What’s this all about?
Honestly, I have no idea.
I watched this movie, and paid attention, but in the end, I can’t really tell you what it was all about.
Joe is the story of a handful of oppressively poor people in Texas, who live lives full of violence, alcoholism, crime, and struggle. It portrays several scenes of poverty that almost feel like exploitation. The movie, however, seems to have no real central plot or theme, and is just a string of weird, barely connected scenes.
When I was a young man, I was a furniture delivery man. For a time, my region covered Illinois’ “Little Egypt” region, and the Shawnee National forest. There were small families of people living on homesteads up in the hills off the national forest, often without electricity or telephones. Many of them had been there for generations. The local story, probably apocryphal, was that the homesteads had been there before the declaration of the national forest, and that the government either wouldn’t or couldn’t evict these people as long as the homesteads were occupied.
When I’d tell people about the weird, sad stuff that I’d see out there, they’d say things like, “wow, that feels like a scene from a movie.” Joe feels like somebody took a collection of similar stories and made a movie.
I’m not sure that’s how screenwriting works. To be fair, after watching the film, I learned that the film is based on a novel of the same name. I can imagine a pretty meaningful novel being written based on these characters and events, full of symbolism, and deep characterization. None of that is apparent in the film.
Who is Nick in this one?
Nick plays the titular “Joe,” an ex-con who runs a tree poisoning crew. He’s hard working, honest, and helpful to his friends and neighbors.
Who else is in this one?
No other actors of note are featured in Joe. I have to wonder if casting Cage here was a mistake.
Did you see that?
Early in the film, Joe visits some friends (who we never see again) and we see an older man struggling to butcher a deer hanging in his living room. A woman explains that the deer was hung up on a fence, and that she had shot it, and that the man is attempting to butcher it into a roast.
Nick explains that the meat should be butchered into steaks instead, and offers to help. He then pulls out his knife, and demonstrates his steak carving technique.
Everyone thanks Joe for his help, and comments on how well he butchered the meat.
In reality, Nick does a terrible job of carving what could only be called a “steak” in the loosest terms.
I don’t know if this was intentional, and attempted to show that none of these people have any practical meat processing skills, or if neither Cage nor the filmmakers had any idea how to dress a deer. -Michael
There was this scene where Nick was driving around needing a lighter after giving his to the kid. The bit I don’t get is that he was in an old bronco. Are you telling me that thing didn’t have a cigarette lighter? Of course it did. – Sarah
What were Nick’s best parts?
Nick’s performance was wooden and stilted throughout, although how intentional this was I cannot know. If any scene can be said to be his “best,” it is the part of the “looking for the lost dog” montage in which Nick tried to explain to the kid that he’s befriended how to look “cool” by having a painful expression on your face. Nick demonstrates this technique, and the kid makes several attempts before they both agree that this does, indeed, look “cool.”
The scene feels genuine, and reminds me of the stupid crap that was often discussed on the furniture delivery truck. It’s the kind of discussion a million men have had while engaged in manual labor, long trips, and boring tasks. -Michael
This is so hard, it was not a great movie. But there was this scene where Nick was telling the kid about his stint in prison. It was believable. – Sarah
What were Nick’s worst parts?
Following the “looking for the lost dog” montage, Nick drops the kid off at his home, and gives him a Zippo lighter, demonstrating how to “flick” it open. He then explains that this is a “sound that gets hookers excited.” I have no idea what that means, or why he gives that advice to the kid, but Nick delivers the line like it’s the most important one in the film. I had to rewind a couple of times to make sure that I hadn’t missed something.
I hadn’t. It was just stupid. -Michael.
The worst scene was definitely the one where he went to the whore house for a blow job. First, never bring a dog to get in a fight with another dog. Second, why do you want to stare at a snowflake while you get a blowjob. And last, he came in like three sucks. It took him less than 15 seconds. And that orgasm was not believable at all. I just hate to think that is what Nick thinks a quicky is like. – Sarah
How was the movie?
I really disliked this movie. The pace was slow and meandering, and much of it felt like “poverty porn.” There were a handful of scenes in isolation that felt like they meant something, but they just never came together.
For example, during the scene in which Nick hires the kid to work on his crew, one of the senior crew members gives the kid a solemn introduction, explaining the work, but also the expectation that the kid work hard, and that he will be treated fairly in turn. The scene felt very real, to me, but ultimately had no point.
Similarly, the film opens with the kid and his dirtbag father sitting by some railroad tracks. The kid explains to his father that the father is going to get his “ass beaten” for “what he did,” and that the kid is glad about it. The old man gets up, walks to a nearby treeline, and is then savagely beaten by two men who have just arrived in the distance. This scene is never referenced again or resolved.
At that point, I was interested. Who was the old man? What had he done? Why did his own son care so little about him? Who were these men who were apparently chasing them? What were the ramifications of the beating?
None of these questions really get answered.
The entire film is just scenes of poor people struggling, with no real story. -Michael
This was not a good movie at all. It was very hard to follow. I constantly felt lost and wasn’t sure what was going on. It lacked any kind of plot or point. And all the characters were horrible people. – Sarah
Yeah, but did you like it?
It was better than The Croods but only because it didn’t have Ryan Reynolds in it. -Michael
I did not like it. – Sarah
Where can I watch it?
It’s free to stream on PlutoTV.
Leave a Reply