Average Joe

Average Joe (2024) tells the true and inspiring story of Joe Kennedy, a Marine veteran who becomes a high school football coach. After a challenging childhood in foster care and group homes, Joe finds purpose and discipline in the Marine Corps, serving in the Gulf War. As a coach, he takes a courageous legal stand to defend freedom and religious liberty for everyone, embodying the resilience and fighting spirit he developed throughout his life.

Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

– Matthew 5:10

Average Joe Review

From a purely cinematic point of view, Average Joe is somewhat… average. The performances are mostly that of journeymen, neither distracting nor memorable, with veteran performer Eric Close, who plays the titular Joe, standing out as being the most natural and comfortable even when the scenes veer into one of its many unnecessary exposition dumps via its faux-documentary interviews. That said, this isn’t an entirely fair assessment, as the film’s quasi-documentary style frequently interrupts each performer’s stride, never fully slackening the reins to give them their head.

The format really is the film’s most limiting factor. Once again, as in so many other recent conservative films like Reagan or even mainstream fare like The Bikeriders, the filmmakers take what is an inherently compelling story with interesting characters and chop it up with momentum-arresting and narratively redundant cutaways. In the case of Average Joe, the cutaways are almost always to scenes of Joe and his wife being interviewed.

Look at it like this: Some alcohols, like Bushmills 21, aged for a minimum of 19 years in Oloroso Sherry and bourbon-seasoned casks, are meant to be sipped and savored and given time to breathe so that they produce a full-bodied experience as the drinker inhales the aroma and gives himself time to process the various levels of its bouquet and taste profile. On the other hand, a bottom-shelf bottle of Kentucky mash will get you just as tore up for a lot less and is a lot easier. Filmmaking is no different.

There’s an old adage about movies: ” Show, don’t tell.” It means that filmmakers should convey emotions, themes, and character development through visual actions, expressions, and interactions rather than relying on exposition or dialogue to explain everything. It emphasizes the importance of using the medium’s visual nature to engage the audience and allow them to infer meaning rather than simply explaining it directly. This almost always makes for a more immersive and powerful viewing experience.

The same can be said for breaking the fourth wall, which this film does nearly as often, if not as… theatrically, as Deadpool. There’s a right way and a wrong way to employ nearly every theatrical convention. Unfortunately, between the cutaways and the fourth wall breaking, Average Joe’s rhythm is never consistent and never takes the audience as far emotionally as it could. This is made all the more frustrating by the fact that when the filmmakers do give a scene or a segment time to breathe, Average Joe regularly shows that it has all of the needed matériel to fire off a complete banger.

Thankfully, despite all of the above, Average Joe is also a generally well-paced film that gets a boost from its compelling main character and the gravitas of its subject. Despite the film’s title, Joe Kennedy’s life has been anything but average. Tossed away by parents and adoptive parents alike, only to serve our country for 20 years in the USMC, risking his life to protect and defend our God-given right to religious freedom for a government that had been betraying this trust for decades, Kennedy’s devotion to God and country make up for most of the film’s shortcomings.

Average Joe also manages to build a lot of goodwill with some early well-filmed lightheartedness and some interesting directorial decisions that, while they can get a little redundant and or needlessly serve to remind the audience that it’s watching a movie rather than experiencing a snapshot of someone’s life, usually work.

Finally, as much as I’ve gone on about the film’s format, Average Joe gives far more time between cutaways than that of some of its contemporaries, and the time in between is just enough to let the audience bond with the actions and individuals being depicted. Furthermore, since the cutaways are almost always that of the central characters, Joe and his wife, played by Eric Close and Amy Acker, who work well together, the film maintains a thread of emotionality throughout. So, when the theatrics begin once again, the audience doesn’t have to start from emotional-zero to reengage.

Ultimately, despite its flaws, Average Joe warrants purchasing a ticket. The reminder of what our faith calls us to do is sufficient unto itself, but overall, the film delivers its intended message with sufficient aplomb to not only get you there intellectually but also emotionally. We’re happy to mark it as Worth it.

WOKE ELEMENTS

Ladies, Learn To Say, “I’m Sorry.”

• Throughout much of the film’s main conflict, Joe’s wife is portrayed as either unwilling or unable to understand his reasons for staying in the fight despite the strain it is putting on her professional life. While she expresses half-hearted faith in his cause, the movie casts her as selfish during this phase. Yet, the conflict’s resolution frames Joe, who has been increasingly isolated by her, as the one at fault for not fully communicating his motivations, leading him to apologize to her rather than the other way around. From that point, her support feels disingenuous, as if shaped by the modern woke idea that it’s solely the man’s job to explain himself, with no responsibility on her part to assume the best or try to understand him. It’s a small moment, but it stands out.