Wright

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Land review: robin wright's directorial debut explores grief.

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Grief is a tough subject to tackle. Everyone, at some point in life, will experience the loss of a loved one. While death and loss are typically hard to address in real life (people rarely know what to say or how to help), the exploration of such emotions are often mishandled in films that opt for a less complex or abridged version of the process. Usually, a brooding character works through the stages of grief in unhealthy ways — revenge, endless rage, or by shutting down completely. In Land , actress Robin Wright’s directorial debut, the sad, isolated feelings that come with bereavement saturate the story, but the film has surprisingly very little to say about grief.

Following a tragic loss, Edee (Wright) struggles with her grief and with being around others in general. Her sister Emma (Kim Dickens) tries to be there for her, but Edee is too far gone and unable to cope despite the support of Emma and a therapist. Needing to get away, Edee abandons her phone and her previous life in exchange for a quiet and peaceful existence in the Wyoming wilderness. However, life isn’t exactly easy in the wild and Edee has no idea what she’s doing at first, believing that her solitary confinement would assuage some of her sadness. Caught in a treacherous blizzard, Edee’s life is saved by local hunter Miguel (Demián Bichir) and nurse Alawa Crow (Sarah Dawn Pledge) and she must contend with her new lease on life.

Related: Land Trailer: Robin Wright Faces The Wild In Directorial Debut

Wright’s performance is devastating and heartbreaking. As Edee, she keeps Miguel at arm’s length as they forge a friendship that is grounded in the need for human contact and an unspoken respect for each other’s boundaries. Wright is distant, but slowly opens herself up as the film goes on, something which is exposed through her changes in body language. Miguel is a friend of convenience at first, someone who can teach Edee the way of life she’s stubbornly chosen for herself. Bichir is wonderful here, effusing a formidable, yet gentle, strength and kindness that quickly earns Edee’s trust.

Together, the characters commune and listen to ‘80s music, though there’s a wide chasm between them due to Edee’s unwillingness to speak on her personal loss. In addition to the superb acting, Land’s sense of serenity is brought to life through lingering shots of the wilderness’ beauty. Snow-capped mountains and trees, the sounds of animals and running river water, and the undisturbed lushness of nature adds to the calming sense of quiet that Edee is chasing. As a director, Wright has an eye for such things, knowingly layering the story with details that bring the audience into Edee's secluded life.

However, for a film that is only a cool hour and a half long, Land often feels agonizingly slow. The script — written by Jesse Chatham with revisions by Erin Dignam — also leaves a lot to be desired. How short-sighted Edee must be to think she could move on from her loss by being alone in the wilderness. While her early feelings of not being comfortable being around people are understandable, there's a sense of privilege in being able to leave it all behind and escape. What's more, Edee effectively runs away from her emotions rather than allowing herself to face them head on. Her inability to talk about her loss is relatable, but the film has nothing much to say about grief or the healing process.

The character's own avoidance ultimately forces Land to stand still. Rather than explore the complexities of handling loss in a world that would want Edee to move on, the film is filled with long, quiet brooding that falls incredibly short of being fulfilling. The landscape and setting often act as substitutes for character development and exploration. Time seems to pass without consequence as the calm fills in the gap for proper introspection. For a film that centers the quiet sadness and mental retreat of grief, Land equivocates with regards to the topic, stifling any meaningful growth.

Next: The Most Anticipated Movies of 2021

Land will be released in theaters on February 12. The film is 89 minutes long and is rated PG-13 thematic content, brief strong language, and partial nudity.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments!

Our Rating:

Movie Reviews
2.5 star movies

‘Land’ Review

(Focus Features)

This review was first published on KENS5.com, and can be viewed here.

Robin Wright the director lets down Robin Wright the actor

The new drama “Land” finds the venerable Robin Wright boldly treading into unknown territory to contend with new challenges in more ways than one, and at the project’s center is a self-referential awareness that I’m sure its star must appreciate to a certain extent. Having spent the better part of the last half-decade popping up in high-profile blockbusters and helping to tug Netflix’s “House of Cards” across the finish line sans Spacey, “Land” sees the accomplished actress in the director’s chair of a feature film for the first time—settling into the role with perhaps the same quiet gung-ho spirit being emanated from her on-screen character, Edee, whose efforts to cope with an ambiguous recent tragedy have stalled.

As does her introduction to the unforgiving wilderness, where “Land” – written by Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam – puts its protagonist through the wringer in every obvious way that you’re probably envisioning in your head right now. Plastic jugs escape down strong river currents while Edee tries to get water. Painful blisters sprout on her hands after she clumsily mishandles the ax chopping wood. The chorus of wildlife and chit-chit-chittering of creatures’ roaming around outside keeps her fearfully up at night. Long, long, loooong before Edee screams regret into Canada’s chilly mountain air (which, to be clear, happens roughly at the 20-minute mark), we’ve already settled with her unpreparedness. How could we not? Slotting itself firmly alongside 2014’s “Wild” and 2020’s “Nomadland” as another entry in the subgenre of women forging into nature to find healing, “Land” is an exasperatingly formulaic product, its script far too redundant for even the mystery of Edee’s mourning to resonate. The result is metatext that stretches far wider than Wright intends for it to—turns out she’s just as unequipped as Edee to locate some semblance of grace.

From acclaimed actress Robin Wright comes her directorial debut LAND, the poignant story of one woman's search for meaning in the vast and harsh American wil...

“Land” may end up being just as blandly generic as its title suggests, but it’s at least smart enough to recognize it isn’t breaking new narrative ground. The opening shot finds an emotionally numbed Edee observing the falling sands of an hourglass while insisting to a therapist (played by Kim Dickens) that what’s best for her at that moment is to grieve alone. To grieve what alone is a question that, like clockwork, we’re expected to ask—rest assured, “Land” will begin to tease the particulars of her mourning before long, so much as we can consider recurring hallucinations of a handsome man and young boy wistfully smiling at a hollow-faced Edee “teasing.” Early and often do the narrative machinations of Chatham and Dignam’s screenplay awkwardly grind up against themselves; for as much as “Land” respects its audience enough to merely imply why Edee’s out here, it’s tiresomely blunt in depicting just how much of a Bear Grylls’s resourcefulness she doesn't have.

For that matter, and more importantly, Edee doesn’t have the captivating pull of a Cheryl Strayed, either. A brief flashback showing her to have had suicidal inclinations pre-self-exile adds urgency to what’s happening in the present, but there’s no positioning the audience so that we can feel the full weight of what’s bearing down on Edee’s soul. Part of that is on the flat script, but part of it is also on Wright the Director, who betrays Wright the Actor by blueprinting the pathos in moments of self-confrontation so rigidly structured that emotions are never allowed to fully bloom. But you can’t blueprint heartbreak with a screenplay like this, not when the beats are so maddeningly familiar yet jarringly rendered that the emotional stakes become even more vital in maintaining our investment. It’s hard, though, to invest in a movie that doesn’t show many signs of investing in itself.

It’s hard to invest in a movie that feels so ambiguous yet so clear-cut.

