I recall a symposium at the Cato Institute in Washington
where the speaker encouraged people to have more children because, he felt, the
widely touted challenge of being a parent is overstated. How children turn out is largely a matter of
genetics, the argued.
In “
Joe” (directed by David Gordon Green, based on the novel
by Larry Brown), Gary (Tye Sheirdan), a fifteen year old, goes to work for
ex-con Joe (Nicholas Cage) on a gang that poisons trees in the Texas Hill
Country so they can be cleared out later (it’s a protectionist scam run by the
lumber industry). As the film opens, we
meet Tye’s horrific father (Gary Poulter, who drank himself to death in Austin
shortly after making the film), in a confrontation. Soon, we see that Gary, who never gets to go
to school so he can make something of himself in an ordinary sense and who
normally would be placed with Child Protective Services, takes care of all the
adults in his life who have failed him.
He’s nothing less than an angel.
At home, he protects his mother and autistic sister how has gotten no
professional attention. The philosophical or moral question, why minors should
be expected to raise siblings whom they did not themselves bring into the
world, is barely visited. As the film
progresses into treacherous situations, it becomes apparent that Joe, still an
ex-con, is more redeemable than dad. This seems like New Testament stuff.

The characters are so downtrodden, so earthy, that we wonder
if this is how “white trash” in the deep South really has to live.
Compare this film to "Mud" and even "Hud".
Tye Sheridan says that the original script intended that his character to be a smoker, but that was cut back, although the adults are chain smoking most of the time.
The distribution is another joint venture by Lionsgate and
Roadside Attractions, with this official
site.
I saw this at the AMC Shirlington in Arlington VA late on a
Sunday afternoon before a small crowd.
It was interesting that there were no previews. The show started with AMC’s old “outdoor theater
on another planet” trademark video, and then right to Lionsgate’s Wagnerian
outburst.
Pictures: new Bastrop, TX, after 2011 wildfire, my trip in Nov. 2011.
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