Craigslist Joe
Craigslist Joe Image
See the trailer
Metascore
45 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 6 Critics What's this?

User Score
7.0 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 5 Ratings

Your Score
0 out of 10
Rate this:
  • Summary: Twenty-nine-year-old Joseph Garner cut himself off from everyone he knew and everything he owned, to embark on a bold adventure. Armed with only a laptop, cell phone, toothbrush, and the clothes on his back – alongside the hope that community was not gone but just had shifted – Joe lived for for a month looking for alms in America’s new town square: Craigslist. For 31 December days and nights, everything in his life would come from the Craigslist website. From transportation to food, from shelter to companionship, Joe would depend on the generosity of people who had never seen him and whose sole connection to him was a giant virtual swap meet. Would America help Joe? Could he survive with nothing, apart from the goodwill of others? Through his explorations, Joe gained insights into our collective psyche, and took the pulse of an anxious nation teetering on a knife’s edge of hope and uncertainty. Joe encountered a diversity of unique stories that reveal the layered mosaic of our national identity. He observes some of the most challenging issues facing our country today – from new economic realities to the continued reconstruction of New Orleans to the effect of America’s presence in Iraq. His experiences raise profound questions about who we are as a society and where we are headed, leaving you to draw your own conclusions. (CLJ Films)… Expand

Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 6
  2. Mixed: 4 out of 6
  3. Negative: 1 out of 6
  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: John DeFore
    Aug 5, 2012
    70
    A stunt-documentary whose conceit overlaps with the finding-yourself appeal of a road movie, Joseph Garner's Craigslist Joe is humbly charming.
  2. Variety
    Reviewed by: Dennis Harvey
    Aug 5, 2012
    60
    He's a nondescript protagonist, his benefactors, and he's never truly in need; as is made clear at the start, he has a comfortable life to return to whenever he chooses. So the picture becomes simply the moderately diverting record of an offbeat vacation.
  3. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Gary Goldstein
    Aug 5, 2012
    50
    The documentary Craigslist Joe fulfills its unique premise - without providing much in the way of stakes, obstacles, tension or, frankly, greater meaning.
  4. Slant Magazine
    Reviewed by: Diego Costa
    Jul 30, 2012
    25
    As hard as he tries, we never truly believe there's a lot at stake for Garner, who seems to cruise through America like a gringo taking a favela tour in Rio.

See all 6 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

Write a Review
Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 1 out of 1
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 1
  3. Negative: 0 out of 1
  1. DTDunn
    6
    An interesting if somewhat dubious tale. While I can imagine that two young men with a camera could traverse the US meeting nothing but interesting and helpful people, I suspect that a lot of people if they attempted this trip would run into many more problems -- perhaps very serious ones. I'm not trying to be negative, I just think it can be dangerous for the filmmaker to set an expectation that could lead to disaster for others. That said, this little film will entertain most people.… Expand

Trailers

Current Movie Releases

Full List »
  1. Star Trek Into Darkness
    Metascore: 72
  2. 42
    Metascore: 62
  3. Iron Man 3
    Metascore: 62
  4. Evil Dead (2013)
    Metascore: 57
  5. Oblivion
    Metascore: 54
  6. The Great Gatsby
    Metascore: 54
  7. Pain & Gain
    Metascore: 43
  8. G.I. Joe: Retaliation
    Metascore: 41
  9. The Host
    Metascore: 35
  10. The Big Wedding
    Metascore: 29
  11. Tyler Perry's Temptation
    Metascore: 27
  12. Scary Movie 5
    Metascore: 11
All Current Movies »