It’s hard to invest in a movie that doesn’t give more dramatic oxygen to scenes turning blue from a lack of it.

It’s hard to invest in a movie whose embers of conflict are smothered before they ever become a flame.

It’s hard to invest in a movie that’s this choppily edited while ostensibly endeavoring to achieve something of a spiritual listlessness.

It’s hard to invest in a movie that turns, with the snap-quickness of a howling winter gust, into a horror-contoured survivalist tale, only to transform just as quickly into a honeydewy two-hander with Demián Bichir once his expert outdoorsman character, Miguel, and a deus ex nurse enters the picture just in time to save Edee from nearly freezing to death. The writing doesn’t improve very much from here on out (“We need to honor her wish!” Miguel says about a woman he hasn’t shared three words with), but Bichir’s mere presence gives “Land” some of the humanity it’s desperately seeking.

The early days of this new friendship make up the film’s most memorable scenes; Wright the Actor is given more to do than grunt, gasp or sigh, and Bichir’s natural benevolence is so sturdy that it practically forces Wright the Director to expand certain moments of poignant reconciliation where before they would be constricted. Imagine that: A film about opening oneself up in order to move forward is at its momentary best when it organically opens itself up, instead of it being painfully obvious that “Land” was shot in just 29 days, as Wright has said in interviews.

The writing feels equally as rushed when that elusive natural pacing worthy of the movie’s vast open environments relinquishes control back to shabby plotting. “Land” closes by closing itself off from potential for meaningful interpretation, ending on a note of happenstance between Edee and Miguel that feels uncomfortably staged to such a degree that we end up wishing Wright had stopped rolling the cameras on Day 25 or Day 26. I must at least tip my hat to her for pulling off so quick a shoot while attempting to find her directorial voice on the fly. But I also look forward to when that voice has, quite literally, more space on the schedule to fully fill its lungs before speaking.

"Land" is rated PG-13 for thematic content, brief strong language and partial nudity. It opens in theaters Friday.

Starring: Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Sarah Dawn Pledge and Kim Dickens

Directed by Robin Wright

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Intimate, occasionally dark portrait of grief and isolation.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Stresses importance of friendship, connection, com

Edee is grieving throughout the film and at certai

A bear paws at an outhouse while Edee is inside. I

Edee remembers making love to her late husband; th

Infrequent: "oh my God," "idiot," "damn," hell."

A character admits that his alcohol use may have c

Positive Messages

Stresses importance of friendship, connection, compassion, perseverance. Idea that life, no matter how difficult, is worth living resonates in the story. While nature offers beauty and sustenance, it can also be lonely and difficult to endure, so people shouldn't take it for granted, should be prepared to survive under harsh conditions. Grief is survivable, even if it never fully goes away.

Positive Role Models

Edee is grieving throughout the film and at certain points seems hopeless, even suicidal, but she slowly begins to see the value in living, in her surroundings, in making new connections. Miguel is kind, helpful, selfless.

Violence & Scariness

A bear paws at an outhouse while Edee is inside. It leaves but makes a lot of noise; later, it's obvious the bear ransacked her cabin and took (or destroyed) her food and supplies. Having trouble with the harsh conditions, Edee says "this isn't working" and puts a gun to her chin but doesn't pull the trigger. She's found unconscious, visibly blue/purple, with scarily chapped lips and on the brink of hypothermia and starvation. Others' violent or sudden deaths are discussed; grief is ever present in the film. Spoiler alert: A key character is revealed to be dying of cancer. Scenes of game hunting, including a brief moment when two characters skin a buck.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Edee remembers making love to her late husband; they're seen kissing, caressing, on a bed, but the scene focuses solely on their backs and faces. Two scenes of nonsexual partial nudity. Edee takes a bath, and her back, legs, and a quick glimpse of a breast are visible. In another scene, her breasts are revealed when she's unconscious and being undressed in order to be treated. Two characters hold hands and share lingering looks.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

A character admits that his alcohol use may have contributed to an accident that killed his family. A woman has an IV attached, presumably for fluids.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Land is a quiet character study about grief, trauma, and isolation. Directed by and starring Robin Wright , it follows Edee (Wright), a melancholy lawyer who nearly dies while attempting to live off the grid. For reasons that are slowly explained in flashbacks, she doesn't seem all that interested in living, period. This is a sad, occasionally heartbreaking drama about resilience and connection in the face of seemingly insurmountable loneliness. There's a frightening bear attack, as well as scenes of game hunting (including a brief moment when two characters skin a buck). In one scene, Edee puts a gun to her chin, but she doesn't shoot. Conversations include references to violence and deaths, as well as suicidal ideation. Scenes of Edee being nursed back to health after suffering from hypothermia and starvation include nonsexual partial nudity; in another scene, she's briefly shown in the bath. Edee's connection with a local hunter named Miguel ( Demián Bichir ) borders on the romantic, but the movie's only love scene is shown in a flashback of Edee's memories. Language is infrequent and mild ("oh my God," "damn," "hell"). To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 3 parent reviews

Land –With All Its Challenges

What's the story.

In actor Robin Wright 's directorial debut, LAND, she plays Edee, a troubled lawyer who seeks isolation in a remote cabin where she seems intent on total self-sufficiency but instead nearly dies of starvation. Flashbacks make it clear that Edee has survived some form of tragedy that has left her devastated and nearly suicidal. She tells no one of her trip and dismisses advice from a local to keep a car with her. Roughing it goes OK for a while, until nature strikes a cruel blow. On the verge of perishing, Edee is discovered by kind hunter Miguel ( Demián Bichir ), who summons his friend Alawa (Sarah Dawn Pledge), a nurse, to help save her. Alawa charges Miguel with looking after Edee, and they soon strike a bargain: He (and his faithful dog) will teach her how to hunt and then leave her be, no questions asked. Slowly and steadily, hunting, eating, and being with Miguel becomes a routine that pulls Edee out of her grief and despair.

Is It Any Good?

This quiet, surprisingly impactful drama is lovingly performed and directed by the talented Wright. If Nomadland is about a middle-aged woman's search for freedom on the road, Land is about a middle-aged woman's search for freedom of the soul. Both films star extraordinary actresses ( Frances McDormand and Wright, respectively) and outstanding supporting actors ( David Strathairn and Bichir) and are directed by women (Chloe Zhao and Wright). But whereas Zhao and McDormand tell an ultimately hopeful, happy tale about people in their 50s, 60s, and 70s dropping out of traditional 9-to-5 society to form their own nomadic hobo culture, Wright's story is a heartbreaking exploration of grief and stillness.

Another commonality with Nomadland is Land 's kinship to Into the Wild , but for a different, and sadder, reason. Edee's time in the cabin is reminiscent of Christopher McCandless' time in the bus. They both think they know what they're doing, but nature can be cruel, forbidding, and dangerous. Once he's (literally) in the picture, Miguel infuses a gentle warmth and humor to his interactions with Edee. He never pushes her to reveal her secrets and is content to be in the present, whether it's teaching her how to quietly stalk a deer or humming and singing "Everybody Wants to Rule the World." This isn't just one quick sing-a-long of Tears for Fears' '80s hit; he continues to sing it in several scenes, and it becomes a heartwarming anthem for the two characters, even if their singing is out of tune. Edee and Miguel's slow-burning connection brims with romantic possibility, but their bond is so transformative that it doesn't need a label to be powerful -- much like the movie itself.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Land 's portrayal of grief and mental health. How does surviving trauma impact Edee? When does grief turn into more than situational depression or even suicidal ideation? How does she get help?

Discuss the character strengths that various characters demonstrate in the film. Why are perseverance and compassion important?

How does the movie depict the way a song can bring people together? What else draws Edee to Miguel? Would you consider the movie a love story of sorts?

Despite everyone's fierce independence, how do the characters help and support one another?

Movie Details

In theaters : February 12, 2021
On DVD or streaming : March 5, 2021
Cast : Robin Wright , Demian Bichir , Kim Dickens
Director : Robin Wright
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Female actors, Latino actors, Middle Eastern/North African actors
Studio : Focus Features
Genre : Drama
Character Strengths : Compassion , Perseverance
Run time : 89 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : thematic content, brief strong language, and partial nudity
Last updated : November 14, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Land (2021) Ending Explained – Will Emma Survive All by Herself in Wyoming?

When a tragedy strikes us, it often feels like the end of everything we know and love, a theme poignantly explored in the film “Land.” This psychological drama, directed by and starring Robin Wright, delves into the depths of despair and the journey toward finding a new meaning in life. Edee Holzer, portrayed by Wright, faces a devastating tragedy that makes her contemplate giving up on life itself. Land (2021) ending brings a powerful closure to her journey, highlighting the resilience of the human spirit.

Edee seeks therapy to recover but soon decides to escape to a remote place, far from people and the life she once knew. Initially, it seems she seeks a fresh start, but as time passes, her desire to end her life gradually intensifies. “Land” addresses existential questions about the source of life’s meaning, our ability to live in solitude, and the essence of existence. The film’s slow-paced, melancholic narrative, enriched with beautiful scenic frames, invites viewers to reflect on these profound themes.

The background music in “Land” resonates with the viewer’s emotions, aligning them with Edee’s struggles in Wyoming. Her journey of overcoming immense challenges, aided by a stranger’s unexpected kindness, illustrates the unpredictability of life and the reasons that can emerge to renew hope. This exploration culminates in the film’s ending, offering a compelling testament to the unpredictable paths our lives can take in the face of adversity.

Land (2021) Plot Summary & Synopsis:

Edee Holzer’s husband, Adam (Warren Christie), and son, Drew (Finlay Wojtak-Hissong) were shot by a random shooter at a concert hall. And therefore, Edee is completely shattered. She doesn’t know what to do. At the advice of her sister Emma (Kim Dickens), she meets a therapist who she thinks will work out the magic and help her overcome her trouble. After the tragic incident, Edee lost trust and faith in people.

High On Films in collaboration with Avanté

She finds it difficult to be around people who she believes want her to be better at all times. When the therapist asks her why she finds it difficult to share her life with others, she replies that she doesn’t want to share her feelings and that she doesn’t want others to have a share in what she feels. Edee is reluctant to share what she is going through and has to live alone with the pain she is enduring after losing her beloved husband and son.

Land (2021): Movie Ending, Explained - Will Emma Survive All by Herself in Wyoming?

Edee’s escape to a foreign land

Wanting to escape the judging and constant questioning, Edee travels to Wyoming carrying her food and other basic requirements. She purchases a small house on the hilltop surrounded by Shoshone National Forest and tribal land and wants not to be affected by the noise of the competitive world. She gets rid of her mobile and car to keep away from the modern world.

The house she has purchased needs a makeover, it is old and has collected dust. There is an easy chance of animals like a coyote or a bear being her unwelcomed guests. Edee reads books, trying to learn to survive in this land she has come to. At the same time, she is reminded of the pain and trauma, and she constantly asks herself, “Why am I here anymore?”. The words of her sister Emma, “Don’t hurt yourself,” give her the courage to move forward. She tries to chop firewood and do some fishing but to no avail.

When nothing is working for Edee

In one instance, a bear breaks into her house and eats all her supplies. Edee is left with no supplies and no firewood to keep herself warm. Thus, she tries to shoot herself with the hunting rifle. But reminded by the words of her sister Emma she stops. A snowstorm strikes the place, and her house’s dislodged metal roof needs repairs. But attempting to repair she is hurt and injured. Luckily, a local hunter Miguel (Demian Bichir), sees Edee in need of help, and, assisted by Alawa (Sarah Dawn Pledge), a nurse, they both rescue Edee.

Good-hearted Miguel provides the supplies and takes care of her. He teaches her to hunt and accompanies her for a few days. He also leaves his dog, Potter, to be taken care of by Edee. Edee is thankful to Miguel for his kindness and slowly opens up to the idea of interacting with the world, in other words, to know about life outside the place where she lives.

Miguel shares with Edee his life story of losing his wife and daughter in a car accident. Edee learns to survive all by herself, from hunting to planting a few vegetables, far from being destroyed by the animals. Later, she learns that Miguel is on his deathbed suffering from throat cancer. He tells Edee that he was a drunkard and he was driving the car when the accident happened. He also tells Edee that she has taught him how to die in a state of grace. She, in return, tells him that he has taught her to want to live again.

Land (2021) Ending Explained:

Living alone seems sometimes a solution to all the problems we encounter. It may sometimes make us feel that life is better when we do not interact with the troubled world. But every living condition has its own problems. When Edee thinks that she is safe enough with the supplies she purchased and when she thinks that she can survive in a foreign land without interaction or modern equipment, the presence of animals around her and punishing weather makes her life vulnerable to danger. She didn’t think of a backup or deliberately chose not to have a backup.

What happens to Edee when the bear eats all the supplies?

When she is in a cabin near her house, she hears a bear growling, which walks straight to her home. The bear destroys all her supplies and eats all of them, leaving nothing for Edee. Edee thus is lost and doesn’t know what to do. She doesn’t know to hunt, and whatsoever she plants are destroyed by the animals. Thus, Edee thinks to herself that nothing is working.

She loses hope to survive. All her attempts at survival are watered down, and hence she gives up on life. Already she had lost the battle, and yet again, when this tragedy strikes, it affirms her thought to end her life. The bear’s entry into her house symbolizes storms, difficulties, and challenges that can, again and again, come into her life.

The question is whether she will be able to face them bang-on. Edee needs a companion to take care of her. To make her feel loved. And the only persons to do that were her husband, son, and beloved sister. And at the moment, she was just left to herself as she had lost her husband and son and was far away from her sister.

Why does Miguel choose to help Edee?

Miguel was on his way back when he noticed Edee on the floor and chose to help her. Seeking the help of Alawa, a nurse, he medicates Edee. Miguel believes in doing the right thing, and he doesn’t receive the money that Edee wants to pay him for the help rendered. When Miguel lost his wife and daughter, Miguel was the driver, and he was drunk, so he took responsibility for the death of his wife and daughter. Thus, this time when he sees Edee struggle alone, he decides to be alert and responsible. Miguel takes the opportunity to reconcile himself. He learns to forgive himself. And by making this kind gesture, Miguel wants to give hope to Edee.

