This is a very strange and unconventional horror/thriller with fantastic performances by Vera Farmiga and Jacob Kogan. Usually kid actors in horror films bug me (I'm lookin' at you, new OMEN kid!), but this little dude totally creeped me out in a Martin Stephens kind of way. It's an excellent performance and one of the best things this offbeat movie has going for it. This movie's plot sounds like typical "Bad Seed" ground, but it twists and turns into really bizarre territory, disorienting the viewer to the point where you have no idea where it's going or where it's been. I'm still not sure if I even liked it, but it did make me feel incredibly uneasy, and I guess that's worth something.
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ThrownMuse28 April 2008
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zetes20 January 2008I would categorize this as an interesting failure. Jacob Kogan plays the title character, the first child of Brad and Abbie Cairn (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga). After his baby sister is born, Joshua becomes morbid, and more than a little creepy. I love the whole evil child angle, and the fact that there is no supernatural reason for Joshua's behavior makes it even more horrifying. Unfortunately, Ratliff and co-writer David Gilbert haven't written a good enough script to support their idea. While there is no supernatural reason given for Joshua, the kid is so odd and seemingly beyond his own years that I think some viewers will end up supplying their own. I never really bought the character. He ends up almost paper-thin, like there's nothing behind his wickedly blank face. I wouldn't say that Jacob Kogan gives a good performance here, but he certainly has the look of utter wickedness about him. There are other fatal flaws, as well. Sam Rockwell is a little too broad, and comes off as almost comedic. This is especially true in the final half-hour, after Rockwell's character has begun to expect his son of being malicious. I shouldn't be giggling at the whole concept this is where some true horror should arise. But Rockwell's reaction to his son's evil is almost comical, and I'm not entirely sure it's unintentional. Particlarly awful is the scene where Rockwell hires a child psychologist to examine Joshua. That whole bit was patently ridiculous: the woman deduces after approximately twelve seconds (she looks at one drawing) that Joshua is being abused. And she tells Rockwell instantly! You'd think if she really thought he was abusing his son, she'd play it more subtly and, you know, call child services or something. That scene is pretty unforgivable. There are, on the other hand, several very good sequences. I especially liked the bit where Joshua gets his mother to step on some broken glass. And that scene where the kid mocks his father for mourning their dead dog which Joshua killed, of course is chilling.
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DICK STEEL29 September 2007There are kids who are adorable, and kids who just gets on your nerve. Joshua gets filed under the latter, with a creepy look to boot. No offense to child actor Jacob Kogan who gets the titular role, but when he's brooding with that psychotic glint in the eye, you just want to throw him into a cage and toss the key out of the window.
But this demonic kid pales in comparison to The Omen's Damien, although both will score high marks for their diabolical scheming mind. The latter is the devil incarnate, but Joshua turns out to be your atypical child who feels threatened by the coming of a new born sibling. You know, the jealous rage that permeates as they perceive the lack of attention and love bestowed upon them. Dad Brad Cairn (Sam Rockwell) used to be his best buddy, but Joshua feels that his own lack of athleticism might be that barrier between them, and given his personal preference for the arts like the fondness for dark musical pieces on his piano. Mom Abby (Vera Farmiga) on the other hand, turns out to be a nervous wreck, which works to Joshua's advantage in pushing the right buttons. It's revenge of the neglected kid basically.
The movie tried to be creepy with the employment of usual shock tactics seen in most horror movies, and they do feel a little out of place here, especially when it tries to position itself as a psychological thriller. It's nothing very cerebral about it, and for the most parts, its extremely slow pace brings about a sense of frustration, especially when plot loopholes, or irrational character behaviour that you'd come not to expect, gets so blatantly glossed over, thinking that audiences are idiots.
You can't help but to feel that the story development was too contrived as incidents happen too conveniently, with nary any actual resolution except toward the inevitable ending. There's nothing chilling about it, except that you now realize that smart kids do become a nightmare when they put their noodle to the test of outwitting, outplaying and outlasting their parents. Perhaps the only saving grace here is Sam Rockwell's performance as the dad who's trying to figure everything out, and at the same time protecting the new offspring from the clutches of her now demented brother.
But seriously, all Joshua requires is a good long drawn spanking from the slipper, out of the public view of course. -
JohnDeSando17 July 2007"Cruel children, crying babies, All grow up as geese and gabies, Hated, as their age increases, By their nephews and their nieces." Robert Louis Stevenson
If you're thinking of starting a family, don't see Joshua. If you think your stockbroker spouse is a stable breadwinner capable of providing you a view of Central Park, don't see Joshua. If you think all your children will be lovable, don't see Joshua.
However, if you want the bejesus scared out of you by a kid so bright he could skip two grades and play Beethoven's Piano Sonata No. 12 at recess, director George Ratliff, whose Hell House could have entitled this expert psychological thriller, has fashioned a hell of a cautionary tale about appearances and reality, unlovable kids and their clueless parents. The slow disintegration of an upper-middle class family is so carefully drawn that the first third of the film seems like a walk in the park with a few scrapes from some errant shrubbery. When, however, nine-year old Joshua Cairn (Jacob Kogan) begins missing his parents' affection, displaced to his crybaby newborn sister, strange but not too strange things happen, not easily ascribable to him.
As in most successful thrillers involving miscreant kids, even to the end is a doubt that they could be the source of the growing terror. Although comparisons to The Bad Seed and Rosemary's Baby seem fair, Kogan bears a strong resemblance to Buddy Swan, who played the young Charles Foster Kane with chilling deadpan. Kane's lifelong hang up over being separated from his family is an appropriate allusion to clarify the psychological ramifications in this film.
Although I was quite pleased with the slow exposition, because I think things unravel slowly in privileged families, the payoff ending came too quickly and without the supernatural underpinnings the buildup seemed to promise.
"Modern children were considerably less innocent than parents and the larger society supposed . . . ." David Elkind, Child Psychologist -
funnylookingmonkey7 January 2008completely mis-marketed as an Omen-type horror film, there's a lot more going on in this one than in most of the recent similar scary fare. first things first: there's no supernatural hoo-hah. (ah, so refreshing.) it's an unsettling, strangely plausible horror film... seemingly made especially for parents. a few plot elements bothered me, and i felt there was one misstep (involving a Dave Matthews song, btw!), but overall it was an effective chiller. Vera Farmiga as the increasingly imbalanced mother and Celia Weston as the holy-rolling but genuinely concerned mother-in-law are both excellent, and Sam Rockwell delivers another compelling and subtly idiosyncratic performance. George Ratliff, who directed the engrossing and discomfiting 2001 documentary, Hell House, shows promise as a narrative filmmaker.
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Joshua is all my summary says it all, BUT at same time one can form many opinions on the movie.
Dave Gilbert co-wrote this with director George Ratliff., The script has so many loopholes you can drive an 18 wheeler straight through & not hit anything.
This is a confusing story of an overly bright,but lonely 9 year old,he has a mind & the demeanor of a much older lad. We are led to believe many things about the boy, which may not be the truth.
Even the very last scene, which I had sort of figured out at the very beginning,still leaves many loose ends & unexplained happenings.. I loved the setting, an apartment in an older building on Centra Park West, in New York City.
The acting by the small cast is very good, Sam Rockwell & Vera Farminga are Joshua's parents. Celia Weston is Rockwell's overly religious mother. Dallas Roberts is the mothers very nice & attentive brother,He is the only one that really pays attention to his nephew.Jacob Kogan is Joshua, people in the cast think he is responsible for some bad things, I may be wrong, but I feel the boy is not really to blame. Unfortunate things do happen,
In other words this film is not very clear on many plot turns & twist, it is overly long as well.
The very last scene is neither a shock or a surprise.
