Joe (2014)

Directed by David Gordon Green. Starring Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter, Ronnie Gene Blevins, Heather Kafka, Brian Mays, Adriene Mishler, Sue Rock. [R]

Ominous, well-acted drama of the eponymous Texas foreman (Cage) who takes a teenager (Sheridan) under his wing. Joe feels compelled to come the boy’s aid, protecting him from his alcoholic and abusive father (Poulter), but Joe has demons of his own to battle. Intimate and quietly intense story squeezes slow and tight, with an outcome that’s anything but certain despite some routine scripting and a few awkward exchanges. The textured grittiness mostly rests on the surface, while conventional stakes are drawn underneath, but the key is in the casting: the small roles of the hard-bitten rural working class, Cage in one of his latter-day “reminder performances” (as in, a reminder that he can still be a compelling screen presence), and Poulter, who’s almost frighteningly authentic as a drunk bully. The latter was sick, homeless, and an actual alcoholic in real life (it was his only film role), and passed away before the film premiered at the Venice Film Festival in 2013. Screenplay credited to Gary Hawkins, adapting from a novel by Larry Brown.

74/100