Miguel helps Edee by taking care of her when she is sick. He helps by accompanying her when she is lonely. He brings her some food supplies, does her medical tests, and gets the reports to Edee. Miguel also teaches Edee to hunt to be able to survive in the foreign land. He helps Edee, respecting her decision to reside in a secluded place. Moreover, Miguel doesn’t enforce his ideas onto her but just calmly accompanies and teaches Edee that there are very many reasons we have at our disposal to choose to survive.

Will Emma Survive All by Herself in Wyoming?

Emma does survive all by herself in Wyoming but not instantly. It is a gradual process. When she goes to Wyoming, she thinks she will survive despite cutting ties with the outside world. Therefore, she instantly gets rid of the car and remains cocooned in the dilapidated house. She gathers all of her supplies only to have them devoured and eaten by a bear later. She loses hope but regains her courage when Miguel comes to her aid. Subsequently, she learns to hunt and also defend herself against wild animals. Miguel, a stranger who helps her without expecting anything in return, teaches her how to survive and live again.

“Land” takes us through a bitter-sweet journey of Edee’s life and makes us think that despite our life being vulnerable, we ought to learn to find meaning and fight to survive no matter what obstacles we may face. And that there are ample reasons to live despite the tragedies that strike us.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now in theaters.

Wes Ball’s sci-fi sequel Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now in theaters everywhere. Wondering when you can watch the film from home? Discover when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will likely arrive on streaming and digital platforms , below.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth film in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise and a sequel to 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes . Directed by Wes Ball, the movie takes place three centuries after the events of the war and follows a young chimpanzee named Noa, who embarks on a quest with a human woman named Mae to determine the future for apes and humans alike. Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy round out the cast.

“Set several generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, in which apes are the dominant species living harmoniously and humans have been reduced to living in the shadows,” the official synopsis reads. “As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.”

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has had a strong debut at the box office, earning $22.2 million on its first day (including $6.6 million in previews). The movie is projected to earn between $52 and $56 million during its opening weekend, which is similar to the last three films in the reboot franchise, according to Variety .

So far, the sequel has earned positive reviews from critics, boasting an 80% critics score and 79% audience rating on Rotten Tomatoes . Want to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes at home? Here’s when and where the film will likely arrive on streaming.

Netflix: Marvel Dud Among Movies New On Streaming Service This Week

Houston rockets land third pack in upcoming nba draft, as knicks and rangers captivate new york, the yankees quietly roll along, how to watch kingdom of the planet of the apes.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes premiered in theaters in the U.S. on Friday, May 10, 2024. Currently, the only way to watch Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is in the movie theaters. Check your local cinemas for specific showtimes.

When Is Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes Streaming?

The streaming release date for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has yet to be announced. Because Walt Disney Studios owns 20th Century Studios, the movie will be available on Hulu (and Disney+ if you have the Disney bundle ). You will have to wait a few months before Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes arrives on Hulu.

In comparison, The Boogeyman premiered in theaters on June 2, 2023, and didn’t hit Hulu until four months later on October 5, 2023. A Haunting in Venice had a quicker turnaround, dropping on Hulu 45 days after it’s theatrical release. The film’s ongoing box office performance can affect its Hulu release schedule, so it’s still too soon to know.

The good news is that you can purchase or rent Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes sooner on digital video-on-demand platforms such as Prime Video and YouTube TV. Typically, it takes about 45 days after the film’s theatrical debut to be available on VOD.

Considering this timeframe, the earliest possible digital release for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could be around June 24, 2024. Stay tuned to know exactly when Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes will be streaming.

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Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for a... Read all Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.

Josh Friedman
Amanda Silver
Owen Teague
Freya Allan
Kevin Durand
199 User reviews
163 Critic reviews
66 Metascore

Proximus Caesar

(as Ras-Samuel Welda'abzgi)

Honored Elder

Youngster #1

Youngster #2

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

Making 'Apes' Feel Real

Did you know

Trivia Director Wes Ball 's pitch for the film was " Apocalypto (2006) with apes."
Goofs Despite being a bonobo, Proximus Caesar's design is clearly that of a regular chimpanzee.

Proximus Caesar : What a wonderful day!

Connections Featured in H-Cast: Insiders Expose Marvel! Blade Reboot, The Marvels & MORE! The H-Cast EP 78 (2023)

User reviews 199

May 8, 2024

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When was Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes released? Powered by Alexa
May 10, 2024 (United States)
United States
20thcenturystudios
Planet of the Apes Ride
Helensburgh, New South Wales, Australia
Disney Studios Australia
Jason T. Reed Productions
Oddball Entertainment
See more company credits at IMDbPro
$58,400,788
May 12, 2024
$131,078,323

Technical specs

Runtime 2 hours 25 minutes
Dolby Digital
12-Track Digital Sound
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IMAX 6-Track
Dolby Surround 7.1

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When Rupert Wyatt's 2011 prequel " Rise of the Planet of the Apes " revived a five-decade-old franchise—one that spanned books, films, TV series, and comics since the '60s—it did so with a refreshing commitment to a powerful, timeless story: simple but not simple-minded, deeply emotional but far from corny.

Portrayed via groundbreaking performance capture technology by Andy Serkis (delivering the kind of actorly nuance that shouldn’t have been overlooked by The Academy), the film’s Ape protagonist Caesar has led that story through the two sequels, both of them elegantly directed by Matt Reeves —2014’s “ Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ” and 2017’s “ War for the Planet of the Apes .” Raised by James Franco ’s caring human hands in the first film, Caesar quickly broke through the classist and discriminatory human world’s self-destructive greed in the trilogy and claimed his deserving place as the leader of his kind, while a manmade virus made Apes smarter, and robbed humans of their intelligence and speech abilities, nearly eradicating mankind.

As a whole, the trilogy became perhaps the finest franchise of this century, standing tall against the loud, bloated mega-verses and unexpectedly reminding us what we want from big-budget, sequel-minded Hollywood: something thoughtful, entertaining and insightful about who we are and aspire to be. The new film, “ The Maze Runner ” director Wes Ball ’s brilliant “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” walks securely in the footsteps of this recent legacy, wearing the Caesar-centric films’ values like fairness, loyalty and communal solidarity on its sleeve with pride.

Like its predecessors, Ball’s sequel knows these principles don’t belong to humans exclusively—not in his highly imaginative sci-fi adventure, not in the real world where the animal kingdom lives by its own set of rules and ethics. And along with his screenwriter Josh Friedman (of the wonderful “ Avatar: The Way of Water ,” with which you will notice plenty of visual and thematic parallels here), Ball confidently puts forth a film that is exciting and visually articulate in its action setpieces as it is thoughtfully coherent in its plotting. In “Kingdom,” there is not a single wasted idea or scene that feels randomly introduced without a soundly rewarding payoff that deepens and completes story. In other words, here’s a film—well, a franchise—where you see smart writers and filmmakers at work towards bringing things full circle, not meeting rooms dedicated to soulless fan-servicing.