A miss for me, I wish it were a better & clearer film.
ratings **1/2 (out of 4 ) 72 points (out of 100) IMDb (6 out of 7) -
...and "Joshua" is no exception to the rule. Leads Sam "Galaxy Quest" Rockwell and Vera "The Departed" Farmiga turn in respectable work as the harried parents of a brand new colicky baby girl, while newcomer Jacob Kogan achieves decidedly mixed results as the young son suffering from an exceptional sibling rivalry, but documentarian George "Hell House" Ratliff's vision (he co-wrote with tyro David Gilbert) lacks dramatic clarity. Syd Field would not be happy with Ratliff & Gilbert's screenplay. It takes too long to drop the hook, lacks any real tension to be a genuine thriller (despite some refreshingly unsettling music from Nico Muhly and some nice DP work from Benoît "Day Night Day Night" Debie), has little more than a few boo!s in the fright department, and ultimately fails to satisfy with its haphazard thematic explorations and ambiguous (or is it?) ending.
Young Kogan plays a creepy Stepford son gone bad, and is blessed to have the particular musical talent required by the script, but said script makes him more of a McGuffin than a character. He's one-dimensional and mostly inexplicable, so observably "different" that one wonders why his parents haven't noticed how thoroughly different he is from a normal 9-year-old. Then again, the script paints them as fairly lousy parents. The father's a workaholic, the mother's a neurotic mess; the gay uncle's the only family member who can relate to Joshua. It all adds up to one "oh, c'mon!" too many: how did things get to this sorry state in the first place? How has no one noticed just how weird Joshua is? Unfortunately, we never get an answer; Joshua remains an enigma to the end, and as a result, the audience has no sympathy for the beleaguered parents, nor any fears for the oblivious uncle.
With a tighter, more sensible script and better dialog, "Joshua" might well have been a genuine thriller. Ratliff's deliberately oblique direction and writing defang the narrative arc, however, and leave us at film's end wondering, as Peggy Lee once sang, "Is that all there is?" -
rlaine29 August 2013Watched this from the telly without any prior knowledge. Looked interesting in the trailer and i had never heard of it. Rockwell and Farmiga are quite capable actors, so why not.
The movie was being marketed as a horror movie, the week before they showed 28 Weeks Later, so I was expecting something a bit more horrorish, but this turned out to be more of a psychological thriller and drama. Which isn't a bad thing tho, but for some reason I got the impression from the ads that this was kind of a modern Damien thing. Not really.
Root down, this movie could've been a study of how kids act when the family gets another baby. Joshua here becomes a big brother and they have many scenes where they clearly show that the new baby gets more attention than Joshua. On the otherhand Joshua is said to have been a "difficult" one from the beginning. There is also a hint that there is some mental illness in the family as the mother played by Vera Farmiga has mental issues.
The mental illness part and becoming a bigger brother would've been enough for me, but they also clearly show that Joshua is getting quite a free upbringing as they let him go by his own in a big city. I'm quite sure this is an intentional choice as they discuss it at one point. Then there is this idea that Joshuas dad (Sam Rockwell) maybe wants Joshua to be a bit different. The dad is clearly a "buddy" kind of man. Even tho he's obviously smart and well educated - working in finance - he likes sports and most likely listens to some kind of pop/rock on his iPod and jams along. Joshua on the otherhand is booksmart, not interested in sports and so on..
Oh, and then there's even an overly religious grand mother, which adds the religion factor you have come to expect in a movie like this, but which in my opinion wasn't needed at all.
During the movie, Joshua is shown to do all kinds of weird things making his parents crazy and you're not really sure if he's the devil himself incarnated or just a messed up kid. Or just a different kind of kid pushing his boundaries.
I'm gonna give the ending away, so stop reading now if you don't want to know it. In the end it seems as if Joshua played the whole thing to be able to be with his uncle who is a bit like Joshua - not necessarily like the others in society. So in the end it seems as if Joshua was the smart one, just not getting along with his parents at all. Sort of a mismatch of parents and their child.
I'm not quite sure what to make of this movie, since it had so many things going on. Clues, explanations, hints of supernatural stuff, religion, mental illness.. none of them really paying off.
It's not The Omen, not The Exorcist, not Rosemary's Baby.. for sure. It was an interesting take on "a child genius", dressed up as a thriller, even a bit horrorish at times. It's rather good, but don't expect it to be a full blown horror movie. -
chevrette5 October 2008This movie is very mediocre.
The park beating scene was my favorite. I spent all movie wanting to hit this kid. I only wish he would've gotten beaten to death. That would've been a better ending than the one they chose.
I think the kid had a homosexual urge for his uncle. That is twisted. I only wish they would have clarified the uncle's role a bit. And perhaps picked a better actor in that role.
McKean's small part was pretty solid.
This is not something I would ever watch again, but I didn't want to clamor for my 2 hours back. However, you would think that in 2 hours they would not raise so many questions that leave you hanging. -
bjornrhein24 July 2022Who give this movie 1 rating, you havnt seen that much have you ? This is high class horrordrama, the boy is a absolute fantastic actor, and the script is smart - and well done produced, and then its not a rated 1 - The movie might not suite everyone, but its not a 1 rating - this is a very good movie, little long and not the best ending, but its good.
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James-263113 February 2008As a very open minded movie enthusiast, i would not recommend this movie to anyone other than to those people who watch entirely too many movies, no disrespect intended. (So used to seeing typical Hollywood filth over and over again, that any plot out of the norm with good performances is an instant classic.. )
Don't get me wrong there is tons of filth in Hollywood film, and it is nice to see someone do something different: But this movie just made me angry. Not because i was so captured by the film and the hatred for Joshua, but angry that i wasted my time watching it.
HERE ARE THE REASONS WHY I DIDN'T LIKE IT:
Joshua is a 9 year old boy, who is very smart, demonic, advanced.. OK. well, this is the thing it is just not believable that a kid with no real mistreatment of any kind would go to such great lengths, not to mention be able to devise plans in such complexity to destroy his family... C'mon. (Over jealousy of his newborn sister...)
His father is a upper middle class businessman who just wants things to be peaceful.. He is a wimp! Your son is a crazy sociopath... If it was my kid and i knew what he had done just as the father knew what Joshua had done, i would shackle his hands and feet and chain him to the backseat of the car and take him to a juvenile center or a psyche ward etc. I would go through the necessary steps, and i would sit down with the appropriate people and inform them of his behavior and that he is a danger to anyone that comes near him, he needs to be isolated and evaluated, then i would leave. I would just rather dispose of the kid.. But the wife might never forgive me. If he broke out, i would find him and bury him before he got anywhere near my family... What other options are there?
Personal Irritation:
The dad and Joshua go at it like they are teenage rivals or something? The dad never really parented the kid from day one so it is understandable that he would act like they are mentally deep into a battle, so that is true to character in the film, but just annoyed me. What ever happened to: Discipline, or a sore behind!
All in all my issue is that it is just not believable and the movie seems to portray the situation like it is a common or real problem that could happen to anyone...Until then, all of you glorifying this movie should be making better use of your time.
Until someone shows me that a child can be inherently evil without reason and/or cause i will not believe it.
*Again this is just my opinion, and don't mean to step on anyones toes. But honest reviews are what this site is all about, and these are my thoughts after seeing "Joshua."
Cheers -
I had been waiting quite impatiently for the release of Joshua from the moment I saw the trailer. Unlike the people who walked out of the theater, I was not disappointed. But that doesn't mean you won't be. Joshua is clearly not a movie for the everyman and it never really tries to be.
It is a story about a boy who longs to be understood by parents who choose to watch from the sidelines. The previews made the boy seem like he was just a creepy weirdo, but it becomes obvious quite quickly why he is the way he is. Joshua tells his father that he does not like soccer and baseball. In an attempt to seem open-minded and understanding, his father tells him that it's okay and that he should just do what he wants (without ever asking exactly what it is that his son wants). His mother just doesn't care as long as she's not bothered.
Dark, disturbing, creepy, but occasionally sadistically humorous, events unfold slowly (much to the dismay of people expecting shock after gratuitous shock) proving Joshua to be a far more calm and calculating boy than originally perceived. Jacob Kogan's performance is reminiscent of Haley Joel Osment in A.I. (if that character were a sadistic schemer). He is the only character who stands out and I believe this was intentional; the other characters can tell, right along with the audience, that the boy ain't quite right.
