Luke McWilliams gives his review of the 2019 drama, Little Joe, starring Emily Beecham and Ben Whishaw.
Plant breeders Alice Woodard (Emily Beecham) and Chris (Ben Whishaw) are busy creating a new strain of sterilised flower that requires more care than average but makes owners happier in return. Soon however, Alice and Chris’s colleague, Bella (Kerry Fox) notices that her companion dog is not acting the same as before …
Plants have been nasty little antagonists for years. The very British The Day of the Triffids was a precursor for Audrey II’s plans for propagation and world domination in Little Shop of Horrors, Invasion of the Body Snatchers capitalised on the red-scare of the 50s. Even the original The Thing From Another World was a plant-based nasty!
Alice is a workaholic, experiencing immense guilt for prioritising work over her son, Joe. Naming her experimental plant Little Joe, a plant that returns the love it gets by showering its care giver in feel-good pollen, Alice is driven to make sure her nursery is ready for a career-making fair. Things take a turn when Chris gets a nose full of the pollen and starts to act a little more confident, happier, and takes an intense interest in the plants’ survival. While the movie taps 50s sci-fi tropes on the head, it poses a question about happiness and whether it’d be all that bad if we had a bit more of it?
Verdict: A strong call-back to 50s sci-fi with an interesting, experimental colour pallet and sound design. 3 stars.
Little Joe is screening exclusively at Dendy cinemas.
Luke McWilliams | themovieclub.net
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