Joe (2013, David Gordon Green) (Patreon)

72/100

Second viewing, no change. All I wrote following TIFF '13 was an appreciation of Cage's performance for The Dissolve, and I still think he's terrific here—uncharacteristically low-key and amiable except when Joe's inner demons occasionally break free (which makes Cage’s patented manic outbursts more effective than usual, if less amusing). No doubt he approached Joe with more thoughtfulness and purpose than he brings to most of the blatant garbage he headlines these days, but Green also creates a context in which such artistry (for lack of a less pretentious word) can thrive. I haven't read Larry Brown's highly-regarded source novel, but consider it high praise when I say that this film rarely feels like a literary adaptation; it's as if Green tossed a couple of professional actors into George Washington (minus the distracting Malick-isms), building a cursory narrative around those characters while investing just as much energy and attention upon the milieu and its basically-"as-themselves" inhabitants. Cage and Sheridan burrow into this authentic, regionally specific world, and while Joe's melodramatic aspects are its weak point, even those often have an unscripted quality, e.g. Joe getting shot half an hour into the movie, without any warning or setup, by a character we haven't yet met, in response to a barroom incident that we never even see. My aversion to tyrannical dads gets in the way a bit, and this one's really over-the-top evil (and played by a real-life homeless guy, to boot—he's like a there-but-for-the-grace version of Bruce Dern)...but then Wade tenderly kisses the forehead of the man he's just brutally murdered over a half-empty bottle of cheap wine, discombobulating me enough that I can partially forgive any excesses. Even the "let's pimp out my traumatized daughter" nonsense that precipitates the obligatory climactic bloodbath. Anyway, it felt like a comeback for both Cage and Green at the time, but the former instantly reverted to Mr. Indiscrimination and the latter has since made four features that at best can be collectively deemed "passable" (his brand is stasis), so false alarm, really.