the movie was not too hard to understand.

upon the birth of his younger sibling, joshua was jealous at the amount of attention the baby received rather than himself. his jealousy caused him to obsess over breaking the family apart.

early on, he finds the tape of his mother going crazy (because he cried so much), and takes it one step further, by making the baby cry every night. This drives his mother completely insane, borderline schizophrenic.

he videotapes himself waking up the baby, expecting his father to eventually find it. once his father finds it, his father starts suspecting things of joshua (death of the class pets and the dog). then the ’suspicious’ death of joshua’s grandmother leads his dad to locking everything in the house, and protecting the baby.

Joshua then takes it another step further. by researching signs of abuse on the internet, he finds that one symptom (along with bodily bruises) is drawings of violent images. by drawing these, his father is convinced that he’s a sociopath, and calls in a child psychologist, who reveals to the father that this is actually a textbook sign of child abuse.

this all leads to the scene in the park, where joshua tempts his father by taking the baby’s pacifier and standing on a statue. after acting like an insolent bitch, he finally says to his dad “no one will ever love you.” the father cracks, and beats the shit out of joshua in public. he gets arrested.

so now, joshua has accomplished his mission. the father is going to be in jail (or at least away from his kids), the mother is in a mental institution, and he’s left at home with his gay piano-playing uncle. and they all lived psychotically ever after. the end.

It’s not surprising that “Joshua” was an official selection for the 2007 Sundance Film Festival. “Joshua” is an emotional magnet; viewers sympathize with all of the characters, including the young, prodigious sociopath whose moniker titles the film. As compelling as it is tragic, “Joshua” highlights many ills of the domestic sphere, ranging from postpartum depression to child neglect. Vera Farmiga’s (Abby Cairn) portrayal of a mother suffering from postpartum depression is phenomenal; I found myself actually reacting to a character, loathing her for her lack of sense. Such a reaction I find to be a rarity in modern cinema, as few actors can pull viewers into a dimension where lines, sets, and character pretenses become what they are meant to be – a story devoid of actors and rich with humanity.