Every now and then there’s an inspirational movie that makes you get off your butt and want to do something great. Sadly, Finding Joe is not that movie. Ever since I saw the trailer for Finding Joe, I knew I had to see it – I love movies that open the mind and have you thinking a different way. Littered with interviews and conversations from numerous notable figures, Finding Joe looked like it had some new insight into what pushes a person to live the life they want rather than the life they settle for. The Joe is a double entendre for both every average Joe and Joseph Campbell, the mythologist who coined the “hero’s journey.”
Finding Joe is all about the hero’s journey. I have to watch it again and count how many times they actually repeat it. The structure of the documentary is set around the journey and the subject matter of most of the interviews is the journey. What is the hero’s journey? It’s the basis of pretty much every single story in our history. Spanning all cultures, languages and religions, the hero’s journey goes through the steps of a complete compelling story of a changed man. It goes through the challenges, fears, dragons, battles and return home to tell your story and set someone else off on their very own journey.
YEAH!
With interviews from the likes of Deepak Chopra, Sir Ken Robinson, Alan Cohen and Brian Johnson, we’re giving a front row seat to a motivational speech that people pay a lot more than a movie ticket to see. The filmmaker also interviews people like Tony Hawk, Mick Fleetwood, Rashida Jones and Laird Hamilton to get more well known names and have mass appeal. He even threw in Catherine Hardwicke for some reason (the director of Twilight). There are some nuggets of great philosophy but for the most part, it is extremely redundant and contains very blunt rudimentary ideas that would be taught to children. Nothing awe inspiring really comes out of this documentary which I was very disappointed to realize.
...yeah
Sliced between quotes from Joseph Campbell, Finding Joe has interview after interview intertwined with random shots of random people and a group of kids acting out different scenes from the hero’s journey as the interviewees are voiced over them. The scenes with the kids looked more like a high school project which was shot over a weekend. The music in the back kept making it seem like every scene was the ending scene of a movie where they sum up everything and leave you with closing remarks. If you watch the trailer, the movie is like watching that on repeat for 80 minutes.
I wonder why they didn't have any press photos of the interviewees =/
I was really looking forward to this movie but was let down. There are many other pieces of work that talk about Joseph Campbell and his ideas including the hero’s journey. There are also many other works which describe how influential the idea is and how it is found in common day stories everywhere. Finding Joe does begin with cuts of scenes from a plethora of popular movies to illustrate how the hero’s journey is in basically every single film but again, I think they did that to pull in the average Joe and have them relate to something they know. I would have preferred to hear the words of the M.D.s and Ph.D.s who have studied these philosophical works and have true insight into what makes a person tick and what really allows someone to “follow their bliss.” Instead, Finding Joe just reiterates what you should already know.
You know what, you know what? Wow. Our Idiot Brother is a special movie. From the very beginning, Paul Rudd just makes you want to smile 
. He plays that lovable sweet hippie that’s always in a good mood and has an endless supply of unconditional love to give to the world. This movie is as magical as that character and it’ll win you over even if you don’t understand why. Starring a ridiculously extensive cast, Our Idiot Brother is being released this weekend after premiering at Sundance (as My Idiot Brother) earlier in the year. It’s a part of that weird breed of mainstream indie films that have been growing recently.
Deja Vu. Everyone will automatically compare Friends With Benefits with the movie released earlier this year with the same exact concept called No Strings Attached so let’s start there and get the elephant out of the room. While No Strings Attached was almost all about the sex, Friends With Benefits is more about the relationship. That may sound more boring to some people, but it’s actually more “real” and genuinely funnier. They are both completely manufactured romantic comedies aimed to the female demographic but Friends With Benefits is more in line with what people really go through and audiences will be able to relate to it more. Instead of Ashton Kutcher, you have Justin Timberlake and instead of Natalie Portman, you have her Black Swan co-star Mila Kunis. Everybody just wants to have sex, buddy.
Facebook. Everyone knows about it and almost everybody is on it. To not be a part of it is just as conscious a decision as not to drink water, as it has become just as much a part of society as eating and sleeping. Despite its widespread popularity, however, for most, little is known about its origins, its founders, and how it has become such an institution in our everyday life. Cue Columbia Pictures to bring you The Social Network, the tale of how this social networking phenom implanted itself into the homes of millions of Americans nationwide.
