# Joe (2013 film)
**Joe** is a 2013 American drama film directed by [David Gordon Green](https://www.edgepedia.org/david-gordon-green), adapted by Gary Hawkins from [Larry Brown](https://www.edgepedia.org/larry-brown)'s 1991 novel of the same name. [Nicolas Cage](https://www.edgepedia.org/nicolas-cage) plays Joe Ransom, an ex-con who leads a crew that poisons trees for lumber companies, and Tye Sheridan plays Gary, a 15-year-old boy whom Joe tries to protect from his abusive, alcoholic father Wade, played by the non-professional actor Gary Poulter.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE) • [2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe) The film premiered in competition at the 2013 Venice Film Festival, where Sheridan won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor, and received a limited United States theatrical release on April 11, 2014.[3](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/joe/2000185470/) • [4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/joe_2013)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writer | David Gordon Green; screenplay by Gary Hawkins, based on Larry Brown's 1991 novel *Joe*[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE) |
| Lead cast | Nicolas Cage as Joe Ransom, Tye Sheridan as Gary, Gary Poulter as Wade ("G-Daawg")[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE) |
| Premiere and award | 2013 Venice Film Festival, Golden Lion nominee; Sheridan won the Marcello Mastroianni Award for Best Young Actor[3](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/joe/2000185470/) |
| US release | April 11, 2014, limited, distributed by Roadside Attractions; 117 minutes; rated R[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/joe_2013) |
| Box office | $373,375 domestic and $2,431,443 worldwide[5](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2382396/) |
| Critical reception | 87% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (135 reviews); Metascore 74; IMDb user rating 6.8/10[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/joe_2013) • [6](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382396/) |
| Filming | Shot in and around Austin, Texas, with local non-professional actors in supporting roles[7](https://thefilmstage.com/nicolas-cage-david-gordon-green-and-tye-sheridan-discuss-creating-their-southern-gothic-drama-joe/) |
## Spoilers
### Story
Joe Ransom is a hard-living ex-con who drinks heavily and struggles to control a volatile temper, but he is described by reviewers as an essentially moral man, respected by local shopkeepers and indulged by the sheriff.[8](https://time.com/55304/joe-movie-review-nicolas-cage/) His crew's work is unusual: employed by lumber companies, the men poison weak trees with what the crew calls "juice hatchets" so the land can be cleared and replanted with healthier, more profitable timber.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe) • [8](https://time.com/55304/joe-movie-review-nicolas-cage/)
Gary, a 15-year-old from a destitute family of drifters, hires on with the crew to earn money for his family and hopes to buy Joe's old truck.[3](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/joe/2000185470/) • [9](https://www.screendaily.com/joe/5059797.article) As Joe becomes aware of the beatings Gary suffers at the hands of his father Wade, he takes the boy under his wing as a father figure, and Wade takes violent objection.[8](https://time.com/55304/joe-movie-review-nicolas-cage/) The violence escalates: in one scene Wade beats a homeless man to death for a half-drunk bottle of wine, and the climax sees Joe step in when Wade plans another monstrous act, securing what the *Screen* critic calls a kind of redemption.[9](https://www.screendaily.com/joe/5059797.article)
## Adaptation and production
The film adapts the novel *Joe* by Larry Brown, a [Mississippi](https://www.edgepedia.org/mississippi) writer and former firefighter who published the book in 1991; Brown died in 2004.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE) • [10](https://indyweek.com/news/culture/screen/new-film-joe-deep-roots-north-carolina/) Screenwriter Gary Hawkins, a North Carolina native and Duke professor who had been Green's directing teacher at the North Carolina School of the Arts, directed the 2002 documentary *The Rough South of Larry Brown*, and the *Joe* screenplay grew out of that project.[10](https://indyweek.com/news/culture/screen/new-film-joe-deep-roots-north-carolina/) While preparing the production, Green consulted with Brown's widow, Mary Annie Coleman Brown, and their son Billy Ray Brown.[11](https://www.cinemart.cz/wp-content/uploads/download-manager-files/JOE%20Final%20Press%20Notes.pdf)
**Casting and location.** Green shot the film in and around [Austin, Texas](https://www.edgepedia.org/austin-texas), and deliberately sought what he called raw Southern authenticity rather than Hollywood polish. Apart from Cage, the cast was drawn from Texans, including non-professional actors recruited at a downtown day-labor center alongside trained local performers such as [Adriene Mishler](https://www.edgepedia.org/adriene-mishler) and Heather Kafka.[7](https://thefilmstage.com/nicolas-cage-david-gordon-green-and-tye-sheridan-discuss-creating-their-southern-gothic-drama-joe/) Gary Poulter, a non-professional actor who played Wade, died shortly after filming was completed; the critic at RogerEbert.com called his Wade one of the great one-shot performances in cinema.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe) • [12](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-2014)
The production companies were Worldview Entertainment, Dreambridge Films, Muskrat Filmed Properties, and Rough House Pictures, with Lisa Muskat, Green, Christopher Woodrow, and Derrick Tseng producing; Tim Orr, Green's regular cinematographer, shot the film and Colin Patton edited it.[1](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE)
