Joe the King
| Joe the King | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Frank Whaley |
| Written by | Frank Whaley |
| Produced by | Jennifer Dewis, Scott Macaulay, Lindsay Marx, Robin O'Hara |
| Starring | |
| Distributed by | Trimark Pictures |
Release date | January 22, 1999 |
Running time | 101 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Joe the King is a 1999 drama film, written and directed by Frank Whaley, based largely on his own childhood and the childhood of his brother. It stars Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, Austin Pendleton, Camryn Manheim, Max Ligosh, and James Costa. The film premiered at the 1999 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award (shared with Guinevere).
Plot
The story takes place in Upstate New York during the 1970s. 14-year-old Joe Henry has spent his life in an abusive household. His father, Bob, is a raging, violent alcoholic, while his mother, Theresa, feels too stressed to pay attention to him and lives in fear of getting caught in the path of her husband's wrath. His brother, about a year older, is normal and friendly, but offers no affirmative guidance. He mostly ignores Joe as he does not want the association of Joe's natural uncoolness ruining his attempts to get into the "in" crowd. Joe is taunted by his classmates, and hassled by people his father owes money to. To make matters worse, one night Bob goes off the deep end and smashes all of Theresa's records. When Joe comes home from work to discover this, Henry tells him Bob was triggered by finding condoms in Theresa's purse, implying she secretly works as a prostitute to bring in whatever additional income she can for the family, which would also explain her absence from the house the majority of the day.
In response to economic pressure, Joe takes a full-time job after school working at a local diner, leaving him tired and even less able to keep up with class work. Because he is underage, Joe works there illegally, resulting in the owners exploiting him for cheap, underpaid labor and treating him rather poorly. His co-worker, Jorge, is the only person there who treats him with any kindness and frequently sticks up for him. Failing in school, Joe is assigned a guidance counselor named Leonard Coles, who, though reasonably friendly, is incompetent. For example, in their first session, when Joe starts to talk about his problems, the counselor unthinkingly shuts him off.
Throughout the movie, Joe is seen engaging in petty theft (shoplifting from stores, breaking into cars to lift items inside, and stealing from mailboxes) to raise money to pay off Bob's debts and replace Theresa's records. This reaches its climax when, one night, after a shift, Joe decides to rob the diner he illegally works at after his co-worker unwittingly reveals to him that two of his bosses (a couple: Jerry and Mary) living in the apartment directly above the diner would be gone for the weekend. He sneaks in through an upstairs window and ransacks the apartment, looking for a locked metal box that was previously revealed to contain a large quantity of cash. Joe finds the box, but then catches a glimpse of himself in a doorway mirror. Horrified at what he has become, he kicks the mirror in and badly cuts his leg. Though injured, he manages to escape before another one of his bosses, an older man named Roy, who is drunkenly making his way back to the apartment to retrieve his house keys, is able to catch him.
Using the stolen money, Joe buys brand new copies of Theresa's records that were destroyed by Bob and stores them in a space beneath his house with an enveloped note for his mother. Joe's plan ultimately goes south when he reveals his deed to his friend Ray, who, in turn, inadverdently reveals to Coles that Joe works at the diner, prompting a concerned Coles to place a call to the diner and informs Jerry of his knowledge of Joe's illegal employment there. After revealing to Jerry that Joe injured himself while working there by cutting his leg, Jerry correctly deduces that it was Joe who committed the robbery and calls the police.
Joe is subsequently arrested and is sentenced to a juvenile detention center. As Bob drives Joe to the bus that will take Joe away, Bob uncharacteristically offers Joe his condolences and some words of advice about not making poor decisions in life and ending up a loser like he (Bob) did. Joe then exits Bob's car and boards the bus. The film ends with Joe walking down the hallway of the detention centre with a look of grave uncertainty on his face.
Location
This film was shot almost entirely on Staten Island, serving as a stand-in location for Whaley's home town of Syracuse, New York. Numerous scenes were shot at Staten Island Technical High School.[1] Joe's house in the movie was filmed on Poultney Street (Midland Beach 10306) Staten Island, N.Y.
Cast
- Noah Fleiss – Joe Henry
- Max Ligosh – Mike Henry, Joe's older brother
- Val Kilmer – Bob Henry, Joe's father
- Karen Young – Theresa Henry, Joe's mother
- James Costa – Ray
- John Leguizamo – Jorge
- Ethan Hawke – Leonard Coles
- Richard Bright – Roy
- Robert Whaley – Jerry
- Amy Wright – Mary
References
- ^ IMDB https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160672/locations Accessed 9/28/13
- Bernard, Jami (October 15, 1999). "'Joe the King': Poignancy Rules[permanent dead link]". Daily News.
- Deming, Mark "Joe the King". Allmovie.