Amalia Ulman’s deadpan approach can go both ways in her new film Magic Farm, about travel documentarians. Chloe Sevigny stars as Edna, the face of the travelogue’s team that flies out to San Cristobal in Argentina. There, one of their producers, Dave (Simon Rex), decides to duck out, leaving them to investigate a flimsy lead. Edna does her best with Elena (Ulman), the crew’s interpreter. Anyway, their lead directs them to Popa (Valeria Lois), who tells them that they probably flew to the wrong city. Despite mishaps, the locals have their eye on them, specifically, Jeff (Alex Wolff), becoming the crush of a young local. That local is Manchi (Camila del Campo), who joins the team as the latter finds a cult musical act, faking their footage.

Any other filmmaker would focus on satirizing the crew more than capturing the locals, which isn’t what Ulman does here. Mind you, there’s still a lot of the former but Ulman’s Argentine roots shows a mindfulness towards the locals. There’s a scene where Manchi, during a self session, sees herself and Jeff running around together on a grassy field. The camera switches from focusing on him to her, which sure, feels like it’s replicating the standard male gaze. But there’s something here about seeing oneself as an object of desire, especially Manchi, a young woman with unconventional looks. If only Manchi realizes that the real Jeff is whiny, which is what Magic Farm shows through ‘real’ scenes.

Again Magic Farm‘s focus is on the locals and how they see media people fake and make their products. It also shows them as consumers of said products, like when Manchi listens to an English podcast before her session. But sometimes, its focus means that it relegates itself to depicting love stories, like it’s a millennial Restoration theatre. The early scenes where Manchi and Jeff are strangers are strong, when Ulman cranks up the film’s comic synth-y score and POV shots. Of course, as Manchi and Jeff get to know each other, the more boring the conversations are between the two of them. I don’t know what it says about me that the C-plot concerning gopher Justin (Joe Apollonio) is more interesting.

Magic Farm juggles a lot of characters and plots, like Justin also becoming the crush of the hotel’s owner (Guillermo Jacubowicz). Or how one of their filming scenes get an interruption from an airplane spraying them a cancer inducing pesticide. I almost keep forgetting that Edna is here, a reference to Sevigny’s time hosting MTV’s House of Style decades beforehand. Another filmmaker may make Edna as the film’s bitchy villain, controlling the crew’s every move and failing at every attempt. And yes, she does get into Jeff and Manchi’s love story because of course Jeff, like me, can’t commit. But Sevigny’s aunty vibes gives Edna both a toughness and a humanity that a film with some meandering tendencies needs.

Stream Magic Farm on MUBI.