Blu-ray Movie Reviews

Hard-drinking, chain-smoking ex-convict Joe (Nicolas Cage) frequents hookers, instigates deadly dog fights, and makes his living managing a gang of day laborers charged with deforesting a Texas backwater—hardly a soft-hearted guy. Yet, when 15-year-old Gary (Tye Sheridan) comes looking for a job, hell-raising Joe quickly befriends the boy and eventually risks his life to save him from his violent, alcoholic father, Wade (Gary Poulter, who died shortly after the film’s release). Heralded as Cage’s return to serious dramatic roles, Joe is primarily a character study of its hero, portrayed with a gritty realism that magnifies the brutality of the film and the desperation of its subjects.

Although Joe was, by its director’s admission, made on a shoestring, its production values are quite good. Befitting the melancholy of its main character and subject matter, this is a dark movie, largely filmed indoors and at night. As a result, shadow detail is critical, and Joe delivers: Viewed on a properly calibrated set in a darkened room, subtle shadings are clearly resolved. Fine textural details—fabrics, hair, and particularly the weather-beaten finish of Joe’s truck—further attest to the quality of this Blu-ray transfer. Colors possess a steely gray neutrality that is understated but correct, while edge enhancement is unobtrusive, and noise has been carefully tamed.

Unlike most small-scale dramas, where audio is virtually confined to the front three channels, this soundtrack makes full use of the surround speakers, enhancing the dark, ominous quality of the musical score by spreading it across all five channels. Although hardly state-of-the-art in terms of either dynamics or frequency extension, the sound department uses whatever material they have to excellent effect creating, wherever possible, a 360-degree soundfield that lures the audience deeper into Joe’s world. Dialogue is wonderfully rendered, with the slurred, gravel-voiced twang of Poulter’s character providing a particularly tough challenge for center-channel intelligibility.

The Blu-ray package also features a creditable collection of extras, including two featurettes, as well as a full commentary track. All three of these are, unfortunately, mediocre and unenlightening. A pair of deleted scenes proves more worthy of the viewer’s time, but even these do little to further our understanding of this engaging, disturbing film. Oh, by the way, did anybody else notice that Joe’s ending is a clone of Gran Torino?

Blu-Ray
Studio: Lionsgate, 2014
Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1
Audio Format: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
Length: 117 mins.
MPAA Rating: R
Director: David Gordon Green
Starring: Nicolas Cage, Tye Sheridan, Gary Poulter