## Reception
The film premiered at the [Venice Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/venice-film-festival) in August 2013, where it competed for the [Golden Lion](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-lion), and it later screened at festivals including Toronto and SXSW.[3](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/joe/2000185470/) • [13](https://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-online/tiff-2013-joe-david-gordon-green-usa-special-presentation/) • [14](https://time.com/20133/sxsw-film-best-movies-top-10/) Critics consistently singled out the performances. The Rotten Tomatoes critics consensus calls it rich in atmosphere and a satisfying return to form for both Cage and Green.[4](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/joe_2013) Reviewers noted a synchronicity between the character's struggle to restrain his temper and Cage's own restrained acting, with Peter Travers writing in *Rolling Stone* that there is not an unfelt moment in the performance.[15](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film687955.html) The *Independent* described Green's approach as [Southern Gothic](https://www.edgepedia.org/southern-gothic) done Ken Loach style, shot naturalistically with hand-held camerawork and real locations.[16](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/joe-film-review-nicolas-cage-delivers-an-astonishing-performance-in-low-budget-drama-9627270.html)
Commercially the film was modest: it opened domestically on April 11, 2014 with $105,881 and finished with $373,375 in the United States, with France its strongest international market at $1,380,240 of the $2,431,443 worldwide total.[5](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2382396/)
## Place in Green's career
*Joe* marked a return to the regional, naturalistic mode of Green's early films *George Washington* (2000) and *All the Real Girls* (2003) after a stretch of mainstream comedy including *Pineapple Express* and *Your Highness*.[8](https://time.com/55304/joe-movie-review-nicolas-cage/) • [17](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/24/joe-review-david-gordon-green-nicolas-cage) Green called it the "dark, disturbing older brother" of his 2013 buddy film *Prince Avalanche*, which shares the Texan woodland landscape and a 1970s visual grammar of crash-zooms, though where *Prince Avalanche* treats nature as bucolic, *Joe* presents it as a place of savagery and toxicity.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe) Reviewers also frequently paired it with [Jeff Nichols](https://www.edgepedia.org/jeff-nichols)'s *Mud* (2012), another Southern Gothic film starring Sheridan as a boy befriending a violent loner.[2](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe) • [18](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/joe/)
## References
1. [Joe (2014), AFI Catalog](https://catalog.afi.com/Film/70692-JOE)
2. [Film of the week: Joe, Sight and Sound (BFI)](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/film-week-joe)
3. [Joe, TV Guide](https://www.tvguide.com/movies/joe/2000185470/)
4. [Joe (2013), Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/joe_2013)
5. [Joe (2013), Box Office Mojo](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt2382396/)
6. [Joe (2013), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt2382396/)
7. [Nicolas Cage, David Gordon Green, and Tye Sheridan Discuss Creating Their Southern Gothic Drama 'Joe', The Film Stage](https://thefilmstage.com/nicolas-cage-david-gordon-green-and-tye-sheridan-discuss-creating-their-southern-gothic-drama-joe/)
8. [REVIEW: Joe Reminds Us That Nicolas Cage Is a National Treasure, TIME](https://time.com/55304/joe-movie-review-nicolas-cage/)
9. [Joe, Screen Daily review](https://www.screendaily.com/joe/5059797.article)
10. [New film Joe has deep roots in North Carolina, Indy Week](https://indyweek.com/news/culture/screen/new-film-joe-deep-roots-north-carolina/)
11. [JOE Final Press Notes](https://www.cinemart.cz/wp-content/uploads/download-manager-files/JOE%20Final%20Press%20Notes.pdf)
12. [Joe movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/joe-2014)
13. [TIFF 2013 | Joe, Cinema Scope](https://cinema-scope.com/cinema-scope-online/tiff-2013-joe-david-gordon-green-usa-special-presentation/)
14. [SXSW 2014: Austin's Silver Screen Winners, TIME](https://time.com/20133/sxsw-film-best-movies-top-10/)
15. [Joe (2013), Filmaffinity (critics' reviews roundup)](https://www.filmaffinity.com/en/film687955.html)
16. [Joe, film review, The Independent](https://www.the-independent.com/arts-entertainment/films/reviews/joe-film-review-nicolas-cage-delivers-an-astonishing-performance-in-low-budget-drama-9627270.html)
17. [Joe review, The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jul/24/joe-review-david-gordon-green-nicolas-cage)
18. [Review: Joe, Slant Magazine](https://www.slantmagazine.com/film/joe/)
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