The Planters

“Martha Plant lives alone in the desert not far from the Salton Sea in California, still coping with the death of her elderly, adoptive parents not terribly long ago in a violent car accident. For employment, she is an unsuccessful telemarketer, selling air conditioning units for a company her father owned, but as a side gig, and her true passion, Martha is a planter. She place random objects (many of which she shoplifts from the local general store) in decorative tins, buries them in the desert, posts the GPS coordinates on a public bulletin board, then wait until someone digs up her gift. She then goes back and usually finds some sort of payment replacing the object. On one such sojourn, she encounters Sadie, a bubbly young woman in a wedding dress, with a motorcycle helmet chained to her head. It seems that Sadie was recently unceremoniously dumped from the shut-down mental health facility at which she’d been living. Martha helps Sadie and reluctantly offers her a place to stay when her only other alternative is the local church. Gradually the two women start to bond; Martha even hiring Sadie as her assistant on her planting excursions. In exchange, Sadie helps Martha soften her cold-call approach after her boss tells her she must sell 30 air conditioners in the next two weeks. The two women seem to be beneficial to one another, until Martha discovers that Sadie suffers from multiple personality disorder, and meets Emma, a sweet and decidedly not-toilet trained young girl, and Angie, a whiskey-swilling troublemaker. Add to the mix Richard, one of Martha’s successful air conditioner purchasers, who shows up in town after his car breaks down. The plot thickens when Martha’s planting take a sudden turn and the recipient stops providing any payment in return. Martha becomes incensed and determined to find out who the culprit is, running through a short list of suspects until the perpetrator is revealed.

“Kotcheff and Leder have created a warm and offbeat portrait of loneliness, connection, and the need for trust in an untrustworthy world. Their performances are strong, particularly Kotcheff as Martha, who gradually thaws her character rigid manner as she grows to accept the companionship she desperately needed. Their visual sense is magnificent, with bold camera angles, dynamic use of light and color, and extended takes of character to create discomfort.The one story thread that doesn’t find perfect resolution involves Martha and Richard, but it’s a minor quibble, and hardly worth mentioning. I’m sure some might find THE PLANTERS a little too self-aware or twee, but I found it utterly entertaining!  4 1/2 cats“

Bob says; ‘Martha Plant is a planter. That is, she shoplifts tchotchkes from her little town’s general store and buries them in tins out in the desert, then leaves a note for “the Receiver,” who digs them up and hopefully leaves some cash. Of course, this isn’t Martha’s real job. That’s telemarketing for an air conditioning company, but that’s never gone well.

“Martha’s about to lose her job, but then she meets Sadie (and Sadie’s other personalities) who helps her spread the message that ‘the heat is real.’

“This is quirky for quirky’s sake, but that’s ok. It’s a lot of fun. The stars, Alexandra Kotcheff and Hannah Leder, are also the writers and directors, and the mise en scene they present here is very flat — almost everything sits at the same focal plane. That, combined with the with the framing, makes the look often reminiscent of Wes Anderson, but not as ornate as most of his work. This seems to be true for all of the interior shots, and many of the exteriors. The big exception is the stop-motion animation that’s used for Sadie’s biblical fantasies. Moses in a tin!”