Joe

Joe - Dir. David Gordon Green (2014)

Indie auteur David Gordon Green won critical acclaim for his first two films George Washington and All the Real Girls. The films were praised for their solemn depiction of small town America and beautiful, yet haunting, imagery reminiscent of Terrence Malick. It shouldn't be a surprise that Malick served as an executive producer on Green's Undertow, which owed a slight debt to Badlands and Days of Heaven. Green gained access to a star-studded cast that included Sam Rockwell and Kate Beckinsale on the low-budget tragedy Snow Angels. Then, Green did a complete 180 and moved into the realm of mainstream comedy. He directed Seth Rogen and James Franco in the smash hit Pineapple Express, but neither of his follow-ups, Your Highness or The Sitter, met with similar success. Cinephiles eagerly hoped Green would return to his roots, which he thankfully did with Prince Avalanche, a remake of a 2011 Icelandic comedy. Green's latest production, Joe, is much darker fare.

Joe is based on the 1991 novel by Larry Brown and centers on the titular Joe Ransom (Nicolas Cage), an ex-con who served time for assaulting a police officer. Joe is content with being a hard-working, blue collar, well…Joe. He's foreman for a group of day laborers whose job is to poison trees in order for the lumber company to chop them down and replace them with stronger pines that will yield a bigger profit. These men see nothing wrong with what they do; it's honest pay for an honest day's work. Nobody sees the irony either in removing the undesirable as deemed by those above their station.

Gary (Tye Sheridan) and his family have just arrived in town and are squatting in an old abandoned house. Gary gets a job working for Joe in order to support his strung out mother and his mute younger sister. They'll get no help from patriarch Wade (Gary Poulter), a drunken lout with a frightening propensity for cruelty and violence. He regularly beats Gary in order to take his wages. What Wade does to a homeless man just to get a swig of cheap liquor is truly chilling.

Just as he did with George Washington and All the Real Girls, Gordon has captured all the beauty and loneliness of this rural area in Texas. The sun baked cinematography of Tim Orr accentuates the countryside full of abandoned cars, rusted railroad tracks, and snarling dogs.

If this is a return to form for Green, it's also a welcome return to the Nicolas Cage of old, the one who scooped up numerous awards for his turn as a self-destructive alcoholic in Leaving Las Vegas. Cage has become a punch line due to his outlandish performances in turkeys like Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance or the infamous Wicker Man remake. It's the rare filmmaker who can channel Cage's lunacy into positive directions as Werner Herzog did in Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call – New Orleans. Here, Cage knows when to restrain himself and when to let loose. He becomes the kindly father figure Gary desperately needs. There's a tender sequence in which the pair bond while searching for Joe's runaway pitbull. Yet, Joe possesses a seething rage that even he is afraid of. Joe can barely contain his own base impulses when confronted by law enforcement or his scarred and violent rival Willie-Russell (Ronnie Gene Blevins).

Tye Sheridan has quickly become one of the finest young actors working today. He's excelled at playing these southern boys in troubled relationships with their father since debuting in Malick's Tree of Life. Everything about his performance is natural. The same can be said for the non-professional actors Green hired to provide local color to the supporting cast. Each one of them has a face that conveys a lifetime of hardships that the most poetic dialogue in the world could never accomplish. Some of the best moments in Joe come when the day laborers are just hanging around and shooting the breeze. There's an easy camaraderie to these scenes that serve as a balm for the heartbreak that is to come.

That heartbreak, both on and off-screen, comes from Gary Poulter, a homeless man the casting director discovered at a bus stop in Austin. Poulter had never acted before and his legitimate alcoholism was a concern for the filmmakers, but he managed to turn in one hell of a performance as the monstrous Wade. Sadly, Poulter's demons got the better of him. He was found dead in February of 2013, two months after the film wrapped. No question Poulter bared his soul. He even got the chance to show off his surprising pop locking skills in a playful scene with Sheridan, which makes their violent relationship so much sadder. Imagine if this man weren't such a monster.

Joe is a prime example of exceptional filmmaking anchored by three outstanding lead performances. Critics have taken to calling the genre "New American Realism," these indie dramas about the underclass that have fallen through the cracks of society. This would unquestionably make for a fine movie marathon with Winter's Bone and Mud.

Rating: *** ½ (*****)