Grossly Underrated Road Movie
Added 3/7/2008
Josh and S.A.M. is one of my favorite movies. Having worked with kids
much of my adult life, I am sensitive to the problems children have in
dysfunctional or rejecting families. The film is about two brothers,
Josh and Sam (Jacob Tierney and Noah Fleiss) ages 12 and 8 respectively.
(Fleiss should have been cast as a 9 or 10 year old). They are complete
opposites, the older a computer nerd and fabricator, the younger a jock
with ADD symptoms. They do not get along, with Josh resenting Sam's
athleticism and Sam smarting from Josh's scorn. Their mother is a
divorcee, more involved in her new love interest than her boys, while
their father has remarried and is living in Florida with his new wife
and her two cloddish jock sons, appearing to be about 11 and 14. The
boys are flown from L.A. to Florida to visit their dad before summer
ends, and there, Josh's stepbrothers and Sam tease Josh, implying that
his dad thinks maybe he is gay. Upset that Sam sides with his step-
brothers, he concocts a plan on a computer, combining a weekly news-
magazine article about child warriors in Latin America with pictures
of Sam. He then manages to convince Sam the next day that he (Sam) is
really genetically engineered to be a child warrior, and that his dad
is planning to sell him to the Pentagon. This seemingly hard to belive
story seems to explain all of Sam's problems with school, fighting, and
daydreaming. Then the boys are sent back to L.A. prematurely when their
mother decides to go with her boyfriend to Europe for a year and wants
to say goodby before she leaves. But a storm in Dallas grounds their
plane and Josh decides he doesn't want to be with either parent, and
tries to leave Sam at the hotel they are in, waiting out the storm. He
wanders into a high-school reunion to get free food, and pretends he is
the son of a woman attending. A man (Chris Penn) overhears him and
thinks Josh may be his son. Sam comes down from the room, and the three
of them head to the parents of the woman Josh said was his mother. When
Penn realizes the whole story was made up, now inside the unoccupied
residence around a pool table, he becomes violent, and Josh hits him
hard with a pool cue, knocking him out. Josh thinks he has killed Penn,
and he and Sam take off in Penn's rented car for Canada. The rest of
the film is their adventures on the road, which include Martha Plimpton
as a wandering runaway, who S.A.M. believes is the Liberty Maid, part of
the lie that Josh made up to escort altered mutants to freedom in Canada.
No matter how hard Josh tries to tell Sam the truth, each event seems to
only verify Josh's lies. The performances of the two leads are amazing,
the movie is low key, quiet, and sad, making it too heady for younger
children, and a couple of scenes where Sam drives, thinking he is in-
destructible, seriously hurt the films already unlikely premise. But
the last 15 minutes have some excellent dialogue, and the movie ends
in a somewhat promising way, as the brothers have grown close as a result
of their saga. So if you like serious films about children, and can
accept the premise and excuse a couple of poorly thought out scenes,
you will see a terrific, sensitive, beautifully acted, underrated film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
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"Josh and S.A.M." Soundtrack Review
Added 10/11/2001
After hearing the music selections of "Josh and S.A.M." three times, I've concluded that I'm happy I bought the CD. I hadn't heard the music since seeing the film about 1995. At that time I thought it worked very well in a relatively mediocre film. Being a fan of most of Thomas Newman's scores, I hear a lot of the composer's usual tricks at work here. There's the funky, twangy sounds mixed with electronic sounds with the overlaying strings and woodwinds. No other composer has this signiture sound, and if you like it, it'll hook you. The "Main Title" has a nice little melody played in either an English horn or oboe. This tune only appears in two other sections. It's the soulful-sounding strings in "Saltwater Palace, Bus to Canada, and Targhee Pass," for example that I really liked. It's this kind of poignant stuff that Newman can do so well. I give this soundtrack 4 stars. It's not "The Shawshank Redemption" nor "Oscar and Lucinda" but still pretty enjoyable, especially if you like most of Newman's music. In my opinion, he's the most gifted composer working in Hollywood today.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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josh & sam
Added 8/6/2001
I seen both actors in later films first and thought they were interesting and when I found out about Josh & Sam I felt it was a bonus the Tierney was in it because I found out about the film because of Noah Fleiss and these kids were very good long before i found them and I now need to see all the rest of the early films to see how whomevwer was in charge saw the diamonds in the rough that these two were. I think Noah will be a bigger heartbreaker with the angst films.
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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Josh and S.A.M.
Added 4/30/2001
Josh, a young boy (Jacob Tierney) is adopted and is picked on by his evil stepdad and stepbrothers. They treat him badly and call him a girl a lot. Josh has a real younger brother whom he wants to keep in his camp. His stepdad and stepbrothers treat Sam like family and are creating a split between Josh and Sam. Josh develops a great plan to get Sam back into his camp. He tells Sam he is a genetically enhanced youth (reason he can do everything better then Josh as well as beat him up) and his Stepdad is going to ship him off to war. The story Josh tells Sam gets out of control and he ends it with Sam having to go to Canada to be converted back to a normal boy and not having to go to war. The two boys end up running away in a stolen car and having lots of great adventures. Along the way the find help in a streetwise runaway. Family fun must see.
