Meet Joe Black : The Cult of Death, Peanut Butter, and the Long Goodbye
Meet Joe Black is a film about dying that makes you feel gloriously, painfully alive. Conoce a Joe Black
In an era of ironic detachment and two-hour streaming content, Meet Joe Black dares to be earnest. It is unapologetically slow. It lingers on sunsets, on glances across a hospital room, on the sound of a heart beating. It asks us to sit with the knowledge that we will die, and then—counter-intuitively—makes us crave a slice of toast with peanut butter. Meet Joe Black : The Cult of Death,
Why? Because Meet Joe Black isn't really about a high-powered businessman or a whirlwind romance. It is a surprisingly tender, achingly slow meditation on what it means to say goodbye. It lingers on sunsets, on glances across a
Brad Pitt gives one of the strangest performances of his career. As Joe Black, he is not playing a man; he is playing an entity trying on humanity like an itchy wool suit. He walks stiffly, tilts his head like a confused bird, and speaks with a deliberate, halting cadence. He discovers the joy of peanut butter with the wide-eyed wonder of a newborn.
It is not a perfect film. It is too long. The subplot involving a hostile takeover is a snooze. But the core trio—Hopkins, Forlani, and especially Pitt’s wide-eyed reaper—creates a spell that breaks cynicism.
Directed by Martin Brest ( Beverly Hills Cop , Scent of a Woman ), the film follows Bill Parrish (Anthony Hopkins), a titan of industry who has built an empire but is running out of time. On the eve of his 65th birthday, he begins hearing a mysterious voice. That voice belongs to Death, who has come to take him.