''Little Joe'' is a 2019 internationally co-produced

drama film In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...

directed by

Jessica Hausner Jessica Hausner (born 6 October 1972) is an Austrian film director and screenwriter. She received international attention in 2001 when her film ''Lovely Rita'', a portrait of a young girl who feels confined by family constraints, was screened in ...

. It was selected to compete for the

Palme d'Or The Palme d'Or (; en, Golden Palm) is the highest prize awarded at the Cannes Film Festival. It was introduced in 1955 by the festival's organizing committee. Previously, from 1939 to 1954, the festival's highest prize was the Grand Prix du Fe ...

at the

2019 Cannes Film Festival The 72nd annual Cannes Film Festival took place from 14 to 25 May 2019. Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu served as jury president. The Palme d'Or went to the South Korean film ''Parasite'', directed by Bong Joon-ho; Bong became t ...

. At Cannes,

Emily Beecham Emily Beecham (born 12 May 1984) is an American-British actress and singer. She is best known for her role in the Coen Brothers film ''Hail, Caesar!'', the AMC series '' Into the Badlands'', and the title role in the 2017 film '' Daphne''. She s ...

won the award for

Best Actress Best Actress is the name of an award which is presented by various film, television and theatre organisations, festivals, and people's awards to leading actresses in a film, television series, television film or play. The first Best Actress awar ...

Beecham Beecham is a surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Audrey Beecham (1915–1989), poet and niece of the conductor * Betty Humby Beecham (1908–1958), British pianist and wife of the conductor * Earl Beecham (born 1965), American foo ...

stars as Alice Woodard, a plant breeder and single mother who creates "Little Joe", a plant that gives its caretakers joy.

Plot

Alice Woodard (

) is a plant breeder who works in a lab that focuses on creating new strains of flowers. While her colleague Bella (

Kerry Fox Kerry Lauren Fox (born 30 July 1966) is a New Zealand actress. She came to prominence playing author Janet Frame in the movie ''An Angel at My Table'' directed by Jane Campion, which gained her a Best Actress Award from the New Zealand Film and ...

) is failing at creating a hardy plant that will survive even weeks of undernourishment and neglect, Alice and her team have successfully created a flower that requires more care than an ordinary plant but which makes their owners happy. Alice decides to name the plants "Little Joe" in honour of her son and smuggles out one of the plants for him. The Little Joes begin to aggressively

pollinate Pollination is the transfer of pollen from an anther of a plant to the stigma of a plant, later enabling fertilisation and the production of seeds, most often by an animal or by wind. Pollinating agents can be animals such as insects, birds, a ...

, which Alice theorizes is because she has made them sterile. The same day Bella's dog, Bello, goes missing. Chris (

Ben Whishaw Benjamin John Whishaw (born 14 October 1980) is an English actor and producer. After winning a British Independent Film Award for his performance in ''My Brother Tom'' (2001), he was nominated for an Olivier Award for his portrayal of the titl ...

) goes looking for him and accidentally inhales some of the pollen. Later on he takes Alice out and, despite her obvious reluctance, attempts to kiss her twice. The following day Bella finds Bello in the lab. He attacks her and she insists that he has changed. Chris later tells Alice that Bella is mentally ill and had previously attempted suicide before being forced on a year-long sabbatical, returning only shortly before Alice began working at the lab. Alice later learns that Bella had Bello put down. Bella tells Alice that the changes to Bello were due to the plant. Alice's son is accidentally pollinated by the plant and begins to act strangely, sneaking his classmate Selma into the lab and stealing a Little Joe. He later tells Alice that he is considering moving in with his father, Ivan. Bothered by her son's behaviour, Alice begins to examine test footage of subjects who have been exposed to the pollen. In every case their family members report that they are acting strangely and have seemed to change since the pollen test. However, just as Alice begins to believe Bella's suspicions, Bella is exposed to the pollen herself and dismisses her previous beliefs as paranoia due to her mental issues. Joe reveals that he and Selma stole the plant in order to pollinate Ivan, confirming Alice's suspicions that her plant carries a virus, especially as she has used unorthodox methods to create Little Joe. However, this turns out to be a joke as Chris previously talked to Joe about Alice's concerns. At work Bella reveals that she never inhaled the pollen and was only pretending to be happy in order to blend in with the others. Immediately afterwards, Alice overhears Bella fall off of a staircase during a confrontation with Chris. After Alice's boss dismisses her concerns she takes matters into her own hands and decides to kill the Little Joes before they are commercialized, lowering the temperature in the lab. She is stopped by Chris, who, in trying to prevent her from harming the plants, knocks her out on the floor of the lab, exposing her to the plant pollen. Later Alice learns that Little Joe has been nominated for an award, meaning that the plant will be sold worldwide. When Chris apologizes for hitting her she kisses him, and later dismisses her concerns as paranoia. She allows Joe to move in with his father and starts a new, happier life with her own Little Joe.

