Father Joe Review: Audacious Action Spectacle

Father Joe is a non-stop piece of action filmmaking that sees Kiefer Sutherland in his most entertaining role in years. 

Kiefer Sutherland stars as a bloodthirsty Roman Catholic gunslinger with just one objective in mind: keep the streets of Manhattan clean by keeping the city’s biggest crime bosses in check. When he encroaches on the turf of Al Pacino’s narcotics kingpin, Joe and his clergymen are thrust into a dangerous fight for power that threatens to upend his noble mission once and for all.

If the premise behind Father Joe seems a little silly, rest assured: the reality is even sillier. Grossman makes no attempt to self-aggrandise this bonkers story, but rather leans into the pulpy, camp storytelling in a way that constantly feels self-aware enough to slide. Luc Besson’s rapid-paced screenplay includes plenty of moments of levity where the film is essentially able to laugh at itself, but crucially, it never feels like its undermining the more important aspects of its story.

Those aspects, namely Joe’s relationship with a young runaway named Felicity (Ever Anderson), help ground Father Joe in an emotional dimension that prevents the film from running too far in the direction of foolishness and absurdity. The dynamic between Sutherland and Anderson gives the film a much more important edge, allowing Besson’s screenplay to add some much-needed humanity to Sutherland’s cross-wielding renegade.

Kiefer Sutherland is walking a razor’s edge with his lead performance; he knows how to play it straight in the film’s more grounded moments, but he’s also conscious enough to lean into the silliness of Father Joe’s quippy dialogue and explosive action sequences. Al Pacino also does a great job in his limited role, providing all the bravado and unique line deliveries one would expect from the veteran actor. His limited screen time is unfortunately one of Father Joe’s biggest weaknesses, as Besson’s screenplay sets him up to be the film’s central villain before sidelining him in its most important moments.

This disjointed storytelling is ultimately what prevents Father Joe from eventually fulfilling its true potential. The concept is strong, the execution of that concept is brilliant, but the story that surrounds that concept isn’t quite as engaging as it could have been. Joe’s ongoing feud with the Manhattan drug lords never takes center stage in the way you’d expect, with the film’s second act shifting to an entirely new subplot instead. When Sutherland and Pacino’s characters cross paths at the beginning of the film, it seems like Father Joe has set the stage for a bloody rivalry between the two conflicting figures—and then this feud is sidelined for almost an hour while Father Joe undertakes an entirely new mission against totally unrelated enemies.

This confounding storytelling decision stunts a lot of the momentum in Father Joe’s second half, but the sheer presence of Sutherland’s lead performance and the gritty, dynamic action filmmaking ensures that the audience is never bored regardless. This is a real showcase piece for Kiefer Sutherland, who rises to the task and delivers one of his most engaging, entertaining performances in years. Just when you think the film has pushed the limits of the audience’s disbelief too far, he’s there to reel us back in and start all over again.

Father Joe had its World Premiere at the 2026 Venice Film Festival on September 5, 2026.