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Joe the King
Metascore
64 out of 100

Generally favorable reviews - based on 23 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 14 out of 23
  2. Mixed: 8 out of 23
  3. Negative: 1 out of 23
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  1. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Edward Guthmann
    100
    This is a smart film, told in a minor key, that augurs well for Whaley's directing career.
  2. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Ernest Hardy
    80
    Has moments that are haunting, and it stays with you long after the lights have come back up.
  3. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Michael Wilmington
    75
    One of my favorite U.S. fiction features at 1999's Sundance Festival.
  4. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jami Bernard
    75
    The movie isn't a day in the park, but it manages to close on an existentially uplifting note.
  5. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    75
    A poignant, graceful little film.
  6. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    Whaley's self-effacing but strongly etched and wrenchingly effective film.
  7. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Diana Abu-Jaber
    75
    The atmosphere of the movie is dense and unrelieved; it's a heavy role for such a little boy, and some people won't want to watch such a bleak, monster world.
  8. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: Paula Nechak
    75
    Has enough simmering beneath its sweaty, grimy and disconsolate surface to be more than just another rite-of-passage missive set in the '70s.
  9. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    73
    Rarely falters but neither does it ever take flight.
  10. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: F. X. Feeney
    70
    Whaley successfully balances his scenes on a knife-edge of tenderness and anger that was Truffaut's trademark.
  11. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Desson Thomson
    70
    Leads you through a miserable childhood without sentimentality or relief. The effect is torturous.
  12. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    70
    Deftly realist character study.
  13. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    67
    A powerful little gem: a little bit of "The Outsiders" (the film's tone is remarkably similar to Coppola's film, minus the airy redemption and golden sunrises), a lot of "The 400 Blows," and a slice of "Radio Flyer" all wrapped up in a dirty black bow.
  14. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Rene Rodriguez
    63
    14-year-old Noah Fleiss gives a performance that's every bit as astonishing as Haley Joel Osment's work in "The Sixth Sense."
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Maitland McDonagh
    60
    In the end, the film feels a little futile; its relentless, one-miserable-note tone is numbing.
  16. Village Voice
    Reviewed by: Amy Taubin
    60
    The film belongs to Fleiss, and he makes Joe's inner life so transparent that it's heartbreaking to watch the boy dig himself into a hole.
  17. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Bill Gallo
    60
    Whatever else is weak or indulgent in this fledgling effort -- self-consciousness and a certain grim solemnity come to mind -- it has the jolt of truth about it, like a lot of thinly veiled fiction.
  18. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Peter Brunette
    60
    An occasionally powerful, always heartfelt drama.
  19. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Jan Stewart
    60
    Antisentimental to a fault.
  20. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    Too much self-pity.
  21. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Bruce Fretts
    50
    So willfully bleak and profanity-filled, it could only have been written and directed by an actor.
  22. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Stephen Holden
    50
    Dramatically Joe the King feels unglued, as if crucial sequences had been left on the cutting-room floor.
  23. TNT RoughCut
    Reviewed by: Matt Kelsey
    30
    Without any trustworthy characters for young Joe and no actual story development, the movie drags.
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