Joe Reviews

There is no denying that Nicolas Cage, like many other great actors I used to love, has been wasting his talent with some Direct-to-DVD garbage already for many years. Fortunately, from time to time, but unfortunately, more and more rarely, he would still be showing up in something actually decent and this movie was definitely one of these very welcome exceptions. To be honest, it was pretty much straightforward and I guess it was missing something to become truly remarkable but it was still a really solid drama.  First of all, David Gordon Green managed to deliver quite a realistic and to be honest rather depressing background for the characters. Of course, Nicolas Cage was pretty strong delivering one of his best performances in years in order to create one of his most complex characters. I don't think it was a coincidence that the main character was called Joe. Indeed, it was pretty much an average guy, neither great or awful. In fact, he seemed to be really struggling in life in general, barely keeping his head above water, only to be able to be at least functional. Suddenly, he meets this kid, also very wel played, who has been dealt only some bad cards in his life, and yet, this young boy still want to keep fighting, even if it seems to be completely hopeless. Even though Joe has been described as a role-model, in fact, I think it was actually the other way around, and it was this kid who turned out to be his role-model after all. Anyway, to conclude, even if it didn't seem to be much, this movie actually worked for me and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you like the genre.