Directed By Reinaldo Marcus Green

Starring – Mark Wahlberg, Reid Miller, Connie Britton

The Plot – Tells the intimate and emotional true story of an Oregonian father (Wahlberg) who pays tribute to his gay teenage son Jadin (Miller), embarking on a self-reflective walk across America to speak his heart to heartland citizens about the real and terrifying costs of bullying.

Rated R for Teen Partying, adult Language, Some Disturbing Material and Offensive Slurs

Joe Bell | Official Trailer | In Theaters July 23 – YouTube

POSITIVES

– Resonating heart. Aside from “Joe Bell” being an entertaining film pertaining to one man’s cross-country redemption story over the son he did wrong, it’s an educational one full of meaningful themes and life outlooks that feel even more urgent today than they did when the story took place, in 2013. Aside from the obvious message of acceptance for the people different from ourselves, there’s also a satisfyingly rich push at compromising cultures, especially pertaining to the perils of bullying, which lead many men and women down a dark and devastating path for the things that they themselves cannot control. The movie urges its audience to confront such environmental prejudice with an awareness of interpretation that bares confrontation, all the while entitling the tortured to the kind of flexibility and freedom in their lives that should go without saying, but unfortunately don’t in 2021.

– Redemptive arc. At the seams of the story’s compelling narrative is a flawed titular protagonist seen through the eyes of Wahlberg, who is anything but the family head we’ve grown to expect in movies like these. For one, he’s a very constantly flawed protagonist, in that in the beginning, middle, and even climactic acts of this film, he still makes many mistakes that lead him down the devastating direction’s that previously cost him so much, and currently threaten so much more. Above all else, it makes him human, proving that even with the attaining knowledge that he gains in the cross-country journey for his son, he is still very much an imperfect person, driving much of the film’s conflict for the epiphany that he seeks within himself that we the audience simultaneously seek for him. It proves this as being so much more than just Jadin’s story against the adversities of being gay in a traditional society, and instead persists as an internal love-letter that one father had for his son, but didn’t share with him until it was unfortunately too late, making for the kind of redemption story with no shortage of stakes in the foreground of this story that mostly plays out in the past.

– Non-linear storytelling, One surprising element of the unraveling narrative is in the multiple timelines of the story that the script takes on, and its sporadic movements in tying each event of the past to the relevancy of its impact resonating in the current. This can be a tricky science that films often overlook in juggling two narratives simultaneously, but Green’s definition in storytelling avoids convoluted incoherence for a consistency in movements that are every bit well timed as they are effectively transitioned, all the while persisting without any gimmicks like color correction or character appearances to convey their intention. There was never a moment in the film when I had even the slightest amount of difficulty following along where we were at any particular time, and the consistency of the past scenes play pivotally in offering an insight to the audience into Joe’s frail mentality at any point along the way.

– Hefty performances. The duo of Wahlberg and Miller elicit equally compelling results, all the while illustrating two characters who maintain our attention for entirely different reasons. For Wahlberg, it’s the chance to shed his comic familiarity once more for an emotional layering that makes him a commanding force in dramatic film. As Joe, Wahlberg bottles a balance of intensity, longing, and increasing melancholy for the character that makes him an often unpredictable force to the many dynamics he shares on-screen at any time throughout, persisting as the best work from the decades-heralded actor since the lightning in a bottle that was “Deepwater Horizon”, in 2016. My first experience with Miller crafts an abundance of depth that is years ahead of his 24 year old caliber. For starters, the energy and infectious personality that he boosts as Jadin makes him an irresistibly lovable character, that is only topped by endless vulnerability he boosts by wearing his heart on his sleeve. When the character hurts, we hurt, and that connection to the audience not only presents another complimentary protagonist for us to thoroughly invest in, but also illustrates gay reality with a touch of unabashed honesty that goes unnoticed in film.

– Technical tapestry. Much of the aspects within the film’s production feel fully utilized and meaningful when depicting this intimately harrowing story with universal relevance. The cinematography in particular from Jacques Jouffret emits this abundance of gorgeous middle America scenery meant to be conveys for its immensity in size and eye-stretching depth to articulate the overwhelming odds that are literally surrounding Joe’s long-distance journey. In addition to this, the interior compositions radiating with handheld schemes and fluent movements grants us the audience a fly on the wall perspective into the frail details of this family’s engagement, complete with claustrophobic proximity that makes the unnerving situations virtually inescapable, and gives the movie an internal insight into the various conversations with a family constantly at war with each other and the community that influenced them.

NEGATIVES

– Swelling score. Most of the film’s dramatic encompassing feels earned without the unnecessity of post-production elements influencing the integrity of the authenticity. That changes however with Antonio Pinto’s headache-inducing score, which feels out of place for a movie this grounded, especially considering the magnitude of its often spontaneous arrival. Most of it stems from the volume mixing of the incorporation, resonating with a bombastically blaring manufacturing that not only overrides the dialogue of the characters, but also meanders enough to take away the credibility in honesty from the abundance of the movie’s meaningful scenes. In addition to this, the themes themselves are every bit repetitive in evolution as they are limited in appeal, often feeling like they’re plucked from the worst kind of Hallmark Channel movie where you can almost entirely predict the instrumental influence of the composition accordingly.

– Limited allowance. With “Joe Bell” clocking in at a measly 88 minutes of run time, there are some limitations with particular arc’s inside of the narrative that I wish were fleshed out with more attention to prominence. In particular, the dynamic between Joe and Jadin is only meaningful once they’re on the road, leaving a majority of their interaction in the past fleeting with little to no significance in what each of them mean to one another. Beyond this, the second act in particular feels entirely rushed with how it arrives at the climax of the story, passing over some significant events within Joe’s isolation that not only play to the adversity of the conflict ahead of him, but also dramatically underscore the evolution that he arrives at from the start of the film to the finish. For my money, another twenty minutes would’ve only better paced the film to appreciate some of the non-existing nuances of the story, and given the audience time to catch up to the inevitability that was on a collision course to Joe in one way or another.

– Diminishing returns. As expected with a true story, the less you know will enhance your attachment to the story, but I’m disappointed at what that means to the median to that scale that I find myself in. As someone who didn’t know Joe or Jadin’s story, and instead just watched the trailer, I can say that the level of marketing that accompanied the film is compromising to the point of overwhelming spoilers that the movie frames as plot twists to the story. Two such events are the key in my argument here, and both of them somehow found their way into the overtly revealing trailer. I figured including these meant that there was so much more to the story, but I was unfortunately left with a disappointing void to the story that somehow told me everything that I needed to know about the story in 2 minutes than a movie in 88 ever could, and completely voiding the target audience captivated by the facts of the story, who receive so very little in favor of it.

– Hindered sentiments. Without spoiling anything, I will say that the ending isn’t the most positive in terms of where the story concludes, and what’s most problematic about this element is that it directly contradicts and undercuts the magnitude of its inspirational tonal capacity because of such. Being a story of unfortunate sadness is fine enough for any movie, but when that sadness stunts a story of pride and acceptance at the forefront of its narrative, leaving the supporting characters unexplored as a result of its impact, it leaves very little wiggle room for escape in the various knots of negativity that it ties itself in, and drains its audience at the wrong time in the story, where optimism is needed for a world still learning. It’s an abrupt halting to the story that finally felt like it was getting somewhere, but eventually ends up as an unfortunate series of events that override the influential impact of the mission at hand.

My Grade: 6/10 or C