The tale of “Kingdom” is set generations after the events of the “ War ,” after the time of Caesar. Young chimpanzees Noa ( Owen Teague ), Anaya ( Travis Jeffery ), and Soona ( Lydia Peckham ) of the Eagle Clan—all also portrayed via performance capture—climb massive heights at the start of the film so that Noa can find an eagle egg of his own per his clan’s rituals and bond with the majestic bird over the years like the elderly of his world. After a beautifully shot, eventful escapade nearly costing him his life, the fearless Noa manages to claim his egg from a nest.

But when a mysterious human— Freya Allan ’s feral and mercurial Mae—who is tailing him accidentally breaks it, Noa sets off to find a new one, unintentionally making his peaceful home base a target of the villainous masked apes led by Proximus Caesar ( Kevin Durand ). Twisting Caesar’s dignified teachings and wise words like “Apes Together Strong” and building an army to one day possess the secrets to the technology humans have left behind generations ago, Proximus destroys Noa’s village, kills his father, and hunts down Mae in his quest. Throughout these nail-biter cat-and-mouse sequences, immersive cinematographer Gyula Pados ’ camerawork is impressive and spine-tinglingly exciting, crafting large-scaled action that is heart-poundingly tense, and more logically constructed than what we often see these days.

After a lovely interlude when Noa meets a lonesome orangutan and learns about the real Caesar as a strong, moral, and compassionate leader, the young ape and Mae find themselves in Proximus’ captivity along with other enslaved members of the Eagle Clan, including Noa’s aforementioned buddies. At a windswept and ocean-battered base next to a locked vault that humans have evacuated, there is also William H. Macy ’s Trevathan, an intelligent, Vonnegut-reading human tasked to teach Proximus everything he knows about the human ways. Daniel T. Dorrance ’s production design truly sings in these segments with the level of detail draped across the “ Waterworld ”-like ape settlement and the vault, once we finally get inside (albeit, perhaps a bit conveniently).

Gradually and throughout a stunning third act where the “Kingdom” unleashes some truly stunning “The Way of Water”-style visuals, the film plants the seeds of even further chapters to come, renewing its thematic queries around whether inter-species peace could ever be achieved. But perhaps more importantly, the pronouncedly anti-gun and anti-violence “Kingdom” explores the concerns and catastrophes of the modern world smartly and thoughtfully within its construct. Are there times that necessitate the abandonment of pacificism? (There is especially one shocking scene involving Mae that ponders this question that a lesser toothless film would be too afraid to ask.) Are we learning the right lessons from our past, if we’re learning anything at all? Why the hell can’t we all get along?

To be clear, “Kingdom” doesn’t have the answers. But you can bet your bottom dollar that this rare, deeply cinematic Hollywood franchise won’t stop digging until we get a little closer to knowing.

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

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Film credits.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie poster

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Rated PG-13

145 minutes

Owen Teague as Noa

Freya Allan as Nova / Mae

Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar

Peter Macon as Raka

William H. Macy as Trevathan

Josh Friedman

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Movie review: 'The Fall Guy' jumpstarts the summer movie season

May 9, 2024
Sebastian Petrou Griffith

Ryan Gosling, left, and Emily Blunt in “The Fall Guy.” Credit: Universal Pictures/TNS

When April meets May, the unofficial summer movie season kicks off, ending a long and treacherous few months of movie purgatory between the holiday season and summer break.

Around this time, theaters begin to bloom with an abundance of “popcorn flicks” — fun, lighthearted action or comedy movies that serve as a good time out for a wide range of audiences. “The Fall Guy,” the latest film starring Ryan Gosling (“Barbie,” “La La Land”), checks all those boxes as it commences 2024’s summer movie season.

Directed by stuntman-turned-director David Leitch, who oversaw “Deadpool 2” (2018) and “Bullet Train” (2022), “The Fall Guy” co-stars Emily Blunt (“Oppenheimer,” “A Quiet Place), as Jody Moreno, a first-time director in need of a stuntman after her previous one disappeared under mysterious circumstances. This comes in the form of Gosling’s Colt Seavers, who just so happened to date Moreno on a past movie set before he suffered a back-breaking accident performing a stunt and was forced to quit his job.

The awkward romance that still lingers between the duo grows even more complicated when Colt is tasked with tracking down the superstar actor he stunts for, Tom Ryder (Aaron Taylor-Johnson), who also has gone awol.

“The Fall Guy” is Leitch’s love letter to the underappreciated role of the stuntman, a theme that absolutely permeates throughout the 125-minute runtime. Every aspect of the film is over-the-top and in-your-face, from the constant explosions of the stunts to the absurdist subplot of Colt investigating the absence of his missing actor.

Like Leitch’s previous films, particularly “Deadpool 2,” the humor is meta, with Gosling often breaking the fourth wall, as well as the plot centering around the behind-the-scenes of a campy space film that frequently pokes fun at movies like “Dune” and “Mad Max.” The humor works most of the time, though the physical comedy and recurring jokes are more consistent than the one-liners, which sometimes fall flat.

It’s ironic that “The Fall Guy” starts off with Gosling’s character breaking his back, because Gosling’s back must hurt from carrying the film. He and Blunt both put in excellent performances, and no one would expect any less after their respective Oscar nominations for “Barbie” and “Oppenheimer.” The pair has innate chemistry that sustains the movie and keeps audiences entertained in a surprisingly touching romance.

“The Fall Guy” is at its best when Leitch takes a step back from directing the written quips and lets Gosling drive the movie forward with his natural charisma, but runs into issues when it gets too caught up in replicating the success of Leitch’s prior films.

In particular, Colt’s meta dialogue often seems like it was written for Ryan Reynolds, the star of “Deadpool” who is infamous for breaking character and the fourth wall, instead of Gosling. Gosling fits much better into the role of the character than Reynolds would, so it’s a shame that there’s a dissonance that lingers over the movie when it becomes obvious that some of Colt’s character quirks weren’t molded for the “right” Ryan.

In addition to the sometimes half-baked jokes, the CGI for “The Fall Guy” is genuinely awful, although it doesn’t necessarily always detract from the experience. Most of the time, it adds to the tacky charm of the backstage comedy; however, there are points at which it seems pretty ironic that a movie about stuntmen relies so heavily on computer-generated action.

All in all, “The Fall Guy” is a refreshing, digestible action-romcom that highlights an unsung subgroup of Hollywood glamor. The movie doesn’t quite know when to step off the brakes at times with its layered plot and barrage of banter, but it’s hard not to have a fun time sitting in a theater with a full bucket of popcorn watching Gosling — and his stuntman — set themselves on fire, bungee jump off buildings and drive cars over cliffs.

Rating: 3/5

On Tuesday, the Franklin County Coroner’s Office identified the individual who died after falling from the southeast side of the Ohio Stadium during Sunday's commencement ceremony. Credit: Katie Good

Coroner’s office identifies individual who died at Sunday’s commencement ceremony, says incident is being investigated as death by suicide

One dead and one injured after saturday night shooting near fairgrounds, men’s tennis: no. 1 buckeyes sweep cleveland state 4-0 in first round of ncaa tournament, advance to face oklahoma state saturday.

