Movie Review: Joe (2013) directed by David Gordon Green
Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage) is holding his life together…barely. He runs a small business that kills trees unsuitable for lumber for the local lumber company, employing a day worker crew that works hard for the cash money and appreciates that he doesn’t cheat them. Maybe he smokes and drinks too much, but that helps him deal with the explosive temper that previously got him sent to prison. He doesn’t keep in contact with his children, and is unaware he’s about to be a grandfather. Not being the nosy type, Joe doesn’t ask too many questions when a fifteen-year-old boy wanders onto the work site and asks for a job.
Gary (Tye Sheridan) drifted into town with his family a short while back. His father Wade (Gary Poulter) is an abusive alcoholic who keeps Gary, his mother and his mute sister together mostly out of them having nowhere else to go.
Wade also joins the work crew, but quickly alienates the other laborers while doing none of the actual work. Joe fires Wade and Gary, but allows Gary to come back on his own, because the boy does a man’s work for a man’s pay. Joe and Gary bond, and Joe becomes increasingly displeased with the way Wade treats his son.
Local asshole Willie-Russell (Ronnie Gene Blevins) has a grudge against Joe, and then Gary, and takes several steps to make the situation worse, culminating in a lethal showdown.
This movie was shot near Austin, Texas and takes place in an impoverished rural area. Decaying buildings and garbage-strewn landscapes contrast with the better parts of the outdoors. This isn’t a place for people to get ahead in life; survival is not guaranteed either.
Joe’s relationship with the police is complicated. The sheriff is a childhood friend and tries to look out for Joe, but being hassled by cops is one of Joe’s temper triggers, and his time in prison was from a tussle he’d had with them years before, so the deputies are not inclined to give him slack. Thus, when criminal things are happening, Joe prefers to either ignore them or handle it himself.
Gary is a remarkably good kid considering his circumstances, and just maybe he will do okay, but there’s a lot of heartache to get to the end of the movie.
The movie takes its own sweet time getting to the explanations for things, and for quite a way in it’s not clear where exactly the story is going.
Content note: gun and hand to hand violence, some lethal. We get to see Joe tending to his own gunshot wound. Wade beats and belittles Gary, and it’s implied he abuses the rest of the family as well. Alcohol and tobacco abuse. Suicide. Attempted rape. Nudity, on screen sex (no genitals). A dog dies. This is exceptionally rough stuff and even many high school students may not be ready for it.
Nicolas Cage does a good job of portraying a man who is desperately trying to be subdued, to live and let live, but is very close to snapping violently–and then does. It’s not one of his memeable roles, but if you enjoy him in serious dramatic roles, this one is worth checking out.
