'Joe' A Review

Joe is a southern drama directed by David Gordon Green. The film follows Nicolas Cage as the titular Joe and his burgeoning relationship with young drifter with an alcoholic father Gary played by Tye Sheridan. The film's opening shot brings the audience in on the quietly seething violent world it's men inhabit- Gary is reprimanding his father(played by the mesmerizing non-processional Gary Poulter in his first and final role) after he has said his piece his father strikes him. begins to walk away from his son, then is mercilessly beaten by two unidentifiable men. After, Gary meets Joe running his crew who poison trees for the lumber company, and asks for work. What follows is a tangled web of restrained aggression plodding to an inevitable confrontation.

Nicolas Cage shoulders the major responsibility of the film with his most grounded performance in years. But of course "grounded" is a relative term when it comes to Cage. As a heavy drinking ex-convict with a savageness barely held in check- he shines. What is most apparent about Cage's Joe is his restraint. The constant vigilance needed to withhold the destruction bubbling within. Cage is given opportunities periodically to flash his characters(and his own) ferocious wildness like a boiler letting off steam to prevent explosion- Joe handles a poisonous snake, confronts state troopers, and in a deliciously eerie sequence sets two dogs fighting while he visits a prostitute. Cage is complimented well by Tye Sheridan's honest, tough, and wounded man-child, with darkness juxtaposed well with scenes of Cage and Sheridan driving around cracking jokes and Cage's work crew doing an honest days labor.

Joe is overshadowed however by the specter of Gary Poulter. Poulter as Wade an alcoholic drifter father paints a haunting, kinetic, poetic performance worthy of an Academy Award. He steals scenes from Cage, no small feat, with a heartbreaking credibility. He portrays a man in the throws of his addiction capable of almost any evil. 

The setting, shot composition, and the use of mostly non-professional actors in which to populate the film give it a dream-like authenticity with a significant amount of harmonic resonance. Dark and cruel and beautiful.

See It.