Cory Finley Understands Bringing Heart to ‘Landscape With Invisible Hand’

Landscape with Invisible Hand asks us an important question: What would the world be like if aliens took over and thought they were doing good for us all? The story, which follows Adam (Asante Blackk) as he is coming to terms with his school being taken from him, his life up-ended, and the alien race taking over his life, is simple and yet packs a heart to it that stays with you even while you’re laughing at the design of this “higher” being.

In talking with director Cory Finley, part of the draw to this project was finding that balance and how it played into the overall theme of the film. Finley wrote the film and directed it based on the novel by M.T. Anderson. It’s hard-hitting, beautiful, and honestly funny when you think of these little aliens who smack their hands to talk are in charge of things. When I spoke with Finley, I asked him about finding that balance as a director between the absurdity of this alien race on top of the heavier themes within the movie.

“It’s sort of was, in a way, this central question and the central thing I was thinking about from casting to pre-production to being on set is just managing that tone,” Finley said. “And I don’t know if I can say anything particularly erudite about how exactly how I think one should combine sort of comedy and pathos or something serious. But I think I just have an instinctive love of material that manages to do that. I feel like when you’re doing it well, which I think is just an instinctive thing, the two reinforce one another and the comedy becomes uncomfortable and anxious and leads to greater fear and opens the audience up to take in messages that they might reject if they were preached at. The seriousness of it keeps the comedy from just spiraling into pure fun with no takeaway. So a concern on a movie like this that I almost don’t have the vocabulary to specifically talk about, how other than that it’s that question and that balance is woven into every decision from the beginning to the end of the process.”

You can see our full conversation here:

Landscape With Invisible Hand is in theaters now.

(featured image: MGM)