Joshua (George Ratliff, 2007)

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Barmy · #1 Post by **Barmy** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 5:06 pm

Saw this last night and thought it was outstanding, although there were a few plot developments later in the film that I thought went too far into in-credibility. Very creepy, but, more importantly, very funny, "evil child" flick. Very Kubrickian too, especially the "Shining" intertitle ripoff. I'm surprised that it is getting mediocre reviews on rotten tomatoes.

Antoine Doinel · #2 Post by **Antoine Doinel** » Tue Jul 03, 2007 10:40 pm

The trailer really doesn't do much for the film - it comes off as a poor hybrid of The Omen and The Shining. But on the upside, it has Sam Rockwell.

Barmy · #3 Post by **Barmy** » Wed Jul 04, 2007 1:10 pm

The trailer sucks, and almost turned me off of going to the movie.

#4 Post by **Jeff** » Sat Jul 14, 2007 4:12 pm

I sure got a kick out of it. I guess determining whether or not it succeeded as a film depends on if the humor was intentional. As a satire, it was pretty fucking brilliant, but if Ratliff meant to play it straight...yikes. I guess the fact that I can't tell for sure says something about it, but I'm not sure what. Sam Rockwell was certainly in on the joke. His growing revulsion with sweet li'l Joshua had me in a fit of giggles at one point, much to the chagrin of my fellow theater patrons, who did not seem to share my amusement. Surely with all of those "surprise-I'm-behind-the-door" moments, nobody was taking the thing too seriously. Also hilarious was the song Joshua sings at the end about how all he ever really wanted was

SpoilerShow

his gay uncle(?).

Dave Matthews wrote the song and sings it over the end credits in what I can only assume is a bizarre bid for an Academy Award.

If I took the whole enterprise seriously, I would agree with Ed Gonzales that the film was ridiculously misogynistic and homophobic, but I'd prefer to think of it as commentary on the same. I don't quite share Mike D'Angelo's unbridled enthusiasm, but the sheer weirdness of the whole the thing makes it worth a look.

Barmy · #5 Post by **Barmy** » Sun Jul 15, 2007 8:32 pm

At the preview screening I went to, the question of whether the humor was intentional came up and the director (of course) said yes. Hard to tell in some cases--particularly the over-the-top final third which I thought was a laugh riot of the so bad it's good variety.