This movie is certainly not for the impatient and/or those who need to be smacked in the face repeatedly to stay awake during movies. But if you want a movie that slowly and coolly toys with your mind until the very end, Joshua will likely deliver what you are looking for. -
palomichaturvedi25 August 2020Decided to watch this film because of Sam Rockwell and the Metacritic rating, and boy am I glad I did. Mid way through the movie I was questioning if it really was the boy or if the mother was slowing going insane, then I wondered the same for the dad. The end didn't really surprise me as much as it clarified and fulfilled my expectations. The apartment in new york has a Rosemary's baby style to it along with the mother's clothing. It makes you wonder , if this upper middle class loving family can produce this monstrosity of a kid and end up in big trouble even after being careful, it means that they were doomed. And true horror, toe, is doing everything reasonably right and yet ending up in a horrific situation. The acting was brilliant, though the script did feel a bit off sometimes; in the sense that the scenes were a bit too overdone/ underdone. Like the one w the psychologist. Also didn't get why he loved his uncle so much (just cuz he taught him the piano?) And what exactly his dad did wrong in the start to end up like this. Hope he gets caught lol.
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FromDecatur14 February 2010I watched the whole movie, waiting and waiting for something to actually happen. Maybe it's my fault for expecting evil and horror instead of psychology? Is it a weird re-telling of the Oedipal myth: I want to kill my father and mother and marry my uncle and compose musical theater with him? I didn't understand why certain plot elements were even present: why was the construction upstairs, why was there that big stairwell with a perfect spot for someone to fall to their doom if no one was actually going to do so, why have the scenes at all with the father at work, why have such a nice kitchen if you're only going to eat takeout, why would the boy want to be baptized and the parents be the ones to resist instead of the other way around. I see lots of good reviews for this movie...has my taste been corrupted by going up with 70s b-movies and old sci fi flicks?
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lcherresse19 April 2020The movie was a little creepy in a Bad Seed sort of way. You're dealing with a child that seems to have no real feelings for anyone. It was pretty good.
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JoeytheBrit7 November 2009With very little foreknowledge, I tuned into this movie expecting some kind of kid-possessed-by demon Exorcist/Damien rip-off, but although the film tells of a kid from hell there is no supernatural element to it. I was initially quite surprised by how well-written the screenplay was, although the plot loses some of its impetus half-way through as the writer is forced to create progressively unlikely incidents in order to build upon the tension he has already created.
Joshua is a strange boy, bordering on genius, who likes nothing more than pulling the stuffing from his toy panda's nose in emulation of the Ancient Egyptian's method of preparing dead bodies for embalming. He's also pretty good at copying Dad's grief when he mourns over the dead body of the old family dog (who Joshua may or may not have offed while walking in the park). Joshua knows he's weird, and you sense he's frightened that his parents don't love him – or at least won't love him as much now that a baby sister has arrived in the scene. Sneaking a peek at videos of his constant wailing as a baby also does nothing for his frame of mind, and it's not long before he's sneaking in to little sis's room to make her cry the way he used to.
All these scenes are intelligently scripted and handled – as is Joshua's unique piano recital – fooling you into believing you're in for something really special but, while the film is still impressive (and far better than much of the stuff coming out of Hollywood these days), the plot developments become increasingly predictable, while the aim of Joshua's quiet campaign of terror on his parents is something of a mystery initially, and a little far-fetched when revealed in the final scene (which, naturally, leaves the way open for a sequel). -
meddlecore29 October 2020Upon the birth of his little sister, a young sociopath starts to exhibit very dark behaviour.
Despite having loving parents, he feels that he could not possibly be loved.
Though, he's extremely intelligent for his age, and quickly learns how to manipulate different people in different ways.
He starts by poisoning his baby sister, so that she cries incessantly.
Which drives his mother into post partum depression.
Next, he messes with her medication, until she loses her mind...and is institutionalized.
Then he kills his dog and all of his classes animals.
Before murdering his grandmother, by pushing her down a flight of stairs.
And framing his father for abuse.
He manages this in ways that enable him to get off as a result of plausible deniability.