Cast

as Alice Woodard *

as Chris *

as Bella *

Kit Connor Kit Sebastian Connor (born 8 March 2004) is an English actor. He has appeared in the films ''Get Santa'' (2014), ''Rocketman'' (2019) and '' Little Joe'' (2019). On television, he had a recurring role in the CBBC series '' Rocket's Island'' (2 ...

as Joe Woodard *

David Wilmot David Wilmot (January 20, 1814 – March 16, 1868) was an American politician and judge. He served as Representative and a Senator for Pennsylvania and as a judge of the Court of Claims. He is best known for being the prime sponsor and eponym ...

as Karl * Phénix Brossard as Ric * Sebastian Hülk as Ivan *

Lindsay Duncan Lindsay Vere Duncan (born 7 November 1950) is a Scottish actress. On stage, she has won two Olivier Awards (for ''Les Liaisons Dangereuses'' and ''Private Lives'') and a Tony Award (for ''Private Lives''). She has starred in several plays by H ...

as Psychotherapist * Jessie Mae Alonzo as Selma * Andrew Rajan as Jasper *

Janine Duvitski Janine Duvitski (born Christine Janine Drzewicki; 28 June 1952) is a British actress, known for her roles in the BBC television sitcom series '' Waiting for God'', ''One Foot in the Grave'' and ''Benidorm''. Duvitski first came to national atte ...

as Eleanore * Goran Kostic as Mr Simic *

Leanne Best Leanne Best (born 15 June 1979) is an English actress. She is the niece of former Beatle, Pete Best. She trained at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts and presently lives in South West (London sub region), southwest London. She is kno ...

as Brittany

Release

''Little Joe'' had its world premiere at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

on 17 May 2019. Shortly after,

Magnolia Pictures Magnolia Pictures is an American film distributor. It is a subsidiary of Mark Cuban and Todd Wagner's 2929 Entertainment. Magnolia was formed in 2001 by Bill Banowsky and Eamonn Bowles, and specializes in both foreign and independent films. Mag ...

and BFI Distribution acquired U.S. and U.K. distribution right to the film. It was scheduled to be released in Austria on 1 November 2019, by Filmladen; in the United States on 6 December 2019; Germany on 9 January 2020, by X Verleih AG; and the United Kingdom on 21 February 2020.

Reception

The

review aggregator A review aggregator is a system that collects reviews of products and services (such as films, books, video games, software, hardware, and cars). This system stores the reviews and uses them for purposes such as supporting a website where users ...

website

Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...

reported that of critics have given the film a positive review based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critics consensus reads: "''Little Joe''s unorthodox approach may baffle horror fans lured in by its premise – but like its title character, the end result exerts a creepy thrall." On

Metacritic Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...

, the film has a weighted average score of 60 out of 100 based on 25 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Little Joe 2019 films 2019 drama films Austrian drama films British drama films English-language Austrian films English-language German films BBC Film films Films directed by Jessica Hausner Films about plants 2010s English-language films 2010s British films