Joe

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🎙️ EPISODE 676: 03.30.23 Starting in 2020, I decided to watch & review the entire Nicolas Cage filmography in alphabetical order. This is 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 – Chapter 37. This is my fifth go-round with director David Gordon Green, following the overall uneven new Halloween trilogy and the singularly uneven Undertow (2004). At this point, it's clear the man is very good from a technical standpoint and that is perhaps more so evident than ever in the lovely rural landscapes and scatterbrained interiors of Joe. And that juxtaposition is at the very heart of this movie, a current running throughout: there's beauty in disgusting places and there's pure goodness in the hearts of colossally fucked up men. Cage plays the titular "Joe" of course (but I'll still call him "Cage" for the purposes of the bit here, 37 "chapters" deep—my lord).

Cage is a tormented ex-con who hires a 15-year-old boy named Gary (the great Tye Sheridan) and eventually protects him from his abusive father. I really appreciated the subtle opening in this, which makes the abrupt violent turns hit all the more harder. The film begins with Gary trying to stand up for himself before getting smacked by his elderly dad who proceeds to get beat up by a guy because of this...

At first I thought that was Cage beating him up on the hill, but now I think that's just some random dude and that was the event which spurred Gary and his family (him, his deranged pops, an addled and enabling mom, and his damaged and mute sister) to move to Cage's town. Then we see Cage at a work site in the forest. He's in charge of a crew who are poisoning trees so that a lumber company can come in and clear them to plant new ones. Honestly, I never heard of this tactic before and it's alluded to that it might be quasi-illegal? You learn something new every day. Cage is drinking, and smoking like a chimney on the job, but he's well-liked and well-respected by the guys and pays them fairly for the work. One day, he picks up a venomous cottonmouth snake as Gary stumbles on the workers...


Gary is looking for work for his dad and himself, and Cage sets him to it right away. Despite his youth, Gary is determined and picks up this odd job quickly.

After work, Cage visits a whorehouse but is too annoyed by the whorehouse German shepherd and leaves...


This is the first of a few clunky setups in the film, but there's also a nice metaphor about how you can't trust a dog that isn't your own. Then we see some bad guys lurking, one of whom (let's call him Scarface, because he once crashed his car and went flying through the windshield at 4AM, a fact that he comically repeats throughout the movie) will be the central villain.

Next, Cage pays a visit to some hillbillies trying to skin a deer in their kitchen...


These characters almost feel like non-actors, and I believe many of them are. Just locals they found around where they were shooting in Texas. Including the role of Gary's abusive father who was a homeless "street performer" Green discovered in Austin. Sadly, Gary Poulter died before Joe ever came out...

Before the film's release, Poulter was found dead on February 10, 2013, at the edge of Lady Bird Lake, a river-like reservoir in Austin, Texas. His death was ruled a result of drowning with acute ethanol intoxication, as determined by a medical examine.

This all works to give the film a more bonkers vibe than one might normally expect, not necessarily more realistic, but an added something that makes it feel unique.

As soon as Cage leaves the crazy deer house, he gets shot in the shoulder by Scarface, who we later learn was seeking revenge for Cage slapping in the bar a few nights earlier.

We cut to Gary with his drunk dad for an impromptu breakdancing lesson...


They're both really good in this, especially Sheridan, who've I enjoyed in everything I've seen him in. They give this a looney and chaotic feel which I really appreciated.

Right after this, Gary sees Scarface on a bridge tossing the gun he used to shoot Cage into the river. When Scarface asks if he has a sister, Gary proceeds to beat his ass — we learn two things here: that the 15-year-old Gary can stand up for himself (if/when he wants to), and that this loser Scarface is all talk.

We then see Cage, who's pulling out the bullet from his shoulder at home, by himself?! A couple of young ladies show up and are like, what the hell are you doing? And Cage is like, I got shot in the shoulder, duh. One of these girls ends up living at Cage's place for a little while because her mom's boyfriend is back in town and, to be honest, this character was completely pointless. I guess it's an excuse to have another pretty face in the movie and it shows Cage's compassion perhaps, but it doesn't go anywhere.

So Gary recruits his dad to join him in the forest poisoning trees and, obviously, he's a SHIT worker. Just totally useless. He gets into it with Cage's second-in-command, another seeming non-actor who is very impressive...


When Joe drops them off later, he tells them both not to come back tomorrow (because of the dad). The dad immediately beats up Gary and takes the money. Cage witnesses this but he doesn't react. Later that night, Gary goes to Cage saying he needs the job even if his daddy won't/can't work. Cage agrees and tells him he can come back when the weather gets better.