Seemingly to force his uncle into taking him in, as he is the only one who ever gave him the attention he desired.
Having never been punished for anything he does, one is left to imagine how this behaviour will only be left to escalate in the future.
It's not your typical horror film, but it does have an unsettling quality to it.
Though it is kind of bland.
It's meant to disturb you in a more psychological sense, rather than shock you in a gruesome one.
But it's not exactly the most entertaining film.
Though I guess it does what it sets out to do.
Just like Joshua.
4 out of 10. -
jemps9186 September 2007Nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance, do not expect this story to unfold Hollywood-style. I thought Joshua would be like The Omen but it is more correct to call it a 'psychological thriller' because what's scary in this film is really all in your mind. Thrills come in the uncertainty and expectation of your fears exposed on screen. Joshua doesn't rely on any creepy special effects, so the effectivity only lasts for as long as you expect the worst.
Joshua is about how a weird 9-year old boy (Jacob Kogan) affects his family when his parents (Sam Rockwell and Vera Farmiga) dote on his newborn sister. At first it seems like he is just acting out his jealousy, but his ultra-proper manner makes the mundane extra creepy.
Kogan looks like Mandy Moore but somehow pulls off the empty and sometimes evil facial expressions necessary for his character. Farmiga impressively transforms from her glam role in The Departed to a mess of a mother undergoing post partum depression. Rockwell as Joshua's father is charming and likable enough and appears to be the only normal one in the entire cast.
The homage to the famous Odessa steps sequence in Battleship Potemkin became at first laughable but jarring soon after.
The story is pretty simple, overstretched and heavily ridden with plot holes but the film is undoubtedly beautifully shot; the intermittent piano playing makes you feel heady even when there is just slice-of-life silence. -
thesar-28 July 2009Though not a fan of Sam Rockwell, I was surprised when I saw his name in the credits in the opening of 'Joshua.' Heck, I wasn't even aware he was in 'Joshua' until I started the movie. So it goes without saying, I was watching the movie on the basis of the movie, not the leads. A sort of 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'The Omen' or any other demonic kid movie 'Joshua' was billed. Unfortunately, it fell flat. Slow, incredibly slow, and flat. Yet, I continued on to see how this would all resolve, hoping beyond belief, the ending climax would shed some light on the subject. Okay, I admit, it did (a wee bit) but what a stale closing. And what a low-low budget movie, or at least that's how they designed it. A person falls – you don't see the drop, you see someone lying down in what appears to be blood. A person gets hit by a cab – you don't see it, you see someone complaining, holding a bike up. I'm not sure if this is called "style" or laziness or simply, lack of funds for special effects. We have a "rich" family with a crazy mom, a workaholic father attempting to balance everything, a kid – Joshua, who may/may not be the antichrist and a new born baby girl who cries a lot. She cries as much as we see how many days she's alive – and what was that about? Are there rats above or is it Joshua? Is his mother nuts? Is Joshua crazy? Is he merely jealous of the newcomer to the family? Is he going to grow up to be Michael Myers? Or does he drive his family to the brink? I don't think so. They were nuts prior, and no "so-called" acting could make me believe otherwise. Unfortunately, barely any questions were answered, barely any open doors shut. I'm sure that might have been the idea, but for Pete's sake, give me something. Anything. There are plenty better kid-gone-wild movies to explore. Joshua's more like the Mini-Me of the antichrist.
