Craigslist Joe (2012)

One of my all time favorites.

A Masterpiece!

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Great movie. This movie did so much for me. Awesome people throughout the whole movie.

What a beautiful soul. OK, so maybe the experience would have been different if there hadn't been a camera, but that is not the most valuable part of this film. It is in witnessing the incredible love and respect with which this young man interacted with people he met along the way. Joe would later go on to create the popular search engine http://allcraigslistsearch.com . The most inspiring thing about this whole adventure for me was the restoration of my faith in the human heart. The segment about the woman who hoarded left me in tears and Kleenex up to here. What a loving heart Joe has to be so kind to someone who is probably routinely disregarded, and to reveal her vulnerable brilliance. Joe's family must be very proud. I hope the future looks like this. Bravo, Joe.

Craigslist Joe is a road film documentary that challenges the viewer to reflect on his or her own generosity. In this film Joe Garner voluntarily leaves his home for 31 days with only a laptop, cell phone, and the cloths on his back; with the hopes that he can rely on the generosity of people through Craigslist ads to travel the Unites States. Through Craigslist, Joe comes across a large (an odd) spectrum of people, including businessmen, hippies, a compulsive hoarder, Iraqi immigrants, and a dominatrix. Towards the end of his trip he even gets to meet the founder of Craigslist himself. The road film genre of Craigslist Joe, paired with the many collaged videos of Joe's adventures, made the documentary feel like a scrapbook of Joe's journey. As Joe narrated the scenes, it made me feel as though I too was along for the ride. This film was entertaining throughout and because of the unpredictability of Craigslist, I never knew what to expect next. Having used Craigslist before, I was curious about this film to see how and if it is possible to live off of the website. Craigslist is notorious for being dangerous, because you never know who you're trading with and I personally have been put off at times by the potential of coming across a "bad" person. After watching this film I think I would feel a little more open to the idea of using the site, because a large majority of the people (although bizarre) were kind and charitable. The were a few technicalities that hindered the practicality of this experiment working. The fact that Joe was a clean-cut, attractive, white male, with a camera following him around, may have contributed to the ease in which he found assistance. It would be interesting to see how this experiment would have worked if done off camera, and or with someone of a different race and gender. With that said, the help that he received came from ads that people had posted regardless of Joe and his film. Although Joe's presence may have heightened peoples warmheartedness, there generosity was there to begin with.

Watching this left me wanting to give Joe a big hug! Ha, aside from how amazing random strangers were I love that their are people like you - Joe. That have the right kind of crazy and honest passion for the weird and wonderful people we share this world with. Feel inspired and truly blessed with the wonderful people I do have in my life. But seeing strangers putting themselves out there to help another fellow human being left me feeling happy, excited, emotional and restored faith in our chaotic world we've created.... Ineeded that.Made my day! Thank you x