Coolbaugh Comments:
‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ is an interesting film, and a ballsy selection on the part of Tooda. A simple poll of a small circle of friends will reveal a polarizing array of opinions on it. There is no small school of folks who find this film to be simply unwatchable. That’s understandable given the very specific vector of the film. But those, I believe, are shorting themselves out of a fun and heady fable. The plot unfolds slowly, keeping you plodding along, much like the opening scene as our hero, Joe Banks, marches to work, yet again. I can argue, however, that the hero is not in fact Joe Banks, but the trio of Meg Ryan’s characters. While Joe represents what is, and what can be affected for personal betterment, Ryan’s characters embody it. This is completely there, both literally and figuratively. Literally, her point, place and purpose both accompanies and carries Joe from the beginning of his new journey. Figuratively, Shanley’s use of the same actor to play three completely different roles is as clear a metaphor as I’ve seen in a long while. Without her, neither the script nor Joe would ever make any headway towards happiness. As a group of men in their mid 30s, it stirred an emotion that hasn’t reared its head since I first read “The Alchemist,” by Paulo Coehlo. It unfolds in the same visually fantasmic fashion and leaves you dedicated to letting go a bit more so that enlightenment and happiness come a bit more naturally. Shanley precisely conveys that this is the only way. His absence of any future film work as a director indicates that he may have finally delivered his personal catharsis, and didn’t feel the need to work in the cinema again. Speculated, of course.
I can’t speak too much to the film’s story, as a brief glimpse at one of its leaves will reveal the entire tree. This is not a film that gets better with every viewing. You get one shot. Once you see it, you can’t help but focus in on what’s NOT right about it (like the cover of the DVD case). Diminishing returns ensures that it becomes harder and harder to see its brilliance (although hearing about “the big Woo” never gets old).
It wouldn’t be a review if I didn’t make note of this film being tagged by the 80s. There are scenes in there that serve no purpose but to satisfy the needs of a decade. The bottom line is, if you walk a tight rope, you occasionally trip and stumble, which this film does. But then, in many instances, Shanley flips this 80s absurdity and makes light of it, almost as if he insisted on getting the last word.
All in all, this is a wonderful film that, if viewed under the proper conditions, can be truly enjoyable. If not, then it could easily be missed. Fortunately for the Crew, we have this forum in the name of the one and only, Movienight. See you next week.
Nubs Comments:
There is a reason I have never seen ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ until now. It was either destiny, or Davis lucked out, but this movie had to be enjoyed in the forum of Movienight projected on the stucco, or it may have never been enjoyed at all. For years, I have fought Davis off when he’s asked me to watch it. Others and myself have ridiculed him mercilessly for this rosy stain on his credibility. With Wiener’s judgmental brow miles away in France, and after I had recently been nominated as “The King,” Tooda Davis decided to go all in. For once he wasn’t bluffing, not entirely. His pocket queens stood up and won over the crowd.
I do feel the forum that is Movienight catapulted this movie’s status to a level that would never be achieved if I happened to catch it on TNT or Oxygen. After Davis’s exuberant preamble, the collected audience of Pat Towne, Coolbaugh, and myself - all who were in extreme need of a lighthearted break, were pleased as punch. This movie definitely has to be seen on the big screen with an open-minded audience for it to soar. It is an impressive bravado this playwright turned movie director brings with this, his spectacular debut and finale. Once you settle in and give your trust to two good storytellers, John Patrick Shanley and Ben Davis, the movie is a great voyage that is fantastic and truly one of a kind.
