1950s America. Since his mother‘s confinement to an institution, Andy (Tye Sheridan) has lived in the shadow of his stoic father. A family acquaintance, Dr. Wallace Fiennes (Jeff Goldblum), employs the introverted young man as a photographer to document an asylum tour advocating for his increasingly controversial lobotomy procedure. As the tour progresses and Andy witnesses the doctor’s career and life unravel, he begins to identify with the institutions’ patients. Arriving at a California mountain town, a growing center of the New Age movement, they encounter an unconventional French healer who requests a lobotomy for his own daughter, Susan (Hannah Gross). Also starring Denis Lavant and Udo Kier.
A surreal and uncompromising reckoning with the dangers of passivity, representation and utopian thought from the director of Entertainment and The Comedy.
Press
“A beautiful… singular portrait of America’s fractured identity.” - IndieWire
“An intriguingly dark and visionary head-scratcher.” - The Hollywood Reporter
Director Biography
Rick Alverson (born June 25, 1971, Spokane, Washington) is an American filmmaker and musician living in Richmond, Virginia. His feature films include The Mountain (2018), Entertainment (2015) and The Comedy (2012). His work has screened at Sundance Film Festival, Locarno, New Directors / New Films, International Film Festival Rotterdam, and BAFICI among other festivals. He has directed videos for Oneohtrix Point Never, Sharon Van Etten and Angel Olson, among others.
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