Critics scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.
out of 100
Metascore®Generally favorable reviewsbased on a weighted average of allcritic review scores.
Despite all this boilerplate gangster-with-a-heart-of-gold stuff, there's an emotional payoff to "Joe May" that feels solid and right.
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Mr. Maggio's strengths here are his people (not their stories), a sense of intimacy and textured place rather than the generic hoops he forces the characters to jump through.
Dennis Farina gets the enviable opportunity to humanize the kind of character he has sometimes exaggerated comically in glossier films.
The truth is, Mr. Farina would be considered Oscar material if "Joe May" were a bigger film. As it is, he'll have to settle for being great.
The film, written and directed by Joe Maggio, only has this handful of characters and looks at them carefully. The dialogue is right, the conflicts are simple and sincere, the hopes are touching.
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