The love grows in Joe + Belle, which finds a cynical, cigarette-smoking woman named Joe (co-writer/director Veronica Kedar) returning to Tel Aviv after what sounds like years away. She grew up in New York and lived in Israel when she was a kid, but doesn’t believe Israel to be home, or any city to potentially be home either. She comes bearing drugs for Abigail (Romi Aboulafia), drug dealer that she is, but frustrated with what her life is. As is expected in such a short running time, her life changes quickly when she finds Belle (Sivan Levy) in her bathtub, a pink ladies razor in her hand, planning to kill herself with it. Belle was recently released from a psychiatric hospital, and met up with her mother, but found out that her dog ran away, and so does she in turn.
Through the magic of clipped dialogue, Joe begrudgingly lets Belle stay with her, but things turn grim when Belle, after finding the gun that Joe keeps in her microwave, shoots Matan (Yotam Ishay), Belle’s ex-boyfriend, after he returns to their former apartment to pick up a few things. She didn’t know who he was, Joe didn’t say anything about him, and she panicked. And now there’s a dead body. Oh, and Abigail is in love with Matan, so naturally she worries about what has happened to him.
The women go on the run, and it becomes a hard-edged, crazy little journey, quite possibly the most gentle crime film you’ll ever see. And that’s counting the tied-up cop, throwing the wrapped, bloody body in a stream, and Abigail eventually turning on Joe and revealing to Tzedek (Ra’anan Hefetz), a police officer she occasionally has sex with, what she knows, and setting him and his partner after Joe and Belle. But what’s right in this violence-ridden region? Is Joe and Belle’s violence any worse than the rockets exploding on various lands? It’s a dark existence, but yet again, there is love, and the love is the sweetest part of the whole movie, as Joe, who declares that she is straight, admits to Belle at a lesbian club that she was somewhat jealous when she saw Belle dancing with another woman, and tells her that she wants to try it. And love blossoms.
Despite the declaration on the front cover of the DVD case, a release by Wolfe Video, that Joe + Belle is “The Lesbian “Thelma and Louise,” I don’t believe it. If that was true, then the police would be after them at full force. Yes, they became fast friends under duress and eventually lovers, but this isn’t Thelma and Louise in that sense. To me, it’s lazy shorthand, what would be expected at a Hollywood pitch meeting. Even with that sudden burst of violence at the beginning, with the dark undertones, it’s ironically much gentler than that. It’s less about the crime and more about Joe and Belle, and the pleasure involved in watching the cynical Joe gradually soften. Somehow, the hardest of hearts can be pierced. The scene between the two in the nearly empty club while Joe is singing is one of the most touching declarations of love in movies.
On the DVD is the trailer for Joe + Belle, along with trailers for The Guest House (L.A., L.A., all of L.A., including the Santa Monica Pier and its famous Ferris wheel), Kiss Me, Tom Boy, Leading Ladies, A Marine Story, and Trigger. There’s also a music video for “By My Side,” starring Yotam Ishay (who could imagine that Matan could sing), Sivan Levy, and Veronica Kedar.
But the most remarkable extra on this DVD is the “Behind the Scenes Featurette,” which is all actual behind-the-scenes footage, no useless interviews explaining the story that we already know and actors endlessly praising other actors, as is the norm in Hollywood DVD releases. In fact, the various major studios could learn a lot from this one featurette alone, which has footage from seven scenes, including scenes shot at night, and it’s just the crew working, briefly playing around, and evidence of Veronica Kedar’s wonderful attention to detail when she’s deciding on what snake to use for one shot after Joe throws her cell phone far away (“The Snake Shot”). Hollywood should only trust its audiences like this, just having footage like this on its DVDs, giving viewers the chance to see what goes into making the movies they like, unfiltered.
If you’ve never seen a Wolfe Video release, Joe + Belle is exactly the kind of movie to make you want to see more. This was surprisingly my first, and already I’m curious about The Guest House, which at least uses Los Angeles for Los Angeles and not as a backdrop for Hollywood wannabes to complain in their own movie about the auditions they’re not getting, and Leading Ladies. But more than that, Joe + Belle is a great romantic romp, benefiting all who watch it, viewers and home video label alike. Faith in love even in the darkest times. That’s what it’s all about.
