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My Name Is Joe ***1/2
rated R starring Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, David McKay, Anne-Marie Kennedy written by Paul Laverty directed by Ken Loach
For many years, Scottish filmmaker Ken Loach has made movies about the struggles of the working-class citizen in today's society. His latest film, MY NAME IS JOE, is one of the most powerful and intense character studies I have seen in years. At the beginning of the film, the title character, Joe Kavanagh(Mullan), announces that after being an alcoholic for several years, he has finally sobered up. Joe is a poor man who does odd jobs like coaching soccer. He runs into a woman named Sarah(Louise Goodall) who works as a nurse and is higher up in the ranks of society. Joe wants to ask her on a date, but he doesn't have money for a fancy dinner, so they go bowling. At first she declines his invitation, calling him too "wild", but she ends up giving in to his charm. Also, both Joe and Sarah are trying to help out Liam(David McKay) and Sabine(Anne-Marie Kennedy), a young couple who are caught up in the underworld of drugs.
MY NAME IS JOE seems to be a simple and familiar story, but it rises above mediocrity because of a raw, brutally sympathetic performance by Peter Mullan, who won the Best Actor award at last year's Cannes Film Festival. Mullan makes Joe such a three-dimensional character that he makes up for the lack of depth in Sarah's character. Few films can match the emotional wallop provided by Joe's transcendence in MY NAME IS JOE. The film also deserves praise for subtitling the thick Scottish accents, providing us with pure English. Other British films should take note of this new technique. It is a shame that MY NAME IS JOE has been released in early 1999 and will definitely be forgotten by next year's Oscars. But I'm glad to see that there are some filmmakers interested in just putting out a film that's worth seeing. MY NAME IS JOE is that, and more.
The Teenage Movie Critic akiva@excite.com www.angelfire.com/mo/film
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