Ohio State freshman left fielder Isaac Cadena stands on second base in the Buckeyes 13-9 victory over Youngstown State. Cadena would knock in his career-high in RBIs (4) in the contest. Credit: Courtesy of Ohio State Athletics

Baseball: Buckeyes notch win against Youngstown State, improve to two games above .500

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Billy Corgan bares his busy life in goofy reality show 'Adventures in Carnyland'

Behind-the-scenes footage reveals how the smashing pumpkins frontman balances his wrestling business with music, parenthood and wedding planning..

Billy Corgan wears a ballcap and stands outside a wrestling ring with his arms resting on the side ropes, as Canadian, Australian and American flags hang on the wall in the background, in a still shot from "Adventures in Carnyland."

“Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland” focuses on the Smashing Pumpkins leader’s efforts to revive the National Wrestling Alliance.

Nacelle Co.

If you need a reminder of Billy Corgan’s affinity for taking on offbeat side projects when he’s not rock-starring, Google last year’s “A Very Chicago New Year” special from NBC 5, where you’ll find a tuxedo-clad Corgan performing from his Madame ZuZu’s Emporium tea shop in Highland Park. At one point, Corgan paid tribute to Wizzo the Wizard from “Bozo’s Circus,” with an original number titled “Wizzo,” while accompanied onstage by a costumed Wizzo, portrayed by Marshall Brodien Jr., son of the original Wizzo, and it’s even more fantastically bizarre than it sounds. Taking a gummy bear and watching this would be redundant.

As you might know, the Smashing Pumpkins’ front man has also been a longtime wrestling buff, taking it to the next level when he purchased the National Wrestling Alliance in 2017 in hopes of restoring it to its regional glory days. In the fascinating and endearingly goofy eight-part reality series “Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland,” dropping Tuesday on the CW app and cwtv.com , Corgan serves as narrator and ringmaster as he juggles his life as a wrestling impresario and a globally recognized recording artist and performer who also has that aforementioned tea shop, is the father of two children and, oh yeah, is planning a wedding to his longtime partner, the entrepreneur and fashion house director Chloe Mendel.

It’s a little reminiscent of “ Very Cavallari ,” sans Jay Cutler’s (admittedly entertaining) smugness.

One might be tempted to wonder if there’s a little bit of the Andy Kaufman/performance artist shtick in some of Corgan’s endeavors, especially the wrestling stuff, but he seems utterly guileless and filled with genuine passion for the NWA, and he never comes across as anything but 100% sincere as he oversees every facet of the second-tier pro wrestling circuit, including the scripting of how matches and tournaments will play out.

Most of the two episodes supplied to me focus on the wrestling storyline, though we occasionally cut to interviews with Corgan’s bandmates, who at this point seem resigned to accepting Billy’s eccentric hobbies, and the preparations for the wedding, with Chloe’s father, the world-renowned French designer Gilles Mendel, crafting Chloe’s gown. (Cut to Chloe at the tea shop, introducing herself in deadpan fashion: “I’m Chloe Mendel, and I guess I’m Billy Corgan’s fiancée.”)

Chloe Mendel wears a wedding gown and veil as she faces Billy Corgan during their wedding ceremony, in a still shot from "Adventures in Carnyland."

On “Adventures in Carnyland,” Billy Corgan works on planning his wedding to Chloe Mendel, which happened in September.

Corgan tells us, “In 2017 I followed my passion and bought the historic National Wrestling Alliance … My goal [is] to turn it back to the exciting, dynamic and world-class promotion I know it can be. If you think that means I’ve tapped out on my music life, you’d be wrong. I’m still releasing tons of records and touring … Have I lost my mind? I say yes, some say no.”

Wait, shouldn’t that be the other way around? Not in Billy’s world.

In the run-up to a two-day event in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, we’re introduced to the rag-tag, world-weary but spirited carnival-like traveling troupe who work for Corgan and the NWA, from the announcers who are tasked with doubling as promoters to the various organizers and assistants to the wrestlers, male and female, who literally throw themselves into the ring each night and do everything in their power to give the fans their money’s worth. How can you not love the colorful likes of tag teams such as the clown-faced Brothers of Funstruction, Ruffo and Yabo; the old-school veterans Knox & Murdoch; Blunt Force Trauma (“I’m Carnage,” “And I’m Damage”) and individual stars such the formidable Russian Natalia Markova?

From left, Trevor Murdoch and Mike Knox hold a gigantic trophy cup high in the air as they stand in a wrestling ring, in a still shot from "Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland."

Trevor Murdoch (left) and Mike Knox are part of the stable of wrestlers seen on “Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland.”

As Corgan acknowledges, yes, the outcomes are predetermined, with each match scripted in a way to build up long-term interest in future events — but the blood, sweat, tears and injuries are real. These performers, many of whom have been in the game for years if not decades, are not household names raking in the big bucks and performing in front of packed arenas. They’re workaday athlete-entertainers, and one of the admirable things about the series is how it treats each of them with respect and dignity. It feels as if everyone who is along for the ride in “Billy Corgan’s Adventures in Carnyland” is willing to do whatever it takes to keep the show rolling.

With 3 plays on Chicago stages, Nambi E. Kelley is having a full-circle moment

Renderings of the proposed new Bears stadium

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Critic’s Pick

‘Evil Does Not Exist’ Review: Nature vs. Nurture

Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows up his sublime drama “Drive My Car” with a parable about a rural Japanese village and the resort developer eyeing its land.

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A man and young girl stand among tall grasses and cattails.

By Manohla Dargis

Late in “Evil Does Not Exist,” a man who lives in a rural hamlet an easy drive from Tokyo cuts right to the movie’s haunting urgency. He’s talking to two representatives of a company that’s planning to build a resort in the area that will cover a deer trail. When one suggests that maybe the deer will go elsewhere, the local man asks, “Where would they go?” It’s a seemingly simple question that distills this soulful movie’s searching exploration of individualism, community and the devastating costs of reducing nature to a commodity.

“Evil Does Not Exist” is the latest from the Japanese filmmaker Ryusuke Hamaguchi, who’s best known for his sublime drama “Drive My Car. ” This new movie is more modestly scaled than that one (it’s also far shorter) and more outward-directed, yet similar in sensibility and its discreet touch. It traces what happens when two Tokyo outsiders descend on a pastoral area where the spring water is so pure a local noodle shop uses it in its food preparation. The reps’ company intends to build a so-called glamping resort where tourists can comfortably experience the area’s natural beauty, a wildness that their very patronage will help destroy.

The story unfolds gradually over a series of days, though perhaps weeks, and takes place largely in and around the hamlet. There, the local man, Takumi (Hitoshi Omika), a self-described jack-of-all trades, lives with his daughter, Hana (Ryo Nishikawa), in a house nestled amid mature trees. Together, they like to walk in the woods as she guesses whether that tree is a pine and this one a larch, while he carefully warns her away from sharp thorns. A photograph on their piano of Hana in the arms of a woman suggests why melancholy seems to envelop both child and father, although much about their past life remains obscure.

