Name: Little Joe
Rating: 7.5

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Little Joe (2019)

2019 | Drama | Horror | Sci-Fi

105 mins Austria Germany United Kingdom

Anglo-Austrian horror-drama. A workaholic geneticist develops a new strain of flower which requires high levels of care but releases chemicals producing a state of happiness in the owner. She gives a sample to her teenage son. But the plants begin to release large quantities of pollen and there are suggestions this has a strange effect on anyone exposed to it...

Produced by	Coop99
Director	Jessica Hausner
Writer	Jessica Hausner and Géraldine Bajard
Cast	Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw, Kerry Fox, Kit Connor, David Wilmot and Lindsay Duncan

Main Image Courtesy: Magnolia Films.
Background Image Courtesy: Magnolia Films.
Images And Data Courtesy Of: Coop99.
This content (including text, images, videos and other media) is published and used in accordance with Fair Use.

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Andy K

Added this item on Nov 1, 2019

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Little Joe (2019) Reviews & Ratings (4)

9-10			25.0% (1)
7-8			50.0% (2)
5-6			25.0% (1)
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Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated

Jun 15, 2020

Little Joe (2019)

2019 | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

7.5

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Everyone knows a working Joe

Little Joe is a look into happiness and the lengths we will go to to achieve it while also delving deeply into the manipulation, the deprivation of freedom, greed and selfishness that can surround and alter that path too. After having a very limited cinema release in th Uk i decided to pre-order this on itunes. Today sees its release and after giving it a watch I can say I really did enjoy this movie despite a lot of other reviews saying its unwatchable due to its high pitched soundtrack. Little Joe most of the time is a very cold and clinically sterile looking film thats contrasted subtlety with bold pastle shades of colour in sets that almost have an art deco feel to them. This helps the film look constantly striking/beautiful but also adds a sense of unnatural uneasiness too it too. Combine this with a soundtrack made up of scratches, plucks, plinks and plonks woven together into a score that has an almost oriental sound to it which gives the film a constant chilling vibe and an unnerving/erie atmosphere. Its invokes intense stress on the senses thats for sure and it kept me feeling uncomfortable/stressed the entire movie and also leaving me ears ringing long after the film had had ended too. I wouldnt say its unbearable however and it definitely fits the film/adds to the atmosphere. Performances are great too feeling again very cold and focused with Ben Whishaw being the standout here as always playing a charcter so professional and confident when it comes to work yet so socially awkward when it comes to his relationships with other people. Theres running theme of happiness here thats for sure and the heights/lengths we as people will go to to just to achieve it. Primarily as a film it seems focused on questioning if drugs for conditions such as depression or dementia that are taken to make people feel happier/more 'normal' are worth the cost of losing personalities, emotions and in a sense freedom because like they say in the film "who cares if people are zombies as long as they are happy". Theres also a look at parents subduing childs behaviours for a quieter life which in a sence takes away all the traits youth and the joys of being a child bring, or partners that cant deal with thier other half being sad or having arguments all the time so they presure them onto drugs in a selfish/controlling way because to then its far easier and less time consuming than actually learning/undertsanding and putting in the effort in to helping them. Then theres how society mocks, neglects and fails to understand certain illnesses and also how companies profit from them making drugs with increasingly worse side effects but it doesnt phase them as long as they are meeting targets/company goals. Little Joe definitely contains a lot of very thought provoking stuff its just sadly all a bit messy when mixed in with all the films dark comedy and scifi horror elements and it does quite often lose its way or fall short on conclusions. That being said i found this film to be well worth the watch just be sure you know before you go in that its very slow, stressful and depressing with an intense score and a conclusion thats ultimately unrewarding but overall its great little look into the effects of drugs that are meant to help with making us all feel 'normal' and 'happy' in life.

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Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated

Feb 6, 2020

Little Joe (2019)

2019 | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

7.5

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

I managed to get a ticket to see this at the London Film Festival, it had made my long shortlist, the premise looked interesting and the graphics were extremely appealing. I was very excited to see what Little Joe had in store.

Alice is developing a new breed of flower, a beautiful crimson flower that has an incredible therapeutic value to its owner. Look after it properly, speak to it nicely, and it will make you happy.

