Nicolas Cage fans — fan? — rejoice. The guy who burned a quirky blaze through the 1980s and early ’90s — in other words, the Nic Cage who has been largely missing from screens since “Adaptation” over a decade ago — is back.
Cage is the title character in “Joe,” a burly, bearded Texas loner who is the foreman of a group of itinerant workers. They poison trees for a living; big developers need the land cleared, and these guys pump poison into the woods.
One day Joe spots Gary (Tye Sheridan), a homeless teen, who asks if he has a job for him and his father. Joe looks in the kid’s eyes, gauges his seriousness, and adds him to his team. But Gary’s dad, Wade (Gary Poulter), is a fall-down drunk who refuses to work and steals Gary’s money.
Cage appreciates the soulfulness of the story, as well as the swamp of backwoods Americana from which it springs.
Joe’s got his own troubles, including avoiding a guy he beat up in a bar, and not going back to jail, where he did time for beating up a cop. Gary needs a friend, though, so Joe gives him his old pickup truck and shows him how to handle women and bullies.
Joe’s grip on sobriety and a life without violence is tenuous. Even trips to a whorehouse don’t relax him. So when he finds out Wade is pimping out Gary’s mute sister to the creep Joe fought at the bar, things get very ugly.
This kind of character could be deeply unappealing, but Cage appreciates the soulfulness of the story, as well as the swamp of backwoods Americana from which it springs. Joe surprises himself when he listens to his better angels, and we, in turn, find a new side to him.
The same is true of Cage. It’s a common complaint that after he won the Best Actor Oscar for “Leaving Las Vegas” (1994), he turned his newly-muscled back on the roles — “Birdy,” “Raising Arizona,” “Moonstruck” — that established him in the first place.
The weight of B-level star vehicles such as “Con Air,” “The Rock,” “Ghost Rider” and other action flicks took their toll. Less bombastic performances were rare, save for occasional projects like “Matchstick Men” and “World Trade Center.”
“Joe” and director David Gordon Green find a middle ground between the old, vulnerable Cage and the one that seemed to eat that other guy. Good to have him back. jneumaier@nydailynews.com
http://ift.tt/1hltq5C
via Great Local News: New York http://ift.tt/1iZiLP1
No comments:
Post a Comment