X
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 45 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 45 m
Summary Alice (Emily Beecham) is a single mother and dedicated senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. She has engineered a special crimson flower, remarkable not only for its beauty but also for its therapeutic value: if kept at the ideal temperature, fed properly and spoken to regularly, this plant makes its ow...
Directed By: Jessica Hausner
Written By: Géraldine Bajard, Jessica Hausner
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 45 m
- 2019
- Not Rated
- Magnolia Pictures
- 1 h 45 m
Little Joe
60
4.4
Where to Watch
Summary Alice (Emily Beecham) is a single mother and dedicated senior plant breeder at a corporation engaged in developing new species. She has engineered a special crimson flower, remarkable not only for its beauty but also for its therapeutic value: if kept at the ideal temperature, fed properly and spoken to regularly, this plant makes its ow...
Directed By: Jessica Hausner
Written By: Géraldine Bajard, Jessica Hausner
Where to Watch
Top Cast
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
60
64% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
28% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Metascore
Mixed or Average
Based on 25 Critic Reviews
60
64% Positive
16 Reviews
16 Reviews
28% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
8% Negative
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
Visually, it’s a total feast for the eyes, contrasting art-deco pinks and mint greens against sterile, symmetrically framed expanses of white, vaguely evoking the aesthetic of some lost sci-fi film of the ’70s.
Any similarities to Little Shop of Horrors are superseded by similarities to Invasion of the Body Snatchers, as the story becomes less about a mutated plant and about the lengths people will go to in order to achieve happiness, real or manufactured.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
4.4
15% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
55% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
30% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 20 User Ratings
4.4
15% Positive
3 Ratings
3 Ratings
55% Mixed
11 Ratings
11 Ratings
30% Negative
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
Fascinating combination of sci-fi, psychological horror, paranoid thriller and family drama about motherhood
Alice (Emily Beecham) es una bióloga que trabaja en un instituto de biotecnología vegetal en Londres. Logró poner a punto por ingeniería genética una flor que en determinadas condiciones libera elementos que "ponen a la gente feliz" y se dispone a presentarla en una feria . Pero con el tiempo se verá que los efectos acaso puedan ser otros.
Esta película de Jessica Hausner puede ser encuadrada dentro de varios géneros que van cambiando o se van combinando a medida que uno va viendo la película y la evolución de sus personajes: ciencia ficción, terror psicológico, thriller paranoide.
Como toda buena película de género, la película presenta un nudo dramático que lo trasciende y le da sentido: la relación de Alice con su hijo preadolescente Joe (Kit Connor), a quien ella regala una de sus flores (bautizada Little Joe en honor a él), relación que empieza a modificarse a partir de ese momento. Madre sobreprotectora y a la vez ausente por su devoción por el trabajo, estos cambios comienzan a horadar sus certezas profesionales. De este modo la película aporta una perturbadora miradda sobre la maternidad. Un proceso similar sufre Alice en su relación con Chris, un compañero de trabajo y posible interés amoroso (Ben Wishow). La película puede ser leída como una relectura de otra película cuya filiación incluso reconoce su directora, pero la profundidad psicológica y estilo de Little Joe son muy diferentes y mucho más actuales y va mucho más allá de constituirse en una obvia metáfora sobre panaceas psicofarmacológicas. Uno de los mayores atributos de este film es la elegancia hipnótica de su puesta en escena: las locaciones, los colores, la simetría, la iluminación, la fotografía... pocas películas pueden darse el lujo de dejar imágenes iconográficas y potentes en el espectador y ésta es una de ellas. Sin dudas que el vivero y todo el Instituto quedarán en su retina. Del mismo modo, cautiva la sequedad muy austríaca de los diálogos, que por momentos refuerza la atmósfera ambigua y paranoide.
El devenir de la investigación científica, las actitudes de los científicos y los aspectos bioéticos también se integran a la trama de una manera tan natural como necesaria y despiertan inquietantes ecos actuales en una película de 2019.
Las actuaciones dan con el tono justo. Emily Beecham ganó el premio a la mejor actriz en el Festival de Cannes 2019 por este papel.
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Alice (Emily Beecham) is a biologist working at an institute for plant biotechnology in London. She managed to genetically engineer a flower that under certain conditions releases elements that "make people happy" and is about to present it at a fair. But with time she will see that the effects may be other.
This Jessica Hausner film can be framed within several genres that change or combine as one watches the film and the evolution of its characters: science fiction, psychological terror, paranoid thriller.
Like any good genre film, the film presents a dramatic knot that transcends it and gives it meaning: Alice's relationship with her pre-adolescent son Joe (Kit Connor), to whom she gives one of her flowers (named Little Joe in honor of him), a relationship that begins to change from that moment on. An overprotective mother and at the same time absent due to her devotion to her work, these changes begin to pierce her professional certainties. In this way, the film provides a disturbing look at motherhood. A similar process goes through Alice in her relationship with Chris, a co-worker and possible love interest (Ben Wishow).
