When I noticed that the new Nicolas Cage movie, Joe, was playing the National Media Museum I had to double-take. What, not another cheesy blockbuster vehicle for Cage’s antics for the multiplexes?
It takes me back to being in a cinema in Grenoble, France showing Leaving Las Vegas where I continued to unsubtly crack cans throughout Cage’s depiction of a suicidal alcoholic. This was met with disgruntled tuts and one or two exclamations of ‘Putain!’ (the closest the French language cums to a sexual swearword).
But anyhow some 20 years on from Leaving Las Vegas and Cage is now fifty, and performs as Joe, a tattooed, musclebound but slightly paunchy ex-con who takes on 15-year-old Gary Jones (Tye Sheridan, Tree of Life, Mud) as a nurturing/mentoring project. Like Ben in Leaving Las Vegas, Joe is pretty self-destructive and, to a certain extent, filled with self-loathing (but there is no fear here, gonzo fans!)
I say to a certain extent advisedly, as Joe is very much blotting this out with alcohol and over-work but this is dealt with both in the insightful dialogue and use of flashes to scenes of Gary being violently abused by his father in some of the most unrelentingly painful celluloid depiction of this controversial subject.
But don’t think the narrative quest is trying to be somehow worthy. The point of the gritty realism, like when Joe is shot and has to remove the bullet from a gaping wound, is to explain what makes the characters tick and so we identify and empathise with them. This is easy with Gary, we all want him to stick up to his dad, but perhaps more difficult with Joe, due to his conflicted and often contradictory behaviour.
Such as when he visits the local whore-house, he just isn’t interested in a quick shake-down and then out again – it’s more as if he wants someone to confide in or at least a bit of sisterly TLC, he is certainly not driven by love of sex or money. And he puts up a young girl who is being abused by her stepfather but again there is no ulterior motive here, he just seems genuinely glad to help out and in no way wants to take advantage of the situation, although he well could have.
Joe is certainly haunted by his past with frequent reference to the ghosts and demons that harbour in his tortured mind and his performance combines this sense of existential ennui with repressed rage. Unlike Cage’s tendency to over-act for once he pulls off a part that displays subtlety, restraint and understatement where less is more.
The equally troubled Gary is the real star of the film though and the action, frequently horrifically violent and disturbing, is seen from his bullied-young-adult perspective. And it’s surprising to learn that his torturer, the seriously-psychotic father, is played by a real-life hobo who died in a ditch after the film was made. Along with his abused dumb sister and absent mother they make a totally dysfunctional family that makes even Joe’s wayward life seem like some sort of normality.
Despite having Cage in the lead role this certainly ain’t no chick flick: if anything you realise that once more he is playing a role where he essentially needs mothering and the sex scenes are sordid not steamy. And if it’s gung-ho action your action you’re after download Gone in 60 Seconds instead, there’ll be nothing here for you.
Having said that, it’s a gripping yarn which raises up lots of issues about redemption and revenge that will set you wondering just what you would have done in Joe’s shoes, and what really makes some men go to rack and ruin.
In a nice cyclical touch, rather than poisoning trees as Joe had, Gary goes on to plant them instead, a symbol of growth for the future. So this leaves us with the sense that there is life after being a victim, and that Joe’s ultiumate sacrifice was worthwhile and that the heinous evil of Gary’s father does not prevail. But it’s no fairy tale ending, still bitter sweet, so expect blood, sweat and tears in this return to form for Cage and perfect vehicle for the much-talented Sheridan.
As seen at National Media Museum, Bradford. Showing at Hebden Bridge Picture House 24 to 25 August 2014
Rich Jevons
Click here to see the trailer.