‘The Legend Of The Happy Worker’ review: Thomas Haden Church and Josh Whitehouse star in uneven Lynchian fable

Dir: Duwayne Dunham. US. 2025. 100mins

Deep within the American west, seemingly on the flip of the twentieth century – though this, like a lot of what follows, is wilfully ambiguous – a person (Thomas Haden Church) begins to dig a gap. Over 100 years later, that very same gap is now miles huge, and the person’s nice grandson, Mr Goose (additionally Church), oversees an enormous operation by which lots of of males proceed to dig by hand, for causes unknown. Everybody appears pleased of their sincere toil, till a corrupting outdoors affect threatens this straightforward concord. The Legend Of The Pleased Employee’s languid, mildly absurdist rhythms and easy narrative might solid a spell over audiences prepared to put money into its singular world view, however will undoubtedly show a irritating expertise for others.

Too thinly drawn to make a lot impression

Based mostly on the play by S.E. Feinberg, Pleased Employee is probably most notable for being directed by Duwayne Dunham (Homeward Certain, Little Giants), very long time editor for the late David Lynch (who government produces right here). Lynch is a transparent affect – certainly, the script was initially pitched to him within the Eighties, and Dunham has been attempting to get it made for years – and that connection ought to assist appeal to an viewers following its Locarno premiere. It might nicely show too slight to make a lot of an impression past the pageant circuit, though streaming might show a fertile dwelling.

Labelled proper from the off as ’a fable for our time’, Pleased Employee is intentionally set in an undefined time and place (though it clearly unfolds within the American west, and the movie shot in Utah). Mr Goose is an easy, plain-spoken man, residing alone in a sparse wood dwelling on the sting of his large gap, and a seemingly truthful boss, instilling in his legion of workers a very good ol’ common work ethic. ‘To work for a life that’s good’ is Goose’s total ethos, certainly his total character – though, notably, he by no means joins in with the bodily labour, simply oversees those that do it in his title.

This every day back-breaking labour does appears to maintain the whole firm of lots of; they’re jovial and enthusiastic, and a noticeboard proudly declares that there have been 27,472 days with out an accident. Sooner or later, nonetheless, an ageing digger dares to talk the hithertoo unstated. “I can’t go to heaven with out realizing why” he proclaims. This easy lament sends the beforehand loyal, unendingly happy-go-lucky employee Joe (rising British star Josh Whitehouse) down an more and more darkish rabbit gap, his encroaching doubts about Goose’s motivations threatening to undermine his total life. He’s inspired by the arrival of Uncle Clete (Colm Meaney), a well-travelled man whose darkish apparel is an early indicator of the nefarious affect he’ll try to wield.

Heightened, sun-drenched visuals from cinematographer Reed Smoot, the amped-up off-kilter Americana of Chris DeMuri’s manufacturing design and the gee-whizz power of the screenplay (by Feinberg, Dunham and Jerold Pearson) mix to provide Pleased Employee a dreamlike, uncanny aesthetic. It’s clearly meant as a contemporary parable, a celebration of conventional values of honesty and group and, to a lesser diploma, a research of how exploitation and opportunism are grist to the mill of faceless capitalism. A sequence by which Joe is concerned in a standard Native American smoking ceremony and achieves some sort of enlightenment sits moderately awkwardly on this philosophical panorama.

It’s a movie stuffed with noble concepts, however Pleased Employee is simply too thinly drawn to make them with a lot impression. Its Lynchian components – Goose’s oft-repeated chorus of “rattling superb”, Joe’s younger son who can solely communicate Spanish because of the reveals he watches on a damaged TV – show distractions moderately than endearing narrative quirks. And whereas the performances are dedicated (significantly from Whitehouse, who brings each plucky power and ragged vulnerability to Joe), they by no means rise above the overwhelming, muddled whimsy of the piece.