The film can be read as a rereading of another film whose parentage even its director recognizes, but Little Joe's psychological depth and style are very different and much more current and it goes far beyond becoming an obvious metaphor for psychopharmacological panaceas.
One of the greatest attributes of this film is the hypnotic elegance of its staging: the locations, the colors, the symmetry, the lighting, the photography ... few films can afford to leave powerful and iconographic images in the viewer And this is one of them. Undoubtedly, the nursery and the entire Institute will remain in your retina.
In the same way, the very Austrian dryness of the dialogues captivates, which at times reinforces the ambiguous and paranoid atmosphere.
The evolution of scientific research, the attitudes of scientists and bioethical aspects are also integrated into the plot in a way that is as natural as it is necessary and awakens disturbing current echoes in a 2019 film.
The performances strike the right tone. Emily Beecham won the best actress award at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for this role.
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I like this movie. Little Joe was a beautiful flower. The flower has a mysterious power. I like the music. It sounds like very Asian.After you watched the movie, you would think "What is our happiness?' Does Little Joe make us happy?
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Little Joe manages to exert a peculiar pull in spite of being constructed with material you’ve likely seen elsewhere.
Little Joe could use a trim for better deployment of plot and unnerving atmosphere. No matter. Little Joe is a quirkily rattling movie, an off-kilter tonic during the year-end onslaught of movies proclaimed “important” by their studios, and what the film lacks in structure it makes up for in its eerie, cold singularity.
By eschewing fast-paced suspense Hausner takes the sting out of her story, instead showcasing a bold aesthetic sense that feels like an exciting taste of what’s to come.
A sterile arthouse drama that rather muddles its conceit. ... Hausner and co-writer Géraldine Bajard never really get to grips with the potential for psychological terror at the center of what remains a genuinely intriguing premise.
A lifeless, tone-deaf variation on Invasion of the Body Snatchers. ... There’s just nothing going on here with which to engage your interest, nor is there a single moment to even slightly increase the viewer’s pulse rate.
An interesting vision, although very intimate and completely idiotic in scientific terms. At all, the film is not convincing, although interestingly artificial acting.
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This is a decidedly quirky watch. It's quite atmospheric and has a sinister undertone, provided by the unsettling incidental music played in the background (the shrieky moments sounded quite unpleasant. There is an element of 'fingers down the chalkboard' present at times). The plot is, it's fair to say, rather unclear. There's a definite curiosity factor at play and the cast do a pretty decent job but it's just a bit too...unstructured for my personal taste. Also the fact that a virus is mentioned in it seemed somehow ironic in this day and age. I guess it has a sci-fi angle or feel to it, although its not really a 'traditional sci-fi film'. It's a bit too out there for me and so I wouldn't actively recommend it as such, no.
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This sci-fi/psychological thriller about a research horticulturist who breeds a plant designed to help promote feelings of human happiness and well-being (and subsequently has second thoughts about her creation when it begins to have unexpected effects) prompts a plethora of questions about what promotes and constitutes true happiness. This botanical terrestrial homage to "Invasion of the Body Snatchers," mixed with a variety of other influences (including some that will seem eerily relevant at the moment), gives us much profound food for thought. However, director Jessica Hausner's execution is needlessly muddled by painfully slow pacing, robbing viewers of the happiness that should naturally come from watching a good film. There was a lot of potential here, both for a captivating tale and a thoughtful psychological/metaphysical exploration, but, regrettably, those elements became bogged down by a heavy hand when a lighter touch would have sufficed.
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I liked the photography of the film, although it had some awkward moments when the camera pushed in and you'd only see the tips of the noses for a while. Also the science is surprisingly sound (with exceptions of course), the whole premise of producing an oxytocin precursor in a plant is actually technically feasible. Unfortunately, this is where the good stuff ends.
The plot is incredibly slow and leads nowhere. The side-effects of the horror plant are barely noticeable and most of the drama comes from the main character being a poorly performing mother. In the end, I turned the playback speed to 1.5x just to make it through and it still felt like it took too long. The story would fit in a 30 min youtube short but was padded with 2 hours of unnecessary runtime. It's not even mysterious or asking exciting questions – it's just boring.
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Production Company
Coop99 Filmproduktion,
The Bureau,
Essential Filmproduktion GmbH,
ARTE,
Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR),
British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC),
British Film Institute (BFI),
Coproduction Office,
Eurimages,
Film Industry Support Austria,
Filmfonds Wien,
Filmstandort Austria (FISA),
Little Joe Productions,
Medienboard Berlin-Brandenburg,
Société Parisienne de Production,
Österreichischer Rundfunk (ORF),
Österreichisches Filminstitut
Release Date Dec 6, 2019
Duration 1 h 45 m
Rating Not Rated
Tagline "Happiness is a business".
Awards
Austrian Film Award, AT
• 3 Wins & 10 Nominations
Diagonale, Austria
• 2 Wins & 3 Nominations
Strasbourg European Fantastic Film Festival
• 1 Win & 3 Nominations