I could see how this movie is either loved or hated. What I would discuss as some of its flaws are also what gives the movie a lot of its charm and independence from traditional classics. For instance, this movie is all over the place. In terms of style it feels like 5 movies in one. We go from ‘Metropolis’ or ‘Brazil’ to ‘Arthur’ to ‘L.A. Story’ to ‘Cast Away’ (predates it) to ‘Joe Versus the Volcano.’ The direction and the two stars acting style change throughout. It’s definitely fun to go on 5 different rides at once, but you could also see where it can get a little sloppy. Such time and care is taken with the introduction to Joe and his crappy job that the end seems a little rushed and glossed over. Another flaw one that one could overlook for its effort is Meg Ryan’s multiple characters. She’s so strong with her first character that the others suffer. This little mousy, naïve, typically Shanley-esq office girl shows us why such a limited actress was able to work for as long as she did. She’s cute. She is also genuine, fragile, and totally open, like an antique vase you want stick your massive flower in. Her L.A. stereotypical sister is a lesson in bad acting. She plays an idea that she clearly judges and never gives anything of herself to, so the movie suffers. The love story and narrative take steps back because this caricature has nothing to offer or believe. Then it seems, with her last character, that she was told she could just play herself and therefore doesn’t try to bring anything unique or loveable to the role. I have to say I couldn’t figure out when they fell in love in the brief dinner scene before she’s unconscious and then onto the island where she’s suddenly unable to live without him. The character juggling might have been a better idea with a stronger actor, say Peter Sellers.
All right, so what the hell did we all like about it? Did Davis spike our drinks? No, it is a really charming, funny, quirky, wild and ridiculous ride. The invention and sheer audacity of this movie are special. Nathan Lane and Abe Vigoda as the multi-ethnic Indian chiefs say it all. It is somewhat like going to an amusement park. You jump on and off different genres and exotic locations, experience extreme highs and lows like a roller coaster, you drink orange soda, well should of. Anyway like an amusement park it may be a little cheesy, the special effects are mostly convincing, but in order to earn your price of admission your going have to suspend disbelief, strap yourself in and say, “alright I knew when I came to Movienight I might end up on the ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ ride. Hell with it. Let’s have fun. I hope we see the best part of the movie; the luggage!”
SELECTOR Comments:
I had so much fun watching this film with the Crew.
I spent the bulk of the day trying to talk myself out of showing this pick for fear of it going unappreciated by everyone. ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ is a surprisingly polarizing film, and for every person I find who loves it as much as I do, there is an equal number of people who truly hate it.
In the past I understood those critics better. When ‘Joe’ was released, Tom Hanks had yet to win two Oscars and was considered strictly a “funny man.” Though this film is very funny, Joe for the most part is our “straight man.” Maybe the critics of today are disappointed that it is a Meg Ryan/Tom Hanks “romance” yet it isn’t really a romantic comedy. Perhaps the dislike of ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ stems from the very quality Roger Ebert astutely admired in his 3 1/2 star critique written at the time of the film’s release. I misquoted his review in my screening preamble but will get him word for word here, “Gradually through the opening scenes of ‘Joe Versus the Volcano,’ my heart begin to quicken, until finally I realized a wondrous thing: I had not seen this movie before. Most movies, I have seen before. Most movies, you have seen before. Most movies are constructed out of bits and pieces of other movies, like little engines built from cinematic Erector sets. But not ‘Joe Versus the Volcano.’”
Whatever the reason for the polarizing effect of this film, I love this movie more every time I see it. It is a unique at times moving story that is so well told, and so vividly drawn I cannot help but be sucked into the ridiculous journey of our hypochondriac hero. It is a story about wonder and renewal, and it rewards those willing to join Joe’s crooked path with one of the most moving and haunting scenes I have ever seen.
The moon rising over Joe adrift in the ocean brings me to tears. There is great power in the image of this beautifully glowing, painterly moon dwarfing the very ocean, accompanied by the gentle strains of the film’s theme, and Shanley’s exquisite line: “Dear Lord, Whose name I do not know: thank you for my life. I forgot how... big. Thank you. Thank you for my life.” It gets me almost every time.
