JOE BELL (2021) 

Again, going to start by saying there are some poignant scenes in the film that do make it a heart wrenching watch, most notably when Lola Bell (Connie Britton) discovers Jadin (Reid Miller) has killed himself. However, these scenes aren’t enough to make the movie a good or powerful film. Could the script have been saved by a less heavy-handed director attempting to make a poignant societal commentary on the dangers of bullying? Personally, I doubt it. Writers Diana Ossana and the late Larry McMurty, whose last collaboration was 2005’s Brokeback Mountain, deliver a film that would have been groundbreaking like their last film but in 2021 feels stagnant and out of touch. The most accurate line actually comes over an hour into the film when Joe (Mark Wahlberg) says, “I made Jadin being gay all about Joe Bell. About me,” which is actually the only thing Joe Bell accomplishes. This doesn’t mean Joe Bell is in any way undeserving of recognition for what he accomplished in the few short months between Jadin’s death and his own, but Joe Bell fails to tell the ins-and-outs of the Bells’ story. Instead of showcasing how Jadin was kept on life support for several weeks before his family made the impossible decision to pull him off, Jadin’s suicide arc is shown for all of 2 minutes. Viewers also don’t see how hard Joe worked to start Faces for Change and the decision to walk across the United States, instead Joe sits in Jadin’s bedroom for a month and suddenly decides to walk. Jadin’s story is almost nonexistent, only there to set up Joe’s redemption arc from homophobe to anti-bullying advocate.

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I fully understand the importance of anti-bullying, and I believe film is a perfect tool to showcase how bullying can affect people; however, Joe Bell is not an anti-bullying movie; it’s tragedy porn wrapped up as an anti-bullying message. It truly believes that showing a few text messages and a handful of brief instances of physical violence are a great PSA. Instead of showing the mental anguish bullying has caused Jadin—making him go from a happy child to someone in an unfathomable amount of pain—the film plops you right at the end of his life so Joe’s journey can be the primary focus. This is perfectly exemplified by making the viewer go through a series of flashbacks and Joe’s visual hallucinations while he walks by not disclosing Jadin’s death until the viewer is 40 minutes in. Normally you would think there would be a powerful scene where viewers would be either shocked or bawling. Instead, the film shows Joe awkwardly say, “My son’s dead” to a drag queen at a gay bar, while continuously saying, “It’s okay,” before cutting to the day Jadin committed suicide. 

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I realize the film is Joe Bell and not Jadin Bell, but the latter would have made a much more poignant anti-bullying story than the former. I want to know who Jadin was, not the stereotype Osana and McMurty wrote, and what his life was like. I want to know about his friends. I want to see how his school failed him by not taking complaints seriously and how his death affected his community. I want to see his familial dynamics.