In a Nutshell. Mini reviews of movies old and new. No fuss. No spoilers. And often no sleep.

Saturday 28 June 2014

JOE [2013]

After a long string of really terrible films Nicolas Cage returns to fine form in David Gordon Green's Southern Gothic indie-drama Joe.
It's wonderful to see Cage put on a good performance again that is layered with each troubled expression and seething word but it's Mud's Tye Sheridan that steals the show with a promising portrayal of a child who has to grow far too fast.  DGG's atmospheric direction is delicately subtle, frightening and disturbingly beautiful as it searches through the ugliness of a world long lost to poverty, alcoholism and violence.
However the one thing that truly can't go unnoticed here is the role of the menacingly violent father played with perfection by Gary Poulter, an alcoholic homeless man that DGG fought to keep in the film.
 Sadly he was found dead on the streets only months after the movie was completed, making this his first and only film.

4½ Daawgs out of 5

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