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First of I want to mention to Bob Z(who posted a comment on here),there is nothing gay or anti-gay about the film Joshua and I have no idea what your weird comment was about and it offended me.I know you have a right to your opinions but it came out of left field.To my knowledge the movie had nothing to do with homosexuality,but if anything is anti-gay it's your comment on it. Yes Joshua's uncle may have been gay but it was never established so maybe he was or maybe he wasn't.He was artistic and into music like his nephew so they just had common interests.As for the ending and Josh being happy to have his uncle as his guardian after supposedly getting his parents out of the way,it could simply be just that he related better to him.His dad was a bit too straight laced and into sports and his mom was mentally ill and flying off the handle so he is probably better off with his uncle.I do agree that the movie mocked Christianity and all the negative comments about it in the movie were uncalled for.The movie wasn't a comedy so the whole Christian/Jew thing was kind of stupid. What is unclear is whether Joshua did all the devious things we think like push his grandma to her death,drive his mom to insanity,try to harm his little sister,kill the family dog,and frame his own dad for child abuse.Or is he innocent and just intelligent and misunderstood!The dog was old and could have died naturally,his mother was already out of her mind,his grandma could have slipped and fell since no one witnessed it,and his dad may have been guilty of child abuse because of Joshua's bruises and the drawings etc.The problem with this movie is it's not clear what is happening.It is too easy to assume Joshua is a conniving psychopath,but then maybe he is!I'm not sure what the producer or writer had in mind.I hope there is a sequel so it can all be wrapped up because the ending was too confusing. Bob Z was right though when he mentioned the similarities between the Manhatten apartment in this movie and Rosemary's baby.Otherwise I have no idea why anyone is comparing this movie to the Omen,the Shinning or Rosemary's baby because Joshua is not even a horror and especially not a supernatural one about a ghost or the devil's child.It's a drama with a little suspense possibly about an evil boy with an agenda but that's it.It is more like "the good son" which was another drama about a disturbed boy.I enjoyed Joshua but it could have been more dramatic and frightening. I thought it may have been more like "Mikey" which was another movie about a demented/disturbed boy except Mikey was a 5 year old cold blooded serial killer.Now that was a gory and disturbing movie,but Michael,Freddy and Jason were kids once too!
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I started watching, expecting something like The Shining or The Omen. I expected paranormal or supernatural or even Dexter-ish. What I got was a post-partum mom, a detached dad and a creepy little kid. Couple that with bible-thumper grandma, recovering addict brother, never pleased granddad...and frankly, I'd be surprised if any kid in that house came out anything less than suicidal or psycho.
I turned the movie off 3 times I got so bored with it but after reading the reviews I came back to see the end. The creepiness finally ramps up about an 75 minutes into a 115 minute flick. The scene with the psychologist is so bizarre as to be comical. Dad's handling of the whole mess after wifey goes away defies that he could ever hold a position of responsibility in the business world that requires any critical thinking or finesse. Rockwell is actually pretty good in the role though. The writing is just awful. The plot is weak and poorly developed. The ending is odd but makes as much sense as the rest of the movie. -
cmmescalona10 October 2010Obviously, this film was made with some other in mind. The homage it represents for films where kids played a key role in their unsettling plot is, to say the least, outstanding.
You'll find out how deeply involved with "Rosemary's Baby" it is. Or with "The Omen". I won't spill the beans here. You have to watch it. It's a horrific tale. Not a horror film with all the usual gore some want to associate the genre with. This film is horrifying in many senses. And when a film really grabs you, making you think about some personal possibilities, it has accomplished it's goal.
Joshua is a film dealing with so many things it won't disappoint. Crude, raw and cruel, but really telling. Good remake and mix of great horror films, and a new species on its own.
Performances are pretty good. Vera Farmiga is surprisingly good, as Sam Rockwell is, too. Jacob Kogan, apart from being a very good piano player, is a believable and fearsome Joshua.
Pinpoint cinematography, good plot and a very suitable script that keeps the story rolling in ways you could expect and in some others you wouldn't.
