''Land Ho!'' is a 2014 adventure

comedy film A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the ol ...

, co-written and co-directed by

Martha Stephens Martha Stephens (born March 12, 1984) is an American film writer and director. Stephens was born in West Virginia and raised in eastern Kentucky. She graduated from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts, School of Filmmaking, where ...

and Aaron Katz. The film made its world premiere at

2014 Sundance Film Festival The 2014 Sundance Film Festival took place from January 16, 2014 until January 26, 2014 in Park City, Utah, United States, with screenings in Salt Lake City, Ogden, and Sundance Resort in Utah. The festival opened with ''Whiplash'' directed by Da ...

on January 19, 2014. It also screened at the 2014

Tribeca Film Festival The Tribeca Festival is an annual film festival organized by TriBeCa Productions, Tribeca Productions. It takes place each spring in New York City, showcasing a diverse selection of film, episodic, talks, music, games, art, and immersive progra ...

Los Angeles Film Festival The LA Film Festival was an annual film festival that was held in Los Angeles, California, and usually took place in June. It showcased independent, international, feature, documentary and short films, as well as web series, music videos, episod ...

Nantucket Film Festival The Nantucket Film Festival is a film festival founded in 1996 which focuses on screenwriting. Board members include Donick Cary, Nancy Dubac, Chris Matthews, Kathleen Matthews, Ben Stiller, and Tom Scott. History The Nantucket Film Festival ...

Locarno International Film Festival The Locarno Film Festival is an annual film festival, held every August in Locarno, Switzerland. Founded in 1946, the festival screens films in various competitive and non-competitive sections, including feature-length narrative, documentary, sh ...

, and

BFI London Film Festival The BFI London Film Festival is an annual film festival founded in 1957 and held in the United Kingdom, running for two weeks in October with co-operation from the British Film Institute. It screens more than 300 films, documentaries and shor ...

. Sony Pictures Classics acquired worldwide distribution rights to the film after its world premiere at the

Sundance Film Festival The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...

. The film released on July 11, 2014, in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

and

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

before expanding wide in the United States. It won the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500,000 at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards.

Plot

A pair of ex-brothers-in-law set off to

Iceland Iceland ( is, Ísland; ) is a Nordic island country in the North Atlantic Ocean and in the Arctic Ocean. Iceland is the most sparsely populated country in Europe. Iceland's capital and largest city is Reykjavík, which (along with its s ...

in an attempt to reclaim their youth through Reykjavík nightclubs, trendy spas, and rugged camp-sites.

Cast

Paul Eenhoorn Paul Eenhoorn (16 November 1948 – 1 August 2022) was an Australian actor working in Seattle, Washington, perhaps best known for his work in the 2013 film '' This Is Martin Bonner''. Since moving to Seattle, he had quickly grown to be a well-r ...

as Colin * Earl Lynn Nelson as Mitch * Karrie Crouse as Ellen * Elizabeth McKee as Janet * Alice Olivia Clarke as Nadine * Emmsjé Gauti as Glow Stick Guy

Production

Principal photography Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production. Personnel Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...

took place over 16 days in Iceland in September and October 2013, with 2 days in Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend in 2013. Locations shot in Iceland included Reykjavík,

Skógar Skógar (pronounced ), literally "forests", is a small Icelandic village with a population of roughly 25 located at the south of the Eyjafjallajökull glacier, in the municipality of Rangárþing eystra. The area is known for its waterfall, Skóg ...

Jökulsárlón Jökulsárlón (; literally "glacial river lagoon") is a large glacial lake in southern part of Vatnajökull National Park, Iceland. Situated at the head of the Breiðamerkurjökull glacier, it developed into a lake after the glacier started rece ...

Landmannalaugar Landmannalaugar () is a location in Iceland's Fjallabak Nature Reserve in the Highlands. It is at the edge of the Laugahraun lava field, formed in an eruption in approximately 1477. It is known for its natural geothermal hot springs and ...

Gullfoss Gullfoss ("Golden Falls"; ) is a waterfall located in the canyon of the Hvítá river in southwest Iceland. History and description The Hvítá river flows southward, and about a kilometre above the falls it turns sharply to the west and f ...

Strokkur Strokkur ( Icelandic , "churn") is a fountain-type geyser located in a geothermal area beside the Hvítá River in Iceland in the southwest part of the country, east of Reykjavík. It typically erupts every 6–10 minutes. Its usual height is , ...

