To get us excited about a story we already know, a production has to bring something really unique to the table - a new dimension, a brilliant characterisation, an evocative rendering.
The problem with Joe vs Carole is that the version already told had all those elements dialled up to 12 already and there was nowhere new, or at least different enough to transport us, for a dramatisation to go.
The clunky CGI (mind you, props to them for avoiding any real animal use), the slightly surreal use of Queensland, Australia as a Florida substitute, and the fact that every main character is already basically a live-action cartoon, push the whole production into 1990s family adventure territory. If Brendan Fraser had jumped out of a tree I wouldn't have been surprised. But none of this imparts a charming quality; more one of cheapness.
John Cameron Mitchell and Kate McKinnon are fiercely into their characters, but a good impersonation doesn't necessarily make for compelling viewing. Some of the peripheral characters hold up well, particularly Nat Wolf and Sam Keely as two thirds of the tragic throuple, and Brian Van Holt as Joe Exotic's loyal ballast. Kyle McLachlan is consistent as Carole's long-suffering husband.
At the end of it all though, this is a story where truth IS stranger than fiction, and the dramatisation is left with nowhere to go and, frankly, not enough appetite to satisfy given what was served up in Tiger King.
Disappointingly for me, it was, like the documentary, a missed opportunity to promote the unnecessary horror of exotic animals being bred and kept for pedestrian purposes. Yet again, the selfish narcissism of humans overshadows a nasty, cruel industry that could so easily be ended if we chose to put the needs of these animals first for once.
