Another Kind of Horror: LITTLE JOE (2019)
David Cronenberg is one of the best directors to ever exist. No, I will not take any sort of criticism. David Cronenberg is one of the main directors who turned me into the movie junkie that I am, but he also made me passionate about a very specific type of movie—guess which one. This is why, the moment I found out that his son, Brandon Cronenberg, was also a film director, I couldn’t wait to see if, contrary to what I had always assumed, talent is genetic.
And let me tell you: Antiviral (2012), Brandon Cronenberg’s debut movie, is, still to this day, one of the best movies I have ever watched in my entire life—and I could talk about it not only for hours, but for DAYS.
But I didn’t come here today to tell you about my undying love for David Cronenberg or how much Antiviral has changed my expectations when it comes to watching a movie—even though I haven’t talked about anything else thus far. Instead, I will tell you about the pleasing surprise that was Little Joe, directed by Jessica Hausner and released in 2019.
And you might be wondering, what was all that about the Cronenbergs then?
Well, even though I hardly believe there will ever be a movie that takes me as close to cinema nirvana as Antiviral does, Little Joe has a lot in common with this movie for me not to bring it up—as if I needed an excuse to talk about Antiviral. Also, if me comparing Little Joe to a movie I love so enthusiastically doesn’t tell you that I really enjoyed the experience of watching it, then I don’t know what else to tell you.
Little Joe is definitely not what you would consider a horror movie in the first place, but this is perhaps my favorite type of horror movie. As much as I enjoy classic horror and everything that followed its steps, I must admit that I’m a sucker for all those movies where horror is more psychological, something that crawls under the viewer’s skin and follows them for longer than any type of visual shock can achieve. We are no longer seeing impossible scenarios that are full of blood and weird creatures. Instead, we find plausible stories where you could easily imagine yourself. Not only that, but as The Blair Witch Project (1999) proved to the world, what you cannot see can be scarier than what you can.
The movie introduces us to Alice, a single mother who works as a plant breeder. She has engineered a particular type of flower—that she names Little Joe, after her son—that, if fed properly and spoken to regularly, is meant to make its owner happy.
Against the company’s policies, Alice takes one of the flowers home with her, so she can give it to her son, Joe. However, she will soon learn that Little Joe might not be as harmless as it looks. From this point onwards, chaos ensues—slow, atmospheric chaos, if something like that can actually exist.
Perhaps the most interesting thing about this movie is the questions that it raises. For instance, could absolute happiness mean the loss of all other human emotions? Would it really matter if we lost our own identity in the process? Of course, one could argue that this is not that different from what we look for by playing video games, using social media, doing drugs… It is actually this hidden social critique in Little Joe what reminded me of Antiviral in the first place—and not the red and white aesthetics of the entire movie, but I am getting slightly ahead of myself. Antiviral offered us disease as a business to achieve happiness, while Little Joe shows us happiness as a business. But what is happiness, really? The question remains unanswered.
As much as I keep mentioning Brandon Cronenberg’s movie, I also couldn't stop thinking about two other movies that most of you are probably familiar with. Those are John Carpenter’s Village of the Damned (1995), and Phillip Kaufman’s Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1978)—how’s that for a movie that’s not supposed to be a horror movie? However, I couldn’t shake that Black Mirror feeling, either. And I am sure that perhaps someone smarter than me can bring up other references very present in this movie, but what I actually enjoyed about it is that, even when it doesn’t offer anything too fresh, it is still as captivating and new as if this was the first movie you’ve ever watched. I must admit that I am not familiar with Jessica Hausner’s work, but not only am I glad that this is not yet another movie directed by a man, but Little Joe has definitely made me curious enough to check her other creations.
Aesthetics are definitely central in this movie. I know this doesn’t make me look too professional or reliable, but when I see a trailer and the movie that is being advertised appears to be a journey to the senses, I’m in. It doesn’t even matter what the movie is about. Good shots and good photography can turn a mediocre movie into a masterpiece. I’m not saying that Little Joe is by any means mediocre, but the fact that it is slow yet visually stunning makes it almost perfect—God bless auteur cinema.
There is a clear opposition between the aseptic workplace, with the exception of the Little Joes…
… and Alice’s colorful home.
However, oppositions are not only visual. Music goes from Japanese Suizen—yes, I had to look that up—mixed with dog barks to noises of all kinds. Alice, the main character, is split between her own maternity and her job, between what’s right and what’s best for her own interests. Sanity and madness. But all this is offered to the viewer at a very slow pace, quiet and almost shy. Yet it keeps you on edge until the very end.
Performances are something else in this movie, too. Emily Beechan, who won the Best Actress award at Cannes, plays Alice in a way that is contained yet believable, supported by Ben Whishaw, brilliant as always. Kerry Fox was perhaps my favorite performer in the entire thing, and not only because her character was the one I sympathized with the most.
I feel like I could go on forever, but I hope this is enough for me to convince you that Little Joe is definitely worth your time. You can check out the trailer below.
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