joe the king

Director: frank whaley

Actor: noah fleiss,karen young,camryn manheim,austin pendleton

Data Published: Fri Jan 22 1999

Genres: Crime,Drama

Key Words: corporal punishment,stealing,police,breaking and entering,boy

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0160672/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_the_King

Description: Joe the King is a movie starring Noah Fleiss, Karen Young, and Camryn Manheim. A disadvantaged, abused, neglected, exploited but basically decent kid slips into criminality while trying to cope with his harsh, inescapable reality.

Plot: 14-year-old Joe Henry has spent his life in an abusive household. His father, Bob, is a raging violent alcoholic, while his mother, Theresa, feels too stressed to pay attention to him and lives in fear of getting caught in the path of her husband's wrath. His brother, about a year older, is normal and friendly but offers no affirmative guidance. He mostly ignores Joe as he doesn't want the association of Joe's natural uncoolness ruining his attempts to get into the "in" crowd. Joe is taunted by his classmates, and hassled by creditors about his father's mounting bills. To make matters worse, one night Bob goes off the deep end and smashes all of Theresa's records. In response to economic pressure, Joe takes a full-time job after school, leaving him tired and even less able to keep up with class work. Far worse, he becomes a petty thief to raise the money to pay Bob's bills and replace Theresa's records. He even does an insider job—robbing the diner where he works illegally. Failing in school, Joe is assigned a guidance counselor named Leonard Coles, who, though reasonably friendly, is incompetent, for example, in their first session, when Joe starts to talk about his problems, the counselor unthinkingly shuts him off. Disaster eventually strikes, and Joe faces the rest of his seemingly doomed life in doubt. Ironically, where he winds up next seems more like hope than tragedy. Perhaps a chance to get away from his horrible childhood and family.