, and Blue Lagoon. The film was shot on two

Red One Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary ...

cameras to better capture the actors' natural mannerisms and reactions, and was edited in just six weeks. A mere one year and three days elapsed between the film's conception and its Sundance premiere. The film was executive produced by

David Gordon Green David Gordon Green is an American filmmaker. He directed the dramas ''George Washington'' (2000), ''All the Real Girls'' (2003), and '' Snow Angels'' (2007), as well as the thriller '' Undertow'' (2004), all of which he wrote or co-wrote. In 2 ...

, as well as Julie Parker Benello, Dan Cogan,

Geralyn Dreyfous Geralyn White Dreyfous is an American film producer. She has produced multiple documentary and narrative films focusing on social justice issues including ''The Invisible War'' (2012), '' The Square'' (2013), ''The Hunting Ground'' (2015), '' Wo ...

, and Wendy Ettinger of

Gamechanger Films Gamechanger Films is an American company that finances independent films directed by women. History Gamechanger Films was founded in 2013 by Julie Parker Benello, Dan Cogan, Geralyn Dreyfous, Wendy Ettinger. Mynette Louie was the President, De ...

. It is the first feature to be financed by Gamechanger Films, an equity fund dedicated to financing features directed and co-directed by women. Earl Lynn Nelson, who plays Mitch, is a real life doctor and cousin of director Martha Stephens.

Promotion

The first trailer of the film was released on May 16, 2014.

Reception

''Land Ho!'' won the John Cassavetes Award for Best Feature under $500,000 at the 2015 Independent Spirit Awards and has received mostly positive reviews from critics. Review aggregator

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reports that 82% of 90 film critics have given the film a positive review, with a rating average of 6.6 out of 10. The site's consensus reads "Gently amusing and agreeably modest in scale, ''Land Ho!'' uses its stars' warm chemistry to impart its poignant, quietly effective message." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, which assigns a

weighted mean The weighted arithmetic mean is similar to an ordinary arithmetic mean (the most common type of average), except that instead of each of the data points contributing equally to the final average, some data points contribute more than others. The ...

rating out of 100 reviews from film critics, it has an average score of 68 from 30 reviews. In her Sundance round-up, Manohla Dargis of ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'' called the film "Delightfully funny...By turns playful and wistful, the movie is anchored by its irresistible lead performances....The filmmakers adroitly skirt both the cute and the condescending — the default registers of too many movies about geezers — to offer a dual portrait of gloriously alive men who just happen to be old."

Amy Taubin Amy Taubin (born September 10, 1938) is an American author and film critic. She is a contributing editor for two prominent film magazines, the British ''Sight & Sound'' and the American ''Film Comment''. She has also written regularly for ''The V ...

of '' Film Comment'' said, "The scenery is spectacular, the women they encounter are all marvelously independent, and Eenhoorn and Nelson make a hilarious, endearingly ribald odd couple. A serious film about loneliness, loss, and aging, it is also filled with joie de vivre from beginning to end (and a very cheeky ending it is)." Justin Chang of '' Variety'' said that "Paul Eenhoorn and Earl Lynn Nelson give pitch-perfect performances in this gently elegiac road comedy from helmers Martha Stephens and Aaron Katz." Todd McCarthy in his review for ''

The Hollywood Reporter ''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...

'' praised the film by saying that "A gently amusing odyssey with two old gents on the road in Iceland." Chris Cabin of ''

Slant Magazine ''Slant Magazine'' is an American online publication that features reviews of movies, music, TV, DVDs, theater, and video games, as well as interviews with actors, directors, and musicians. The site covers various film festivals like the New York ...

'', praised the direction by saying that "the filmmakers consistently catch the nuances of character that bind the two men to each other, rather than simply tracing the pros and cons of their dispositions, is what gives the film its melancholic yet vibrant resonance." Dan Fienberg of '' HitFix'' said, "It's a funny and moving film about aging, but it's also a wacky journey across Iceland with two characters who are instantly likable and ultimately quite lovable."

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Land Ho! 2014 films 2010s adventure comedy films 2010s buddy comedy films 2014 independent films 2010s road movies American adventure comedy films American buddy comedy films American independent films American road movies Icelandic independent films English-language Icelandic films 2010s English-language films Films about old age Films directed by Martha Stephens Films scored by Keegan DeWitt Films shot in Iceland Sony Pictures Classics films Icelandic adventure films Icelandic comedy films 2014 comedy films 2010s American films John Cassavetes Award winners