Magic Farm
Fake it 'til you make it.
5.8(18 votes)
1h 33mApril 25, 2025Overview
A misguided American documentary crew working for an edgy media company travels to rural Argentina to profile a local musician, but their ineptitude leads them into the wrong small town. As they collaborate with locals to attempt to fabricate a viral trend, unexpected connections blossom, while a pervasive crisis looms unacknowledged in the background.
Cast
Chloë Sevigny
Edna
Alex Wolff
Jeff
Amalia Ulman
Elena
Joe Apollonio
Justin
Guillermo Jacubowicz
Receptionist
Camila del Campo
Manchi
Mateo Vaquer Ruiz de los Llanos
Mateo
Valeria Lois
Popa
Simon Rex
Dave
Key Crew
Director
Amalia Ulman
Writer
Amalia UlmanProducers
Alex Hughes, Eugene Kotlyarenko, Riccardo MaddalossoCinematography
Carlos Rigo
Music
Chicken
More Insights
Curator's Notes
Magic Farm is an ambitious, vibrant satire that skewers ignorance, media exploitation, and environmental neglect through a disorienting blend of aesthetics and dark humour. Though its narrative structure falters, it offers memorable moments and visual inventiveness that place it firmly within a new wave of politically conscious indie cinema.
Awards & Recognition
Critics offered mixed reviews—with a Rotten Tomatoes score around 49% and average Metacritic ratings hovering in the mid‑60s (Mixed/Average). Praise was given for its visual inventiveness, formal ambition, and satirical sharpness toward media culture. Criticism focused on the film’s uneven pacing, undercooked thematic weight, and tonal inconsistency.
Background
Magic Farm (2025) is a surreal satire written and directed by Amalia Ulman. It is her second feature film, following El Planeta (2021), and it premiered at the Sundance Film Festival on January 28, 2025. The film follows a hipster documentary crew from New York—led by television host Edna—as they arrive in rural Argentina intending to film a musician trend, only to discover they’ve arrived in the wrong country. Instead of adapting, they concoct a fake cult with help from locals, oblivious to a serious health crisis unfolding in the village, linked to glyphosate pesticide exposure.
Setting and Cinematic Tone
Ulman’s visuals are bold and hallucinatory: high saturation, fish-eye lenses, POV shots from animals or GoPro-style cameras, rapid edits reminiscent of TikTok videos. The eclectic score, blending traditional Latin sounds with ambivalent synths, reinforces the surreal and uneasy tone.
Cultural Reference
1. Media Exploitation & Cultural Appropriation: The film offers a biting critique of how Western media packages “exotic” subcultures for viral content, inspired by Vice-style reportage. 2. Environmental Crisis & Corporate Neglect: A central subplot involves widespread glyphosate poisoning affecting locals—mirroring Ulman’s own family experiences in Argentina. 3. Identity, Class & Privilege: The characters embody Gen‑X and millennial urban elitism—obsessed with clout and oblivious to cultural context.