Little Joe

Alice works as a genetic engineer and is a devoted mother, yet her career often takes priority over her teenage son Joe. She creates a flower said to make people feel happy because of its special chemical makeup. As the plant's influence ripples through their lives, trust, memory and family dynamics start to tilt, while subtle dangers hide beneath the surface glamour of scientific progress. The mood stays cool and precise, like a lab report that unspools into something uncanny. Hints of secrets behind the relationships hang in the air, leaving moral questions to linger. Joe, a perceptive teen, notices the growing distance between him and his mother, while Chris, a colleague, becomes entangled in the family's uneasy dynamic.

Released in 2019, Little Joe is directed by Jessica Hausner and based on an original screenplay by Géraldine Bajard. The film stars Emily Beecham, Ben Whishaw and Kerry Fox in central roles, delivering a restrained arthouse mood that echoes a clinical interrogation.

Critics have described the film as a cool, meticulously designed drama that probes motherhood and the ethics of science. It explores how happiness can become a commodity and the costs of pursuing it, with a restrained pace that emphasizes mood over action. Beecham's restraint and Hausner's clinical visuals drew praise.

Its visual style and clinical atmosphere have sparked conversations in arthouse circles, with the flower motif read as a quiet symbol of desire and dependency. The film invites viewers to ponder the boundary between scientific progress and the price paid by a family, a thought that lingers after the credits.

Box office details are not widely reported, reflecting a limited release tied to festival circuits and art house venues globally. It circulated mainly through film festivals and selective citywide screenings, earning a steady reputation among arthouse audiences for its mood and ideas.