Extra Cinema: Joe (18)

Starring: Nicholas Cage, Ty Sheridan

You may find that you will have to be in a certain frame of mind to watch

Both are well acted and scripted but, if you’re feeling down going into the theatre, don’t expect to come out singing and dancing.

Cage plays the title role: an ex-con who supervises workers clearing trees for a company to use the land.

Joe hires desperate kid Gary: a fifteen-year-old with a nerdowell father.

Joe takes the young boy under his wing.

The law has other plans for Joe, however, and officers see it as a right of passage to give the former crook a hard time.

Director David Gordon Green present a bleak image of gritty, working class life, without any of the so-called nobility of honest toil.

Cage turns in a remarkable performance that is right up there with his

Another notable performance is young Ty Sheridan as the boy who is determined to work as hard as he can and earn the respect of others.

But perhaps the honours should go to Gary Poulter as the workshy, murderous father.

A homeless drifter with no acting background, Poulter was hired to do this film by Green, and died shortly after filming was finished.

Perhaps a fitting end to a desperate film.