By G. Allen Johnson, Staff Writer Nov 11, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)
Gift Article
Nicolas Cage as Joseph in the Biblical film “The Carpenter’s Son.”Magnolia Pictures
“The Carpenter’s Son” dares to imagine what Jesus’ childhood would have been like if his earthly father had been Nicolas Cage.
Like everyone who comes into Cage’s cinematic orbit, it would have been, to put it mildly, weird. Add FKA Twigs, last seen in the remake of “The Crow” (2024), as Jesus’ mother Mary, and writer-director Lotfy Nathan’s drama — horror film, really — is one of the most unique Biblical movies ever made.
That doesn’t make it good, necessarily, but it is certainly interesting.
There isn’t much known about Jesus’ teens and 20s. His so-called “missing years,” from age 13 to 30, are largely undocumented in the New Testament, which allows Nathan’s imagination to run wild.
Based in part on the Infancy Gospel of Thomas, a second century text that some Christians consider heretical, the film opens with Joseph (Cage) and his family in hiding in a small village in Roman-controlled Egypt. The emerging religious reputation of Jesus (Noah Jupe) has made him a target, causing the family to move.
Mary is the soft, nurturing presence, but Joseph is a disciplinarian, gruffly forcing Jesus to learn his religious lessons and instill work ethic.
FKA Twigs as Mary in the Biblical film “The Carpenter’s Son.”Magnolia Pictures
While Joseph plies his carpentry trade to keep the family afloat, Jesus is left to wander the village and is exposed to such things as class divisions, leprosy, cruelty and other human conditions.
He is befriended by a strange child (Isla Johnston), who challenges the teenager’s emerging belief system and begins a series of what Jesus soon realizes are temptations — possibly by Satan.
Soon Jesus begins to have frightening nightmares and visions. An alarmed Joseph doubles down on his religious teachings, realizing what’s at stake.
Describing this makes it sound like there’s more plot than there actually is, but “The Carpenter’s Son” isn’t a conventional story. It’s more of a mood piece, with a true run time of just barely 90 minutes. But it’s got Cage, and that’s the difference maker.
More Information
“The Carpenter’s Son”: Biblical horror. Starring Nicolas Cage, Noah Jupe and FKA twigs. Directed by Lotfy Nathan. (R. 94 minutes.) In select theaters Friday, Nov. 14.
Add “The Carpenter’s Son” to the actor’s rogues gallery of characters in the past few years that includes the hermit-like former chef in “Pig”; a movie star named Nick Cage in “The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent”; the befuddled professor who inexplicably appears in people dreams in “Dream Scenario” and, earlier this year, the title character in “The Surfer.”
No surprise, then, that Cage’s Joseph is the most bizarre since the one that wore the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat.
Nov 11, 2025
Staff Writer
G. Allen Johnson is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer.