New This Week
Critics & Publications
Archives: A-Z Index
Advanced Search

Upcoming Release Calendar
Awards & Bests By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
How Metascores Are Calculated
Discuss Film In Our Forums

sort by name

sort by score

97 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days
17 88 Minutes
55 Baby Mama
78 Before I Forget
80 Bigger, Stronger, Faster*
75 Boy A
32 Chapter 27
54 CSNY: Déjà Vu
31 Deception
64 Fall, The
51 Finding Amanda
57 Forbidden Kingdom, The
67 Forgetting Sarah Marshall
34 Happening, The
27 How to Rob a Bank
65 Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull
79 Iron Man
46 Jack Brooks: Monster Slayer
62 Kabluey
56 Leatherheads
72 Lou Reed's Berlin
24 Love Guru, The
37 Made of Honor
65 Married Life
74 Mongol
52 Mother of Tears, The
70 Outsourced
83 Paranoid Park
55 Pathology
49 Pirates Who Don't Do Anything: A VeggieTales Movie, The
51 Promotion, The
48 Run, Fat Boy, Run
30 Sarah Landon and the Paranormal Hour
53 Sex and the City: The Movie
67 Snow Angels
37 Speed Racer
70 Standard Operating Procedure
61 Stuck
82 Taxi to the Dark Side
56 Then She Found Me
79 Visitor, The
37 War, Inc.
65 Water Lilies
54 You Don't Mess with the Zohan
39 Young People F**king
75 Young@Heart

Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.

Joe the King
Trimark Pictures


8.6

based on 23 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 3 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie

MPAA RATING: R for language and abusive situations concerning a child

Starring Noah Fleiss, Val Kilmer, Karen Young, Ethan Hawke, John Leguizamo, and Camryn Manheim

Abused by his mother and his harsh, drunk father (Kilmer), 14-year-old Joe (Fleiss) progresses from committing petty thefts for food to stealing the cashbox from his employer to pay off his father's debts, all of which lead to disaster.

GENRE(S):	Drama
WRITTEN BY:	Frank Whaley
DIRECTED BY:	Frank Whaley
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: February 15, 2000 Video: February 15, 2000 Theatrical: October 15, 1999
RUNNING TIME:	93 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

100

San Francisco Chronicle Edward Guthmann

This is a smart film, told in a minor key, that augurs well for Whaley's directing career.

Film.com Ernest Hardy

Has moments that are haunting, and it stays with you long after the lights have come back up.

Boston Globe Jay Carr

Whaley's self-effacing but strongly etched and wrenchingly effective film.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

One of my favorite U.S. fiction features at 1999's Sundance Festival.

New York Post Jonathan Foreman

A poignant, graceful little film.

Portland Oregonian Diana Abu-Jaber

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.

New York Daily News Jami Bernard

The movie isn't a day in the park, but it manages to close on an existentially uplifting note.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Paula Nechak

Has enough simmering beneath its sweaty, grimy and disconsolate surface to be more than just another rite-of-passage missive set in the '70s.

Mr. Showbiz Michael Atkinson

Rarely falters but neither does it ever take flight.

Chicago Reader Lisa Alspector

Deftly realist character study.

LA Weekly F. X. Feeney

Whaley successfully balances his scenes on a knife-edge of tenderness and anger that was Truffaut's trademark.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

Leads you through a miserable childhood without sentimentality or relief. The effect is torturous.

Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

14-year-old Noah Fleiss gives a performance that's every bit as astonishing as Haley Joel Osment's work in "The Sixth Sense."

Film.com Peter Brunette

An occasionally powerful, always heartfelt drama.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

In the end, the film feels a little futile; its relentless, one-miserable-note tone is numbing.

Village Voice Amy Taubin

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.

Dallas Observer Bill Gallo

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.

Los Angeles Times Jan Stewart

Antisentimental to a fault.

The New York Times Stephen Holden

Dramatically Joe the King feels unglued, as if crucial sequences had been left on the cutting-room floor.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Too much self-pity.

Entertainment Weekly Bruce Fretts

So willfully bleak and profanity-filled, it could only have been written and directed by an actor.

TNT RoughCut Matt Kelsey

Without any trustworthy characters for young Joe and no actual story development, the movie drags.

The average user rating for this movie is 8.6 (out of 10) based on 3 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

philip w. gave it a10:
One of my favorites of all time. dont care bout what other boneheaded critics would say but as for me the movie was moving and superbly uniformly acted. simlpe story but very true and very heartfelt. unforgetable!

Chad S. gave it an 8:
"Joe the King" reminded me of Cameron Crowe's "Almost Famous" ("The Chipmunk Song" opens the film) because both films are set in the seventies, and yet the music, director Frank Whalley selects, the oldies but goodies music from Theresa's vinyl record collection, suggests that the seventies was the last innocent decade. Before MTV, Crowe suggested, as Alvin, Theodore, and Simon crooned over images of Southern California, was the notion that our youth culture wasn't so rigidly commodified, any music could describe the American landscape. In "Joe the King", Joe's mom controls the film's music. It suggests her girly innocence of what married life would be like. Happy. Johnny Ray and others of his ilk, serves as an ironic soundtrack to her life as a battered wife and haggard mother. There are times we forget we're watching a seventies period piece. Outside of the scene at a disco roller rink, there is no Fleetwood Mac, or Carly Simon, to suggest the "Me Decade". In particular, there's a scene, in which, corporeal punishment is administered by Joe's teacher (Camryn Manheim) when Joe lies about his father's occupation. Val Kilmer is scary as Joe's father, and Noah Fleiss as Joe, gets our sympathy without pandering for it. Since's Joe's friend looks so much like Paul Pfeiffer from "The Wonder Years", "Joe the King" can be read as the defunct ABC series, but with less wonder and more forget.

Leslie H. gave it an 8:
Great job by Noah Fleiss for his part, the story line was great, the presentation great. I think this was one of the best movies about a boy that I have seen in a long time, a real, down to earth story about how kids put up with life and their surrounding parts. I hope he plans to do another movie, call it Joe: The King Returns, Thanks.

Discuss this movie in our forums

Return to top of page

Joe the King Trimark Pictures

Joe the King
Trimark Pictures