In her first collaboration with Jon Raymond, Reichardt discovered the restrained pacing and ruefully muted tone that unites Old Joy with her other narratives of intimate but ambiguous relationships. A careful distillation of Raymond’s eponymous short story to its most essential elements, Old Joy is as much a film about inaction as action, with equal space given to frank, too sudden, confessions as the long shadows of unspoken words and desires that suggest a hidden counter-narrative just below the surface. Cult musician/performer Will Oldham, aka Bonnie “Prince” Billy, brings an almost unhinged intensity to his depiction of a middle-aged rebel barely able to hide his desperate reaching for meaning, in jittery contrast to indie actor Daniel London as a seemingly laid back soon-to-be-father quietly resenting his burdensome friend while also hoping for a regressive escape. The moody soundtrack by quintessential Nineties indie rock band Yo La Tengo underscores the film’s subtle melancholy and sense of loss.