Joshua

source: Joshua

Obviously, this film was made with some other in mind. The homage it represents for films where kids played a key role in their unsettling plot is, to say the least, outstanding. You'll find out how deeply involved with "Rosemary's Baby" it is. Or with "The Omen". I won't spill the beans here. You have to watch it. It's a horrific tale. Not a horror film with all the usual gore some want to associate the genre with. This film is horrifying in many senses. And when a film really grabs you, making you think about some personal possibilities, it has accomplished it's goal. Joshua is a film dealing with so many things it won't disappoint. Crude, raw and cruel, but really telling. Good remake and mix of great horror films, and a new species on its own. Performances are pretty good. Vera Farmiga is surprisingly good, as Sam Rockwell is, too. Jacob Kogan, apart from being a very good piano player, is a believable and fearsome Joshua. Pinpoint cinematography, good plot and a very suitable script that keeps the story rolling in ways you could expect and in some others you wouldn't. I can't believe why some people walked out theatres! There's a catch with this film for American viewers: it's eons away from American traditional movie-making. This film resembles the character exploration of Swedish and French films. So, don't expect a fast paced- spectacular glossy film. It will be a slooooow film for people who just want to have some time off with a popcorn film.

I wanted to request my money back, but in the end all i had to blame was the rock, paper and scissors gods for not letting me win and seeing the new Bruce Willis movie. Instead, i was tortured by this movie that made no apparent sense, throughout the entire movie was waiting for it to get interesting, it never did. The flow of the movie was jittery, parts later made sense, but the ending was uneventful. There was only one part of the movie that i enjoyed, and it wasn't suspenseful it was actually freaking hilarious. I would like my money or even my time back....alas another crappy movie watched due to losing a rock, paper, scissors game

The acting is mechanical. There are no believable relationships in the entire film. Vera Farmiga is the only one in the entire project that seems to put any effort into it. It was kind of like watching a play with a single cast member on stage with a dozen cardboard stand-ups. Do not even begin to compare Jacob Kogan with Haley Joel Osment, it's insulting. THIS FILM IS NOT A "BIZARRE SIXTH SENSE" type film. It's just bizarre. And by bizarre, I mean it's not worth watching. Really really bad audio. I suggest Mr. Ratliff use more than one solitary boom mic for the entire film. Oh, and sound recording software more advanced than say, windows sound recorder. Dropped story lines. Unexplained plot elements. Abrupt meaningless ending. 6.0 of 10? The movie does not even live up to it's own tag line. are you kidding me? I give it a 2. (one on each hand; guess which one.) Mr. Ratliff appears to have adopted the mantra of every amateur filmmaker in Europe: 1) If I just leave things out, it automatically becomes mysterious 2) the moviegoer will be forced to fill in the missing pieces 3) relieving me as a writer and director the burden of having any talent 4) use the tried-and-fail method of the abrupt and ambiguous ending so everyone thinks that all the foregoing shortcomings were intentional Of course Sundance liked this one, because this is typical faux snob fare. Pretend that something ridiculous is actually meaningful, and everyone thinks you see something deeper than there actually is, and hopefully that will make you look sophisticated while everyone else becomes insecure because they don't understand as much as apparently you do. Furrow your brows and try to look slightly saddened, to add to the effect. If your vacuity catches up to you, just explain that you were "lost in thought" and shamble hurriedly away. No. There is no deeper, profound meaning here. Just a poorly written, poorly directed script that fails in every aspect. Don't let Sundance or the Eurotrash snobliks fool you. SKIP THIS ONE and re-watch the original Exorcist, which is infinitely better, and which Ratliff would do well to watch 666 times in a row before he tries anything 'scary' again. I apologize for ranting, but I am seriously irritated that the cable channel guide gave this one 3/5 stars, so I wasted an hour and forty minutes waiting for it to earn even one star. I really want my 106 minutes back. Finally thought of something positive about this film. After seeing what kind of miserable trash actually gets produced, I'm inspired to write scripts now, because I know I write far better material than this.

