Cast: Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Max Ligosh
Director: Frank Whaley
Producers: Jennifer Dewis, Scott Macaulay, Lindsay Marx, Robin O'Hara
Screenplay: Frank Whaley
Cinematography: Michael Mayers
Music: Anthony Grimaldi, Robert Whaley
U.S. Distributor: Trimark Pictures
One of the first things that comes to mind while watching Joe the King is the proverbial quote, "Been there, done that." The film takes a tired, familiar path into the land of dysfunctional families and alcohol abuse, then leaves us there amidst a minefield of clichés and plot contrivances. The movie is relentlessly downbeat (not necessarily a bad thing in and of itself), inexpertly made, and incapable of engaging an audience. The characters, none of whom are well developed, are kept at arm's length. Joe the King is flat, repetitious, and not hard-hitting enough to generate any real interest. Any similarities to Truffaut's The 400 Blows, the classic that one critic at Sundance (where the movie premiered) compared it to, are superficial.
The story is told from the point-of-view of the sullen, 14-year old protagonist, Joe Henry (Noah Fleiss). Joe has an extremely unhappy home life - his mother, Theresa (Karen Young), is always working; his father, Bob (Val Kilmer), is constantly drunk and in debt; and his brother, Mike (Max Ligosh), doesn't want Joe messing up his social life. So Joe spends his time hanging out with his loser friends, working late nights washing dishes for cash at a local greasy spoon, shoplifting, and arriving late at school (he has 54 tardiness demerits for the year on his record). The film essentially takes a day in Joe's life and clones it several times with little variation. We get the point early on - Joe's existence is miserable - but actor-turned-writer/director Frank Whaley insists on hammering home this particular.
It wouldn't be so bad if we could relate to Joe on some level, but Noah Fleiss' low-key acting and Whaley's even lower-key directing conspire to keep a barrier between the protagonist and the audience. We watch Joe go through the motions, but don't identify with or care about him. Sadly, there are lots of people like Joe in America; we meet them every day, and the faces we see on the street are more real than this character, with whom we spend 90 minutes. (Whaley, incidentally, has described this film as "semi-autobiographical.") The population of Joe the King is assembled from a bank of stereotypes - the long-suffering wife/mother, the angry, abusive father, the concerned guidance counselor, and the nerdy best friend. We have seen these individuals dozens of times before, often with more depth.
This is Whaley's directorial debut, and his inexperience and awkwardness shows. His style is less polished than that of Kevin Smith (regarded by many to be one of the most inept filmmakers currently working). Shots are badly chosen and edited together with little skill. There are too many close-ups with no purpose. Atmosphere is equally bad. This is a period piece (it takes place in the '70s), but it took about 10 minutes before I figured out that Joe wasn't living out his adolescence in the '90s. Our only clues are music, clothing, and cars. Unlike The Ice Storm, for example, the movie doesn't feel displaced in time.
Whaley's background in Hollywood has enabled him to assemble a recognizable group of actors for cameos: Camryn Manheim, John Leguizamo (who executive produced), Ethan Hawke, and Austin Pendleton. Unfortunately, none of these performers has much of a character to inhabit, so every time a familiar face appears on screen, we start to wonder where we have seen them before. Inappropriate cameos hurt Terrence Malick's The Thin Red Line; they do no less damage here.
Joe the King is not alone in this crowded genre, and there's nothing about the film that raises it above the level of numerous TV movies of the week or forgettable theatrical releases like Jack the Bear. For every scene that works (such as Joe's awkward flirtation with an older girl at a roller skating rink), there are two that don't (like Bob's out-of-character "bonding" with his son or Mike's wanting to sleep in a closet to avoid his brother). And, especially when compared to something powerful and persuasive like Gary Oldman's Nil by Mouth, Joe the King looks flaccid.
© 1999 James Berardinelli