Review of Joe

Only the seventies seems to produce movies this bleak. This is not an easy film to track down despite its high ratings on here. Reading the premise of this movie it appeared on the face of it to be a kind of a black comedy but there are zero laughs. The story concerns a middle class, middle aged father who has a daughter heavily into drugs and the hippy movement. After his daughter ends up hospitalised the father confronts his daughters drug pushing boyfriend with disastrous consequences. The father then visits a local bar where he finds Joe, a blue collar worker in the midst of an alcohol fuelled rant about the current state of America, African Americans and the youth culture, all of which he despises. After the father blurts out what he has just done to Joe, he becomes locked into a dangerous relationship with him which has the potential to ruin his life forever. The movie examines how both white and blue collar conservatives respond to a world which they no longer recognise. While Joe and the father share some political views there is still a huge gulf between them due to social class. Where the move appears to have aged are the bigoted rants which Joe is prone to making, its unlikely these would be allowed in modern film making. The final act is shocking but it is not surprising, its a brave movie but certainly not one that would sit well with a modern mainstream audience. They simply don't make them now like they did in the 70's.