This is a very strange and unconventional horror/thriller with fantastic performances by Vera Farmiga and Jacob Kogan. Usually kid actors in horror films bug me (I'm lookin' at you, new OMEN kid!), but this little dude totally creeped me out in a Martin Stephens kind of way. It's an excellent performance and one of the best things this offbeat movie has going for it. This movie's plot sounds like typical "Bad Seed" ground, but it twists and turns into really bizarre territory, disorienting the viewer to the point where you have no idea where it's going or where it's been. I'm still not sure if I even liked it, but it did make me feel incredibly uneasy, and I guess that's worth something.

Excellent work by George Ratliff steering a well-built ship from David Gilbert. Rockwell leads a highly talented cast, bringing new spontaneity to the everyman role, and he and Farmiga deliver riveting performances. Her depth of character allows us to feel every bit of the roller coaster of emotion that is post-partum depression, and the rest of the cast finely displays the confusion that results. Jacob Kogan is a fantastic discovery, and entertained the audience with his confident 10 year old wit during Q&A at the Sundance Premiere. He lent a surprising focus to the role of the "wierd" genius Joshua. The film should play well with theater audiences in wide release.

There are kids who are adorable, and kids who just gets on your nerve. Joshua gets filed under the latter, with a creepy look to boot. No offense to child actor Jacob Kogan who gets the titular role, but when he's brooding with that psychotic glint in the eye, you just want to throw him into a cage and toss the key out of the window. But this demonic kid pales in comparison to The Omen's Damien, although both will score high marks for their diabolical scheming mind. The latter is the devil incarnate, but Joshua turns out to be your atypical child who feels threatened by the coming of a new born sibling. You know, the jealous rage that permeates as they perceive the lack of attention and love bestowed upon them. Dad Brad Cairn (Sam Rockwell) used to be his best buddy, but Joshua feels that his own lack of athleticism might be that barrier between them, and given his personal preference for the arts like the fondness for dark musical pieces on his piano. Mom Abby (Vera Farmiga) on the other hand, turns out to be a nervous wreck, which works to Joshua's advantage in pushing the right buttons. It's revenge of the neglected kid basically. The movie tried to be creepy with the employment of usual shock tactics seen in most horror movies, and they do feel a little out of place here, especially when it tries to position itself as a psychological thriller. It's nothing very cerebral about it, and for the most parts, its extremely slow pace brings about a sense of frustration, especially when plot loopholes, or irrational character behaviour that you'd come not to expect, gets so blatantly glossed over, thinking that audiences are idiots. You can't help but to feel that the story development was too contrived as incidents happen too conveniently, with nary any actual resolution except toward the inevitable ending. There's nothing chilling about it, except that you now realize that smart kids do become a nightmare when they put their noodle to the test of outwitting, outplaying and outlasting their parents. Perhaps the only saving grace here is Sam Rockwell's performance as the dad who's trying to figure everything out, and at the same time protecting the new offspring from the clutches of her now demented brother. But seriously, all Joshua requires is a good long drawn spanking from the slipper, out of the public view of course.