4 out of 7 people found this helpful.
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One of Thomas Newman's Best!!!!!!!
Added 10/3/2000
I found this CD at a local music store and I picked it up as soon as I found it. I remembered that I really did like the score in the movie. It is very different and unique. I really love it. It is one of my favorites in my soundtrack collection!
2 out of 2 people found this helpful.
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Grossly Underrated Road Movie
Added 3/7/2008
Josh and S.A.M. is one of my favorite movies. Having worked with kids
much of my adult life, I am sensitive to the problems children have in
dysfunctional or rejecting families. The film is about two brothers,
Josh and Sam (Jacob Tierney and Noah Fleiss) ages 12 and 8 respectively.
(Fleiss should have been cast as a 9 or 10 year old). They are complete
opposites, the older a computer nerd and fabricator, the younger a jock
with ADD symptoms. They do not get along, with Josh resenting Sam's
athleticism and Sam smarting from Josh's scorn. Their mother is a
divorcee, more involved in her new love interest than her boys, while
their father has remarried and is living in Florida with his new wife
and her two cloddish jock sons, appearing to be about 11 and 14. The
boys are flown from L.A. to Florida to visit their dad before summer
ends, and there, Josh's stepbrothers and Sam tease Josh, implying that
his dad thinks maybe he is gay. Upset that Sam sides with his step-
brothers, he concocts a plan on a computer, combining a weekly news-
magazine article about child warriors in Latin America with pictures
of Sam. He then manages to convince Sam the next day that he (Sam) is
really genetically engineered to be a child warrior, and that his dad
is planning to sell him to the Pentagon. This seemingly hard to belive
story seems to explain all of Sam's problems with school, fighting, and
daydreaming. Then the boys are sent back to L.A. prematurely when their
mother decides to go with her boyfriend to Europe for a year and wants
to say goodby before she leaves. But a storm in Dallas grounds their
plane and Josh decides he doesn't want to be with either parent, and
tries to leave Sam at the hotel they are in, waiting out the storm. He
wanders into a high-school reunion to get free food, and pretends he is
the son of a woman attending. A man (Chris Penn) overhears him and
thinks Josh may be his son. Sam comes down from the room, and the three
of them head to the parents of the woman Josh said was his mother. When
Penn realizes the whole story was made up, now inside the unoccupied
residence around a pool table, he becomes violent, and Josh hits him
hard with a pool cue, knocking him out. Josh thinks he has killed Penn,
and he and Sam take off in Penn's rented car for Canada. The rest of
the film is their adventures on the road, which include Martha Plimpton
as a wandering runaway, who S.A.M. believes is the Liberty Maid, part of
the lie that Josh made up to escort altered mutants to freedom in Canada.
No matter how hard Josh tries to tell Sam the truth, each event seems to
only verify Josh's lies. The performances of the two leads are amazing,
the movie is low key, quiet, and sad, making it too heady for younger
children, and a couple of scenes where Sam drives, thinking he is in-
destructible, seriously hurt the films already unlikely premise. But
the last 15 minutes have some excellent dialogue, and the movie ends
in a somewhat promising way, as the brothers have grown close as a result
of their saga. So if you like serious films about children, and can
accept the premise and excuse a couple of poorly thought out scenes,
you will see a terrific, sensitive, beautifully acted, underrated film.
0 out of 0 people found this helpful.
|
"Josh and S.A.M." Soundtrack Review
Added 10/11/2001
After hearing the music selections of "Josh and S.A.M." three times, I've concluded that I'm happy I bought the CD. I hadn't heard the music since seeing the film about 1995. At that time I thought it worked very well in a relatively mediocre film. Being a fan of most of Thomas Newman's scores, I hear a lot of the composer's usual tricks at work here. There's the funky, twangy sounds mixed with electronic sounds with the overlaying strings and woodwinds. No other composer has this signiture sound, and if you like it, it'll hook you. The "Main Title" has a nice little melody played in either an English horn or oboe. This tune only appears in two other sections. It's the soulful-sounding strings in "Saltwater Palace, Bus to Canada, and Targhee Pass," for example that I really liked. It's this kind of poignant stuff that Newman can do so well. I give this soundtrack 4 stars. It's not "The Shawshank Redemption" nor "Oscar and Lucinda" but still pretty enjoyable, especially if you like most of Newman's music. In my opinion, he's the most gifted composer working in Hollywood today.
5 out of 6 people found this helpful.
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josh & sam
Added 8/6/2001
I seen both actors in later films first and thought they were interesting and when I found out about Josh & Sam I felt it was a bonus the Tierney was in it because I found out about the film because of Noah Fleiss and these kids were very good long before i found them and I now need to see all the rest of the early films to see how whomevwer was in charge saw the diamonds in the rough that these two were. I think Noah will be a bigger heartbreaker with the angst films.
2 out of 4 people found this helpful.
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