‘Joe’: Teen’s father figure has problems aplenty in a dark, bloody backwoods
Like Jude Law’s Dom Hemingway, Nicolas Cage’s Joe is an angry, feral mess, not to be tangled with. He’s also a puppy on the inside, should you catch him when he’s sober. That’s the blessing and the curse of “Joe,” a character study in which the character is so all over the road that each time you think you’re getting to know him, something knee-jerk and nonsensical comes out and throws you.
Director David Gordon Green’s been a bit all over the map himself, from the small indie gem “George Washington” (2000) to the raucous stoner mayhem in “Pineapple Express” (2008) and most recently, “Prince Avalanche” (2013). “Joe” begins on a promisingly sober note as Gary (Tye Sheridan, filling a role similar to one in “Mud”), a youth of poor means, takes up a hatchet on a brush-clearing gig for Joe, whose reputation as an explosive ex-con is known throughout the depressed Texas enclave. Gary’s amid a lot of people who look like they know Joe from his days behind bars, but they’re all hard-working now and focused.
Joe’s pretty focused too, until he drinks too much. The rub comes in Gary’s alcoholic father (Gary Poulter) who goes by the moniker G-Dawg. He’s both complex and a caricature, and perhaps the most alluring and annoying aspect of “Joe.” In one scene he’s so drunken he can’t stand up and in another he’s bashing in a vagrant’s head. It’s humorous too, to see the motley hillbilly with scraggly white beard and amoral ethic bust some rap moves, but to what end? Continue reading
For What it's Worth 