Old Joy 2006

Mark is a former hippie who has settled down in Portland, Oregon and is expecting a child with his wife Tania. His old friend Kurt, who has not seen Mark in some years, calls Mark to invite him on an overnight camping trip to Bagby Hot Springs in the Cascades. Unlike Mark, Kurt still lives a hand-to-mouth hippie lifestyle, crashing on couches and spending much of his time at meditation retreats. When Mark accepts Kurt’s invitation, Tania reacts passive-aggressively. Mark invites Tania, but she declines.

Mark and his dog Lucy arrive where Kurt is staying and wait for him for some time before he arrives. Kurt has just returned from a “transformative” retreat in Ashland. Mark agrees to drive them to Bagby, and they depart along with Lucy. The two lament the closing of their favorite record store, which they describe as the “end of an era.”

They get lost and pitch a tent at a campsite strewn with abandoned furniture. Kurt explains his theory of a teardrop-shaped universe to an indifferent Mark, then breaks down, lamenting that something has “come between” the two friends and that he wants them to be real friends again. Mark disagrees with this assessment but remains apprehensive. After some time drinking beer and shooting the cans with a pellet gun, the two men sleep together in the tent.

In the morning, the two stop at a diner and receive directions to Bagby from a waitress. They arrive, and Kurt describes a mystical experience he had from which he came to conclude that “sorrow is nothing but worn-out joy.” Despite Mark’s earlier assertion to Tania that the two would return to Portland around noon, the two do not get into town until well after dark.

The two men say a quick goodbye and part on the same street where they met up. Mark turns on Air America, his only remaining link to his former idealism, and sits in the car in contemplation. The final shots show Kurt wandering the streets of Portland, apparently with nowhere to go.