Cage's impromptu g.f. asks him why he didn't stop the kid's dad from beating him up, and this prompts a thoughtful monologue by Cage, expanding on his backstory, as we see shots of Gary at home and Gary's dad rummaging through the trash of a restaurant like a dog and then the men at the work site who are also compared to dogs...


Cage is worried about stepping over his boundaries because he doesn't want to get violent and end up in jail again. He's really good in this. Obviously, the middle 2010s feels like a wasteland but this is clearly a bright spot.

Then, out of NOWHERE, Gary's daddy brutally murders an old feeble drunk, robbing him of what little he has and taking his wine bottle. It's a BRUTAL scene. This is never mentioned again though, which seems odd since it's just a small town, but I digress. If we didn't already know he was an evil psycho, we do now...


Scarface, who just can't leave it alone, finds Cage at the bar. Cage just sits there silently before erupting on his ass...


In a manic fit, Cage drives to the whorehouse but is pissed the hell off when he sees the whorehouse dog. So he goes home and gets his own dog to fight the whorehouse dog so he can get a BJ that lasts 15 seconds. During which, his dog KILLS the whorehouse dog. RIP, whorehouse dog.

(A QUICK SIDEBAR: Cage's dog is named "Dog" — a la the canine's name in the 1971 John Wayne vehicle, Big Jake, a fact I only know because my own father told me; I've never seen the movie. I don't know why, of all things I remember and don't remember from my childhood, I remember this dumb fun fact. But I felt like it was oddly fitting to mention, given the father-son dynamics here.)

The looming threat of dogs that aren't your own.

Then Cage, drunk as shit, gets pulled over by the cops, but he doesn't stop. They eventually get him at a roadblock and he goes crazy as his dog escapes down the road...


Cage gets out of jail on bond, and meets up with Gary who offers to help him look for his dog. Cage tells Gary the story of his first stint in "real prison" and Cage lets Gary drive his truck, which Gary would like to buy from him. Cage then proceeds to do some drinking and driving, with a 15-year-old no less (!), which seems like a poor decision given the recent circumstances. But there is some real good shit here between the two...


They find the dog on Gary's suggestion to look for her where she ran off, and later that same day, Cage picks up Gary's dad and tells him what's what...


After that, Scarface and daddy link up, bringing our two villains together for the finale of the film. Cage gives his old truck to Gary and doesn't take any money for it.

Then Cage gets stopped by the cops AGAIN and, well, he beats up the officer...


It's an interesting idea making Cage, clearly the good guy, basically as big of a fuck-up as the rest. The Sheriff is waiting for him when Cage gets home. I guess their gonna let that incident slide.

The set-up for the conflict between Scarface and Cage is pretty stupid and undeveloped but I guess that's also the point: that stupidity reigns supreme in places like these; there's no point, no meaning.

Gary gets really fucked up by his dad and goes to Cage. He tells him his Daddy stole the truck and took his sister to prostitute her out to Scarface. Gary wants to borrow Cage's new truck so he can go kill him and save his sister, but Cage won't let him go alone. So he grabs his gun and goes.

Scarface and one of his dumb friends are told it's $30 each to bang the underage sister and Scarface puts on a rabbit mask as he gets into the back of the truck. Jesus Christ. But Cage and Gary show up to break up the sicko's party...


Cage takes a bullet in the gut during the confrontation, but he's able shoot both of the bad dudes, including Scarface in the head as he's trying to recount the story of flying through the windshield one final time. Cage confronts the dad, but he's out of bullets. It doesn't matter. Gary's deranged papa jumps off the bridge. RIP in the movie and in real life, man.

Gary brings the cops but it's too late for Cage. He's bleeding out and he's a goner. The movie ends with Gary driving Cage's truck with the dog named Dog. Gary gets a new job. Planting trees. On the land they cleared, as the credits roll.

This is a solid movie, folks. It's not spectacular but an entertaining watch. Until next time...

THE VERDICT: 7 CAGES OUT OF 10 • CLICK HERE for all 𝔗𝔥𝔢 𝔜𝔢𝔞𝔯 𝔬𝔣 ℭ𝔞𝔤𝔢 Chapters + Ongoing Rankings.

CHRONOLOGICALLY
⫷ EPISODE 675 - (YOU ARE HERE) - EPISODE 677 ⫸

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Joe is a 2013 American independent crime drama film directed and co-produced by David Gordon Green, co-produced by Lisa Muskat, Derrick Tseng and Christopher Woodrow and written by Gary Hawkins, adaptation from Larry Brown's 1991 novel of the same name. It stars Nicolas Cage and Tye Sheridan, revolving around a tormented man who hires a 15-year-old boy and protects him from his abusive father. It was released on August 30, 2013.