I would categorize this as an interesting failure. Jacob Kogan plays the title character, the first child of Brad and Abbie Cairn (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga). After his baby sister is born, Joshua becomes morbid, and more than a little creepy. I love the whole evil child angle, and the fact that there is no supernatural reason for Joshua's behavior makes it even more horrifying. Unfortunately, Ratliff and co-writer David Gilbert haven't written a good enough script to support their idea. While there is no supernatural reason given for Joshua, the kid is so odd and seemingly beyond his own years that I think some viewers will end up supplying their own. I never really bought the character. He ends up almost paper-thin, like there's nothing behind his wickedly blank face. I wouldn't say that Jacob Kogan gives a good performance here, but he certainly has the look of utter wickedness about him. There are other fatal flaws, as well. Sam Rockwell is a little too broad, and comes off as almost comedic. This is especially true in the final half-hour, after Rockwell's character has begun to expect his son of being malicious. I shouldn't be giggling at the whole concept – this is where some true horror should arise. But Rockwell's reaction to his son's evil is almost comical, and I'm not entirely sure it's unintentional. Particlarly awful is the scene where Rockwell hires a child psychologist to examine Joshua. That whole bit was patently ridiculous: the woman deduces after approximately twelve seconds (she looks at one drawing) that Joshua is being abused. And she tells Rockwell instantly! You'd think if she really thought he was abusing his son, she'd play it more subtly and, you know, call child services or something. That scene is pretty unforgivable. There are, on the other hand, several very good sequences. I especially liked the bit where Joshua gets his mother to step on some broken glass. And that scene where the kid mocks his father for mourning their dead dog – which Joshua killed, of course – is chilling.

In my life as a moviegoer I have actually managed to sit through such ridiculously bad pictures as say, Battlefield Earth, or Driven... Well, I walked out on Joshua and made it a point to both get my money back and write this comment. Never happened to me before. The people that made this film just managed to make me angry for the time I was in the theater (I did sit through at least one painful hour) and another good half hour after that. If you care to experience the same emotions I'd strongly recommend it. It's as if the director made it a point to build up artificially tense moments that never lead to anything. Nothing actually happens in this film. To me, it felt like a pretentious attempt at making an intellectual thriller. What's worse is that it's not bad because they made mistakes or because it is poorly executed, it's bad because of deliberate choices. What a waste of good talent...

JOSHUA is an effectively strange film, until it falls apart in the third act where it is offensively insinuated that the titular character is a young homosexual whose evil deeds have all been an effort to live an openly gay life with his gay uncle. When I saw the director's previous effort was HELL HOUSE (a brilliant and creepy documentary), I began to wonder if this movie is simply an adaptation of a narrow minded evangelical cautionary tale on the evils of Godless parenting in the Big Apple. We have Sam Blackwell playing the Wall-Street power-broker who has turned his back on a rural Born-Again upbringing to marry a "Big Fat Jew" (as Farmiga's character puts it.) The family lives in an opulent ROSEMARY'S BABY style uptown apartment with their 9 year old son, Joshua, who is fastidiously well-groomed, anal-retentive, and loves nothing more than tickling the ivories with his Broadway-loving gay uncle (who never appears in a scene without a martini.) Joshua even mentions to his Dad early in the film that he hates playing soccer -- and baseball too! Rockwell's mother comes to help with the family's newest addition - a relentlessly screaming infant girl who drives Farmiga into a severe (at times melodramatic) postpartum depression. Of course, Mom-In-Law is born-again, and in the scope of HELL-HOUSE-like vignettes, is the family's last hope for redemption. After taking Joshua to church, Grandma announces that Joshua has accepted Christ into his evil life and is met with an anti-Christian tongue lashing that would have made Julia Surgarbaker proud. After driving his mom to the brink of insanity, Joshua goes on to kill poor Grandma - and incites his father to beating him in public. This was Joshua's master plan as a young homosexual. In the final scene we see Joshua once again tickling the ivories with his gay uncle (and new guardian) saying , "We were always meant to be together." Joshua then sings a Castrati-pitched love song to his new dad. The big question is why the writers choose to link Joshua's satanic tendencies (the spawn of a city-dwelling agnostic couple) with a thinly veiled coming out story? They have some hefty explaining to do on the DVD. This has gotta be booth #42 in the HELL HOUSE hay ride, right? Meanwhile, I'd like to propose the sequel to this film: A musical comedy set 6 years in the future where happy and well adjusted Joshua and sister are living a life of wacky antics with their gay uncle. Josh struggles to balance the demands of his first boyfriend while preparing to audition for the lead role in the revival of SPRING AWAKENING.