After Alice sneaks one home to her son she soon notices that rather than a happy demeanour he starts acting strangely, and he's not the only one showing odd behaviour after being around Little Joe.

Little Joe has some very strong style choices. The colour palette is beautiful, and I wish I could find the notes I made about it from the Q&A after the film. The vibrant pastels are homely and comforting while at the same time unsettling around the normal tones of life.

That's what a lot of the film is made to do though, the music is something I noted frequently. The oriental music works directly against what's happening in the story, an intentional choice by the composer. I also wrote down the word "whistling" a lot with regards to sound. While I can understand (sort of) why the composer went that way with the music I didn't feel like it worked. I didn't dislike the music itself, but my comments were mainly exclaiming that it stuck out and felt too different from everything around it that it became distracting.

Another piece of the film that didn't sit well with me was camera work. There are some very well shot scenes, when we first encounter Little Joe in Alice's home and a scene later on inside the greenhouse (that I won't go into because of spoilers), that draw the viewer in with intrigue. But then... you know when you're doing something and you get bored and realise you've drifted off looking at a point in the distance? The camera appears to get bored too and it'll zoom to the gaps between characters. Maybe I'm just programmed to expect this sort of shot to reveal something secret to the audience that the characters haven't noticed... I found it more distracting and annoying than having any artistic benefit.

Alice (Emily Beecham) has a dual mother role, firstly with her son Joe and secondly with her plants. Little Joe appears to be more like a son to her than her own flesh and blood, her scientific mind perhaps finding it easier to interact with an inanimate object that begins to defy what she knows to be possible. The film gets across her struggle quite well with her therapy sessions and the interactions with those around her as we get deeper into the story. Beecham's performance is... relaxed? Even when there's urgency nothing ever seems to be very urgent.

That's something that is common throughout, the pace plods. You would expect a somewhat subdued pace in this sort of invasion storyline, but there are no real points of climax and that makes it more of a meander... perhaps those exciting moments happened when the camera zoned out.

There are touches here and there that do make you hopeful for the film, but overall it feels like Little Joe went for subtle and took it slightly too far. Everything felt too calm, the only one that seemed to react as you'd expect was Bella, but the nature of her part of the story meant that this was over the top because it was so far from everything else.

I like the idea behind this and we know from many different films that this sort of thing can work, but the lack of a real punch anywhere made this a struggle to watch. Oddly, I think this would have worked as a limited series without a lot of changes. The slow pace wouldn't have been so evident if it was broken down into episodes, there are small peaks in there that would give just enough intrigue to hold over to the next episode, I even feel like the ending as it is would have worked more in this style. Sadly, as it was I don't feel like there was enough reward for the time invested in watching it as a film, there's a different expectation between and film and a TV series but it's very difficult to explain it here without revealing spoilers.

Originally posted on: https://emmaatthemovies.blogspot.com/2020/02/little-joe-movie-review.html

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Awix (3310 KP) rated

Mar 14, 2020

Little Joe (2019)

2019 | Drama, Horror, Sci-Fi

7.5

(4 Ratings)

Movie Rating

Offbeat Anglo-Austrian contribution to the botanical horror subgenre possibly makes too much of a virtue of understatement. A dedicated researcher breeds a special new flower with the ability to affect its owner's mood. But has she underestimated her creation's influence?

Clearly a movie which has been made with the greatest care and thought; every camera move and composition has obviously been planned for a reason. The plot is ultimately a somewhat derivative one (elements of Invasion of the Body Snatchers and perhaps even Rosemary's Baby are in the mix), but the slow-burning slide from normality into something rather unsettling is impeccably done, helped a lot by a strong performance from Emily Beecham in the lead role. The lack of a big, obvious genre climax is probably going to be an issue for many people, but very creepy and watchable nevertheless.

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Little Joe (2019)

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Neon's Nerd Nexus (360 KP) rated

Jun 15, 2020

Emma @ The Movies (1786 KP) rated

Feb 6, 2020

Awix (3310 KP) rated

Mar 14, 2020

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Nov 1, 2019

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