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Movies / On DVD / Joshua
Joshua

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Joshua (2007)

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Reviews Counted:95

Fresh:59

Rotten:36

Average Rating:6.3/10

Consensus: Though Joshua is ultimately too formulaic, its intelligence and suspenseful buildup heighten the overall creep factor.

Runtime: 1 hr 46 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Synopsis: Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby Cairn (Vera Farmiga) seem to have it all. A successful Manhattan couple living in a plush uptown apartment, they have just welcomed their second child into the... Brad (Sam Rockwell) and Abby Cairn (Vera Farmiga) seem to have it all. A successful Manhattan couple living in a plush uptown apartment, they have just welcomed their second child into the family--a lovely little girl named Lily. Everything should be golden for the happy family, but their little boy--the nine-year-old Joshua (Jacob Kogan)--is less than pleased with the latest addition to the family. An intelligent but odd little boy, Joshua's lack of humor and preoccupation with death belie his tender age, and as the parents coo over Lily, it becomes clear that they are not quite sure what to make of their stone-faced son. When Lily suddenly turns from a quiet baby into one who mysteriously begins wailing day and night, the Cairns' ordered life quickly disintegrates. The lack of sleep and stress takes a heavy toll on the mentally fragile Abby, and Brad begins racing around the city trying to care for his newborn daughter, ailing wife, and emotionally disturbed son. The family stress mounts, and when small animals and the family dog turn up dead, it doesn't take long before fingers begin pointing at the brooding and bizarre Joshua. Vera Farmiga delivers a realistic and disturbing performance as someone tottering at the edge of emotional collapse, and Sam Rockwell is a true pleasure to watch in his turn as a father desperately trying to hold his life together. Using a slow, teasing pace and claustrophobic camera angles, the film strives for a Hitchockian level of suspense while also delivering many topnotch performances. [More]

Starring: Jacob Kogan, Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston

Starring: Jacob Kogan, Sam Rockwell, Vera Farmiga, Celia Weston, Dallas Roberts, Michael McKean

Director: George Ratliff

Director: George Ratliff
Screenwriter: George Ratliff, David Gilbert
Producer: Johnathan Dorfman
Composer: Nico Muhly
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures

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Reviews for Joshua

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81 - 96 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Perhaps the scariest thing about Joshua was the feeling I got at the end that I had just sat through some kind of weird gay panic movie.

Full Review Source: CHUD | comment 1 Comment
07/05/07
Devin Faraci
Devin Faraci
CHUD

A by-the-numbers, would-be thriller that's just never scary. About the best that can be said of it is that it reminds you of better movies.

Full Review Source: Internet Reviews | comment Comment
07/04/07
Steve Rhodes
Steve Rhodes
Internet Reviews

If you can appreciate complex, slow-burn dramas and forego the buckets of blood, then you're likely to agree with me when I say that Joshua is among the best of films of its genre to come along in quite some time.

Full Review Source: Horror.com | comment Comment
07/04/07
Staci Layne Wilson
Staci Layne Wilson
Horror.com

Works best as a drama of family decay.

Full Review Source: New York Magazine | comment Comment
07/03/07
David Edelstein
David Edelstein
New York Magazine

With deliberate pacing, well-placed scares, and a pitch-black sense of humor, [George] Ratliff keeps us guessing until the stunner finish.

Full Review Source: New York Daily News | comment Comment
07/03/07
Elizabeth Weitzman
Elizabeth Weitzman
New York Daily News

George Ratliff, who gave us the (much more frightening) doc Hell House, works on hoarily familiar territory here and doesn't bring much new to the party.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
07/03/07
David Noh
David Noh
Film Journal International

I'm not sure whether Joshua's campiness outweighs its offensiveness - it's got both in spades - but there's no getting around the fact that Ratliff's creepy-kid thriller is seriously awful.

Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | comment Comment
07/03/07
Nick Schager
Nick Schager
Lessons of Darkness

Joshua might have been delicious if it weren't so blatantly hateful toward women, queers, and religion.

Full Review Source: Slant Magazine | comment Comment
07/01/07
Ed Gonzalez
Ed Gonzalez
Slant Magazine

[W]hy is it so hard to make a scary flick about evil kids these days? The Omen remake was pretty hilarious, and Joshua is ridiculous, though they are apparently attempting to re-position it as a "black comedy"

Full Review Source: New Times | comment 2 Comments
06/30/07
Luke Y. Thompson
Luke Y. Thompson
New Times

If there's a better model of passive-aggressive than this Joshua kid in a recent movie, I'd like to know of one.

Full Review Source: Compuserve | comment Comment
06/13/07
Harvey S. Karten
Harvey S. Karten
Compuserve

In good quality horror, fear and suspense arise from a deepening sense of character, not a noisier sense of one.

Full Review Source: Boxoffice Magazine | comment Comment
03/01/07
Jay Antani
Jay Antani
Boxoffice Magazine

Even though the story covers familiar ground, it provides enough tension and humor in the presentation to make it worth watching.

Full Review Source: Film Threat | comment Comment
01/30/07
Jamie Tipps
Jamie Tipps
Film Threat

Using well the paradigm of the outsider, here the impact of a new baby on a seemingly perfect family, this elegantly made, often sophisticated psychological thriller marks Ratliff's smooth transition from docu to feature filmmaking; he's a talent to watch

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
01/27/07
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

A brilliant house-of-horror tale with Hitchcockean flair.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment Comment
01/27/07
Duane Byrge
Duane Byrge
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Boasts enough in the way of sharp acting, as well as visual and musical smarts, to give the psychological twists and turns a respectable aesthetic context.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
01/25/07
Todd McCarthy
Todd McCarthy
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Builds to a number of gripping climaxes that leave the viewer quite shaken by how subtly and effectively this movie delivers on the thrills.

Full Review Source: ComingSoon.net | comment 1 Comment
01/22/07
Edward Douglas
Edward Douglas
ComingSoon.net
 
 
81 - 96 (sorted by date; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | |< << 1 2 3 4 5
all

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