Her Name Was Jo

Back when my own children were 10 years old or so we made home movies with a portable VHS recorder. The kids were not trained actors and that is very clear. Same with this small movie, the two 10-yr-old girls who carry the story are mostly adequate but my wife and I were frustrated at times by their inability to speak clearly, this caused us to miss some of the dialog. Plus the background music was mostly too loud for the rest of the sounds.

Still I found it to be a worthwhile viewing. Jo is 10, with no mother and a stepdad drunk or drugged all the time in their little home on a small lake. She has to wake him up in the mornings. Until one morning he was unable to wake up. Coincidentally when summer break starts. Jo thinks her real father is an entertainer in Los Angeles so she figures she needs to make the cross-country trip, along with her "friend".

There is a significance to use of "her name WAS" in the title, part of her reinventing her life was to begin to use of her name Josephine. Her trip is a harrowing experience, but of course all fiction. The young actress is fine except for her often unintelligible dialog.

The end credits show that this was a family affair for the writer/director/producer & lyrics writer. I presume most of the "actors" are family and friends, from the last names shown.

No, by normal movie standards this is a pretty poor movie but I am glad I watched it, for its making me think about the plight that kids like this have when they find themselves in an unstable homelife. We found it streaming on Amazon.