Hamaguchi eases into the story, letting its particulars surface gradually as Eiko Ishibashi’s plaintive, progressively elegiac score works into your system. The company’s plans for a glamping site give the movie its narrative through line as well as dramatic friction, which first emerges during a meeting between residents and the company reps, Mayuzumi (Ayaka Shibutani) and her brash counterpart, Takahashi (Ryuji Kosaka). The company — its absurd name is Playmode — wants to take advantage of Covid subsidies for its new venture. During the meeting, it emerges that the site’s septic tank won’t be large enough to accommodate the number of guests; the locals rightly worry that the waste will flow into the river.

The scene, one of the longest in the movie, is emblematic of Hamaguchi’s understated realism, which he builds incrementally. The meeting takes place in a basic community center crowded with residents — some had dinner at Takumi’s home the night before — who sit in chairs facing the reps, who, armed with technology, are parked behind laptops and seated before a projector screen. As the reps play a video explaining “glamorous camping,” there’s a cut to Takumi intently watching the promo. The scene soon shifts to a tracking shot of deer tracks in snow and images of Hana playing in a field as a bird soars above; it’s as if Takumi were thinking of his joyful, distinctly unglamorous daughter. The scene shifts back to the meeting.

The site will become “a new tourist hot spot,” Takahashi sums up, badly misreading his audience. “Water always flows downhill,” a village elder says in response, his thin, firm voice rising as he sweeps an arm emphatically downward. “What you do upstream will end up affecting those living downstream,” stating a law of gravity that’s also a passionate, quietly wrenching argument for how to live in the world.

Lapidary, word by word, detail by detail, juxtaposition by juxtaposition, “Evil Does Not Exist” beautifully deepens. For the most part, the movie is visually unadorned, simple, direct. Hamaguchi tends to move the camera in line with the characters, for one, though the exceptions carry narrative weight: images of nearby Mount Fuji; a rearview look from inside a car at a fast-disappearing road; and a lovely traveling shot of soaring treetops, their branches framed against the sky. The canopied forest echoes an image in a short film by Masaki Kobayashi , who began directing after World War II; the title of his trilogy, “The Human Condition,” would work for every Hamaguchi movie I’ve seen.

I have watched “Evil Does Not Exist” twice, and each time the stealthy power of Hamaguchi’s filmmaking has startled me anew. Some of my reaction has to do with how he uses fragments from everyday life to build a world that is so intimate and recognizable — filled with faces, homes and lives as familiar as your own — that the movie’s artistry almost comes as a shock. The dreamworld of movies often feels at a profound remove from ordinary life, distance that brings its own obvious pleasures. It’s far rarer when a movie, as this one does, speaks to everyday life and to the beauty of a world that we neglect even in the face of its calamitous loss. When Takumi asks “where would they go,” he isn’t just talking about deer.

Evil Does Not Exist Not rated. In Japanese, with subtitles. Running time: 1 hour 46 minutes. In theaters.

Manohla Dargis is the chief film critic for The Times. More about Manohla Dargis

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Planet of the Apes In Order: How to Watch the Movies Chronologically

When it comes to Apes , the Planet doesn’t turn, it twists. That’s because the reveal at the end of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes is one of those iconic shots from movie history, known and parodied the world over, guaranteeing you’d never look at a 150-foot woman the same way ever again. With the Planet producers predicting nothing topping that twist, for the sequels they went for more lore. Maybe a time paradox or two.

“What if the first movie was just scratching the surface?” asked Beneath the Planet of the Apes .

The next sequel, Escape from the Planet of the Apes , transported the series to contemporary time: 1973. So if you wanted to watch the original series in story-chronological order, you’ll want to start with Escape , and then follow it with the final two sequels, 1972’s Conquest and 1973’s Battle . This trilogy is all set before the original duology’s timeline.

In 2001, a reboot was launched. It did its own thing (actually, it adapted more of the Pierre Boulle novel than the original movie), it didn’t carry on after that, but it did mark the end of the original Tim Burton weird era.

A new series and continuity began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes , which takes a ground-level look at the eventual ape uprising. The film’s serious tone and exemplary special effects were polished further for 2014’s Dawn and 2017’s War . All together, not only was the reboot run a success, but represents a rare trilogy where critical reception kept improving upon the last.

With War making significantly less money than Dawn , and the story relatively concluded, 20th Century Studios let the series go underground again. But it’s back after seven years with Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes , set many generations after War where humans have regressed to a primitive state, clubbing predators with fax machines and subsisting off natural springs of Crystal Pepsi.

