¡QUÉ HORROR! 2020
Candidate #3
LITTLE JOE
(May 2019)
“Fear can distort our perception of reality until we actually see what we are afraid of… or what we
secretly wish for…”
Every living thing on this planet impacts the
environment, in both small and big ways, but it’s only humanity that does so
with other motives besides survival and adaptation.
And prominent amongst those other motives is profit.
Not only are considerable risks taken because large
amounts of money stand to be made, but all this is undertaken with an arrogant
sense of certitude, then covered up by the lie that it’s all for the “betterment”
of mankind.
That smug sense of entitlement--we do so because we can--lies at the
very heart of Jessica Hausner’s Little
Joe.
“We are entering a new era here. The first mood-lifting, antidepressant,
happy plant… that’s fit for market. I mean, you can imagine the benefit for
humanity implicated in this innovation.”
Relocating from Into
the Badlands, Emily Beecham plays plant breeder Alice Woodard, whose latest
work, named after her own son (Kit Connor), is the titular (and quite possibly
sinister) “Little Joe.”
The flower’s been genetically engineered to
maximize its scent production, a smell that is literally meant to make those
who take a whiff of it happy.
There’s money to be had from that idea… any quick
shortcut to happiness is something people would gladly pay for.
And, since this is
¡Qué horror!, it should come as no surprise that
the ultimate cost for the happiness Little Joe is capable of inducing is so much more than mere dollars and
cents.
“It would be a mistake to deny who you really are.”
Working from a script she co-wrote with Géraldine
Bajard, Hausner presents us with a quietly unsettling title that has potent
echoes of Invasion of the Body Snatchers,
highlighting that fear of realizing, far too late, that while everything around
you may still look the same, it’s all fundamentally different.
And, far worse, no one else seems to mind because ROI
is king.
“Please don’t be offended, but your theory lacks any sort of evidence.
There are simply no symptoms. And who can prove the genuineness of feelings?
Moreover, who cares?”
Parting Shot: Alongside the former Badlands Widow, we also find Ben Whishaw
and Shallow Grave’s Kerry Fox in the
cast, so even more reasons to check
this one out.
(Little Joe OS
courtesy of impawards.com.)
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