Joe's Apartment (1996) on Netflix
PG-1319961h 20mComedyFantasyMusical
Out of college and short of money, Joe F. moves to New York and takes a rent-controlled apartment in a building facing demolition. Thousands of talking, singing cockroaches already live there.
- Netflix3.1/5
- IMDb5.6/1015,628 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes21%
Trailer
Plot summary
Fresh from the University of Iowa, Joe F. arrives in New York needing a job and a place to live. When the tenant of a rent-controlled apartment dies, the artist Walter Shit helps Joe take over the unit by persuading the other residents that the dead woman was his mother. The building is slated for demolition, and Senator Dougherty wants it emptied, sending the thug Alberto Bianco with his nephews Vlad and Jesus to push the tenants out. Joe finds twenty to thirty thousand talking, singing cockroaches sharing the apartment, led by Ralph, and the insects drive the thugs away. Dead-end jobs follow, and Joe becomes the drummer in Walter Shit's band. Hanging posters, he meets the senator's daughter Lily, who is campaigning for a community garden on the vacant land around his building.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Joe's Apartment (1996)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Joe's Apartment was the first MTV Films production and the first film Blue Sky Studios was involved in, and it remains the only MTV Films production made without the involvement of Paramount Pictures.
- Executives at 20th Century Fox were impressed enough with Joe's Apartment to acquire Blue Sky, and eventually the studio became a feature-animation company.
- Payson said he was inspired by a 1987 short film called Those Damn Roaches and the 1987 Japanese film Twilight of the Cockroaches; after his own short received a CableACE Award, MTV executives were impressed enough to discuss producing a feature adaptation with him.
- Opening in 1,512 theaters but earning a dismal $1.8 million, the film closed all screenings in the middle of August and finished with only $4.6 million.