Planet of the Apes (1968) 86%

Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) 37%

Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) 76%

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) 52%

Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) 36%

Planet of the Apes (2001) 43%

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) 82%

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) 91%

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017) 94%

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) 80%

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COMMENTS

Land movie review & film summary (2021)
Robin Wright 's directorial debut "Land," premiering this weekend at the Sundance Film Festival, is a confident drama about multiple forms of isolation. Edee (Wright) is isolated emotionally by a horrible tragedy and the lingering grief that has made her suicidal. Almost as if she's trying to mirror how alone she feels on the inside ...
Land
Rated: 2.5/5 Sep 17, 2023 Full Review Manuel São Bento MSB Reviews Land is an outstanding feature directorial debut from Robin Wright, who also delivers one of my favorite performances of hers ...
'Land' Review: True Nature
Its storytelling economy helps make it credible and eventually moving. While "Land" sometimes leans too hard on conventional signifiers (the rootsy music score is predictably somber), it's a ...
Land
Full Review | Original Score: C | Mar 15, 2023. Robin Wright's directorial debut, Land, is an exercise in stoic ambivalence. The problem is her film tips its hand too early and often; leaving ...
'Land': Film Review
Movies; Movie Reviews 'Land': Film Review | Sundance 2021. Robin Wright stars in and directs a drama centered on the self-imposed isolation of a woman in the throes of devastating loss.
Land (2021)
Land: Directed by Robin Wright. With Robin Wright, Demián Bichir, Sarah Dawn Pledge, Kim Dickens. Edee, in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world and retreats to the wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter brings her back from the brink of death, she must find a way to live again.
Land Review: Robin Wright Crafts a Lovely Story of Healing
Land is an almost overwhelming simple story, and perhaps in a different time and place I wouldn't have the patience for it. Perhaps if this were my fifth movie of the day on Day 6 of the ...
'Land' review: Robin Wright's tidy, tactful directing debut
Robin Wright stars as Edee in her feature directorial debut, "Land.". The Times is committed to reviewing new theatrical film releases during the COVID-19 pandemic. Because moviegoing carries ...
'Land' Review: Robin Wright's Beautiful Solo Show
'Land' Review: A Broken Soul Rebuilds in Robin Wright's Beautiful Solo Show Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (online), Jan. 30, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13.
Land (2021) Review
Land (2021) Review. Following an unnamed heartbreak, Edee (Robin Wright) leaves her city life behind to live off-grid in a cabin high in the Wyoming Rockies. Lacking survival skills, she comes ...
Land review
Tue 1 Jun 2021 04.38 EDT. First published on Sun 31 Jan 2021 22.10 EST. I n Robin Wright's conventional, competent directorial debut, Land, the actor (who has previously shown adeptness behind ...
Land
Movie Review. Someone looking on from the outside would likely say her choices didn't make much sense. But to Edee, they were the only way to survive. ... Land declares that gentle kindness and self-sacrifice can equal grace in the face of extreme hopelessness—a message brimming with spiritual parallels. That said, this won't be a film ...
Land (2021 film)
Land is a 2021 psychological drama film directed by Robin Wright in her feature directorial debut, from a screenplay by Jesse Chatham and Erin Dignam.It stars Wright, Demián Bichir and Kim Dickens.The film premiered at the 2021 Sundance Film Festival on January 31, and was released in the United States on February 12, 2021, by Focus Features.It received generally positive reviews from critics.
Robin Wright on Her Movie 'Land's' Powerful Plot
A review of Adrienne Brodeur's Wild Game For an actor who has played steely women like House of Cards 's Claire Underwood and Wonder Woman 's Hippolyta, queen of the Amazons, Land is a fitting directorial debut: The movie explores a more understated, but no less extraordinary, form of fortitude than the other works' fight scenes and power plays.
Land (2021)
7/10. Solid and emotional debut from Robin Wright. JasonMcFiggins 1 February 2021. LAND is a touching study of a woman steeped in grief, determined to leave life behind in the midst of a devastating happening. Robin Wright effectively directs from an angle of isolation, both of place and of mind.
Land
Land - Metacritic. Summary Edee (Robin Wright), in the aftermath of an unfathomable event, finds herself unable to stay connected to the world she once knew and in the face of that uncertainty, retreats to the magnificent, but unforgiving, wilds of the Rockies. After a local hunter (Demián Bichir) brings her back from the brink of death, she ...
Land (2021) Movie Review
Published Feb 9, 2021. In Land, the sad, isolated feelings that come with bereavement saturate the story, but the film has surprisingly very little to say about grief. Grief is a tough subject to tackle. Everyone, at some point in life, will experience the loss of a loved one. While death and loss are typically hard to address in real life ...
'Land' Review: Robin Wright the director lets down Robin Wright the
The new drama "Land" finds the venerable Robin Wright boldly treading into unknown territory to contend with new challenges in more ways than one, and at the project's center is a self-referential awareness that I'm sure its star must appreciate to a certain extent. ... Movies Reviews Drama Focus Features 2021. Feb 11. Written By Alex ...
Land Movie Review
Our review: Parents say: ( 3 ): Kids say: Not yet rated Rate movie. This quiet, surprisingly impactful drama is lovingly performed and directed by the talented Wright. If Nomadland is about a middle-aged woman's search for freedom on the road, Land is about a middle-aged woman's search for freedom of the soul.
Land Ending Explained
This psychological drama, directed by and starring Robin Wright, delves into the depths of despair and the journey toward finding a new meaning in life. Edee Holzer, portrayed by Wright, faces a devastating tragedy that makes her contemplate giving up on life itself. Land (2021) ending brings a powerful closure to her journey, highlighting the ...
Land (2021)
Land is a gentle movie, well-built in an unextravagant way, and it's awfully pleasant and gratifying in its solid, straightforward way. Also check out Rob & Carrie's video interview with Wright! One of the more thoughtful films to grace the screen in 2021 'Land' features a standout turn from Robin Wright as both performer and director.
'Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' review: Sequel shows that you can
Seven years after a trilogy that ended with Caesar (Andy Serkis) leading his flock to the promised land, "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes" didn't exactly have a clear road map for where ...
When Is 'Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes' Coming To Streaming?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is the fourth film in the Planet of the Apes reboot franchise and a sequel to 2017's War for the Planet of the Apes.Directed by Wes Ball, the movie takes place ...
Land of Bad (2024) Movie Reviews
RSVP NOW. When a Delta Force team is ambushed in enemy territory, a rookie officer (Liam Hemsworth) refuses to abandon them. Their only hope lies with an Air Force drone pilot (Russell Crowe) as the eyes in the sky during a brutal 48-hour battle for survival.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: Directed by Wes Ball. With Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Dichen Lachman, William H. Macy. Many years after the reign of Caesar, a young ape goes on a journey that will lead him to question everything he's been taught about the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes movie review (2024)
When Rupert Wyatt's 2011 prequel "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" revived a five-decade-old franchise—one that spanned books, films, TV series, and comics since the '60s—it did so with a refreshing commitment to a powerful, timeless story: simple but not simple-minded, deeply emotional but far from corny.Portrayed via groundbreaking performance capture technology by Andy Serkis (delivering ...
Movie review: 'The Fall Guy' jumpstarts the summer movie season
"The Fall Guy," the latest film starring Ryan Gosling ("Barbie," "La La Land"), checks all those boxes as it commences 2024's summer movie season.
'Billy Corgan's Adventures in Carnyland' review: Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan bares his busy life in goofy reality show 'Adventures in Carnyland' Behind the scenes footage reveals how the Smashing Pumpkins frontman balances his wrestling business with music ...
'Evil Does Not Exist' Review: Nature vs. Nurture
Ryusuke Hamaguchi follows up his sublime drama "Drive My Car" with a parable about a rural Japanese village and the resort developer eyeing its land. By Manohla Dargis Late in "Evil Does Not ...
Planet of the Apes In Order: How to Watch the Movies Chronologically
(Photo by 20th Century Studios / courtesy Everett Collection) Planet of the Apes In Order: How to Watch the Movies Chronologically. When it comes to Apes, the Planet doesn't turn, it twists. That's because the reveal at the end of the original 1968 Planet of the Apes is one of those iconic shots from movie history, known and parodied the world over, guaranteeing you'd never look at a 150 ...

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Peter Debruge

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Reviewed at Sundance Film Festival (online), Jan. 30, 2021. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 89 MIN.

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Land (2021) Review

Land review – Robin Wright heads into the wild for tame drama

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Robin Wright on Making Her Directorial Debut With Land

You said that you "lived the movie" you made. What was it like switching between actor and director in that environment?

Much of this movie is about trust—trusting other people and letting them in. Did it feel like you had that kind of environment on set?

I heard bears visited the set. Have you been surprised by how much of the press conversation has revolved around them?

What was the most daunting part of filming Land ?

There are moments in which Edee is quite unprepared. How self-aware is Edee about her mission?

While playing Edee, you had to learn survival skills. You literally skinned an animal.

Edee lasts two years on the mountain. Did you give any thought to how long you might last in a cabin like that?

While watching, I thought of those stories of people who were in nature when the pandemic started and returned to a different world. Did you think of them?

The movie reminded me a bit of Wild or Eat Pray Love —women leaving their lives behind.

Is that the reason you wanted to make this movie?

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Our Rating:

‘Land’ Review

Robin Wright the director lets down Robin Wright the actor

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