I can't believe why some people walked out theatres! There's a catch with this film for American viewers: it's eons away from American traditional movie-making. This film resembles the character exploration of Swedish and French films. So, don't expect a fast paced- spectacular glossy film. It will be a slooooow film for people who just want to have some time off with a popcorn film. -
rbod16 July 2007Throughout the film you never really know on whose side you belong. The parents seem to be caring but at the same time neglectful. The child is obviously weird. At the very beginning when Brad receives the call that Abby, his wife, is about to give birth he rushes out of Central Park with Josh in tow, crosses Central Park West to get a cab but leaves the boy behind on the parkside curb. Another instance of Brad's less than fully adult moves is his reaction to the news that his dog is dead. We, the audience, do not know that this was the nature of the phone call that causes him to flee the squash club, mid game, not changing his clothes and running through the streets like a madman, carrying his clothes with him steaming in the wind. One would have thought that full on death and destruction were afoot, a la 9/11, but his dog was dead. Sad, of course, but not the catastrophe he made of it. Abby is also rather distant. Pride keeps her from admitting that she needs help and she comes across as being self absorbed and self obsessed. Neither parent actually ever fully completes a transaction with their son. They never ask him how or why he feels the way he does or does the things he does. They show no interest in getting help for this boy, who clearly needs it. They are just furious with him without the loving balance of a competent parent, or even a competent adult. If you suspected that your son murdered your mother your first reaction would not be to send him to boarding school (very far way) ASAP. No one ever asks him why he killed gran. The movie is flawed, no doubt. Much is left unexplained and unsaid. A little too much, in my opinion. I wasn't sure how I felt about the film even when it became clear that Joshua had planned the outcome, i.e. the demise of his parents, and that he was indeed a bad seed (not that his parents were such bargains) What has given me pause more than anything else is the last scene when he sits with his uncle Ned (Dallas Roberts) and sings a real love song to him. A song that went on and on. It was shocking! I need to see this again, but it seems to me that Ned remained clueless. Clueless that Joshua was responsible for the situation, and clueless that Joshua was in love with him, or to be more PC, had a huge crush on him. This ultimately made me realize that this is truly a creepy film, which is not a bad thing and probably the only thing that gives it a reason to be considered worthwhile.
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oneloveall2 January 2008Cheesy fight flick tries to bask in the horrific glory which was once Rosemary's Baby and The Omen, but ends up feeling like The Good Son instead. Conceptually, Joshua could have had a lot going for it. Sibling rivalry, which formed the basis of this far-fetched tension, is as good a plot device as any to further the suspense, and at times the darkened bedroom scares elicited from the script do effectively make viewers hold there breath. These moments are so few and far between however, that the inherent comedy beneath this half-baked excursion begins to seep out at an alarming rate, climaxing with one of the worst end scenes in recent memory.
Mainly the scares fail because the lead character, this evil child whom we are supposed to fear, just comes across as silly and unrealistic in nearly every scene. Though his parents might have helped sustain certain scenes a little more (Vera Farmiga in particular stands out as the depressed mother), lead Jacob Kogan is simply unequipped to deliver his role in convincing fashion. From his demeanor to his dress, Joshua is written like a cardboard cutout stereotype of the young eccentric evil genius to a tee, almost always opting for bland, misjudged characterization as opposed to any sort of real personality that might have in fact provided a believable fright. -
PhantomAgony24 January 2010I did not enjoy the film, Joshua, at all. Perhaps it is because I saw another, much better similar film titled Orphan 2 days prior but perhaps it's really just because this film was not very good. I am going with the ladder. Sure, the plot of an evil child is not exactly original but that doesn't mean the film could not succeed. It could have been suspenseful and entertaining and chilling but instead it was slow building, boring, uneventful and really didn't leave me thinking anything more than 'that wasn't very good' when it was all over.
At the end, Joshua's motivations are revealed. I won't give that away but the reality is that he didn't really accomplish his goals since despite Vera Farmiga as his mother, Abby, disappearing about 3/4th through the movie, all arrows point to her returning home soon. She was committed to a mental institution because she was losing her mind but then Joshua's Father/Her husband was accused of tampering with her medication which tells the audience that the institution realized that she was indeed not mentally ill but rather was being dosed medically. So.. shouldn't she be coming home soon? Won't Joshua have failed? Won't his Mother be living with him and his sister and possibly his Father soon? I question the Father since his future is left open ended.
At the end of the day, I didn't care about the characters. The evil demon child Joshua wasn't really scary. The storyline moved slowly and when it picked up it was still boring. Suspense fell flat every single time. When it was over I couldn't believe I had sat through the whole thing.
4/10 just because the acting was good from the parents especially Vera Farmiga as the Mother but if you want to see a movie about an evil 'child' go see Orphan. Now that's a movie that took an unoriginal concept and created a brilliant movie.