DVD REVIEW: THE JOE SHOW / CERT: TBC / DIRECTOR: DANIEL FALICKI / SCREENPLAY: DANIEL FALICKI, JOSEPH MCINTOSH / STARRING: JOEY POTRYKUS, JEFFREY GOODRICH, CHARLEY VANPORTFLIET, NICK SNIDER / RELEASE DATE: TBC
We deleted the opening paragraph of this review so many times, frantically trying to rework it so we didn’t sound so hostile to the film and the people behind it. We even attempted to write the review in rhyming couplets at one point. But then we remembered the sad truth: we’re not skilled at writing good poetry and the writers of The Joe Show, a mystery drama about a dullard whose only excitement comes from performing said poetry, aren’t either.
It’s a shame they’re not, because the film doesn’t have a lot else going for it. The script is little more than a blunt instrument, devoid of the promised mystery (not much mystery when there are only two real suspects), the directing is merely competent and the actors… well, they’re making the best of what they’ve got.
In fact, we feel a bit bad for a couple of the female actors, as they seem to have been chosen for the parts because they have nice bodies rather than through any sense of artistic integrity. Normally we wouldn’t complain, but it just felt so blatant here that we had to call it out. It’s nowhere near pornographic but does feel exploitative.
The main issue we have is that it feels like it would have been easier on all involved to simply collect the poems that the writers used for the film into a self-published pamphlet, so that it could die in obscurity. But now the film’s here, we have to deal with it and its angsty teen breed of performance poetry. They are technically more skilled than we are at writing it, true, but that doesn’t make it, or the film in general, any good.
Special Features: TBC
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