A Texas lumber foreman takes a 15-year-old under his wing. Starring Nicolas Cage.

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In a small Texas town, after spending a large part of his life in prison, Joe has settled down into a quiet existence, cutting lumber for the local mill, having the odd relationship with women and alcohol – his best friend. One day he hires Gary, a 15-year-old boy looking for work. As Joe becomes attached to the boy, who is beaten by his alcoholic father and is trying to escape his plight, Joe realizes he’s going to have to help Gary and find a kind of redemption in the task.

On paper, Joe could be mistake for Jeff Nichols’s Mud: with Texas standing for Mississippi, Nicolas Cage replacing Matthew McConaughey and the young Tye Sheridan linking both movies. The comparison is inevitable, but David Gordon Green need fear no shame. In the wake of Prince of Texas, the American director offers Nicolas Cage one of his best roles in a long time in this fable that is both sweet and brutal. The formula is more than classic, but its execution is striking.