This is a well intentioned but dismally dull and wretchedly written indie exercise in lower working class experience. Actor Frank Whaley's directorial debut is an ambitious but unsuccessful look at a teenager's coming of age in a 1970s slacker neighborhood. No doubt autobiographical to some degree, the movie sets up a somewhat cliched conflict between alienated teen and his drunken lout of a father (Val Kilmer). This got some good reviews but I bailed out after an hour, wondering how it managed them. I felt like I had seen it all before.
Review of Joe the King