It is a film crammed with beautiful writing. For those who don’t know, the writer/director John Patrick Shanley, while already an Oscar winner for his ‘Moonstruck’ screenplay, was and remains one of the most respected and produced (not to mention Pulitzer Prize winning) playwrights of his generation. His most famous plays, ‘Doubt,’ and ‘Danny and the Deep Blue Sea’ are classics of modern American theater. Why this resume strikes me as significant is that ‘Joe Versus the Volcano’ is more like a play than any film I can think of, even classic films (‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf’) based on plays. Not only does it eschew cinema’s typical three-act structure for the more theatrical five-act format, it just feels like theater. We have the orchestra tuning up over the opening credits, and the curtain rises on this invented world. ‘Joe’ is paced like theater, it leaps like theater, it embellishes, generalizes and heightens like theater. What makes this resemblance astonishing to me is that this story couldn’t happen in a theater. It is nothing short of a cinematic play, and as such it is exactly what Ebert suggested – a movie unlike every other. ‘Joe’ is something new and unseen.
Tom Hanks is phenomenal in this role. He could easily have played Joe as merely depressed at the start, yet even in the earliest scenes Hanks crafts a man searching. He is searching at first for the answer to his misery. He views his depression as a physical illness and spends his money going to doctor after doctor hoping to finally be told he is dying so he won’t feel crazy for hating his life. Once satiated by the “Brain Cloud” explanation his journey is totally different as he now feels entitled to his fantasies and sets off to realize them. This is a wide swing for a character’s first act (particularly so in light of the five act structure), yet Hanks marks Joe’s choices so well that we never feel like we don’t know where Joe is coming from.
Meg Ryan is never better than she is in this film. Coolbaugh is not the first person I have spoken to who realized she was playing both of the Graynamore sisters but hadn’t spotted her magnificent portrayal of Didi in the film’s first two acts. She is having so much fun with these roles, and her commitment coupled with Hanks’ varied response to each character give us three very distinct presences along Joe’s journey.
The supporting performances are almost more memorable than Hanks and Ryan’s excellent work. Dan Hedaya as Mr. Waturi, Robert Stack as the Doctor, Abe Vigoda as the improbable Waponi chief, and the unforgettable Barry McGovern as the Luggage Salesman all conspire to make this theatrical world’s style seem totally consistent. The two supporting players who need very special mention are Ossie Davis and Lloyd Bridges. Ossie Davis is so simple and caring with his performance. We know who Marshall the Limo Driver is almost instantly. I’m not sure if it’s the writing or the delivery but it seems as though all the best lines are his. What can one say about Lloyd Bridges? He is perfect. Samuel Graynamore has just one scene but it is critical. He sets up the exposition for the rest of the film and he does so with ferocity. His sales pitch to Joe is filled with nonsense about a people called the Waponis and a mineral called Boobaroo, but he makes it genuine and compelling. His investment, along with the investment of the rest of the cast, is what elevates ‘Joe Versus the Volcano.’
Speaking of this film as a cinematic play, I am reminded of a directing teacher Nubs and I had at NYU. His name was Robert Moss and he was a stickler for earning things that happened on stage. If a gun is fired in Act IV, you better see it get loaded in Act I. ‘Joe’ blends the discipline of ‘earning’ with the art of storytelling and makes it all the same thing. The Luggage Salesman earns the raft. We know the trunks are water tight “tight as a drum,” we know they have a bar inside them, etc. Repeated viewings of ‘Joe’ show just how carefully structured it is. The façade of Joe’s factory reappears as a Waponi mask. The lamp on his desk plays the film’s theme and as it rotates it shows all the locations and colors of the story. The crooked path leading to the factory reappears as a crack in Joe’s wall, a bolt of lightning sinking their ship, and a torch lit path up the side of the volcano.
I am sorry this critique is so long, but such is my passion for this little known, oft maligned film. I began by saying I was nervous about how this film would be received. This film does not work its magic on everyone, and I was afraid it wouldn’t land with the Crew. It was gratifying then that it was so well received. This film is close to my heart and to my sensibility about what makes a good story, and I took a leap of faith sharing it, knowing how many people this film doesn’t work for. But what is Movienight for if not to share the films we love with our friends and hope that they love them too? When I paused the film to deal with Zack’s spider attack, Coolbaugh looked at me and said “I’m glad you paused it. I don’t want to miss a second of this.” That made my night.
I had about as much fun at Movienight on Wednesday as I have ever had. Thank you guys for daring to follow this pick’s crooked path.
Sorry I forgot the Orange Soda.
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