Killer Joe
Watching the oddity that unfolds onscreen is enough to carry one from start to finish - and despite some truly disturbing scenes, this black-as-night comedy delivers quite a bit of off-beat humor.
InKiller Joe , Chris Smith ( Emile Hirsch ) is a untried , two - piece Texas washout with just enough smarting and small - meter aspiration to land himself in problem with all the wrong sort of the great unwashed . face a debt he ca n’t pay down , Chris comes crash into the laggard - scum world of his estranged family line , which includes simple father Ansel ( Thomas Haden Church ) , dragon - lady stepmother Sharla ( Gina Gershon ) and flakey younger sister , Dottie ( Juno Temple ) . Chris has a unsubdivided plan : charter a hitman to stamp out Ansel ’s ex-wife - married woman ( Chris and Dottie ’s female parent ) , and thereafter collect the $ 50,000 lifetime insurance policy that will be bequeathed to Dottie .
The rest of the family jump at the fortune to get rid of their devilish ex - materfamilias , so Chris turns to " Killer " Joe Cooper ( Matthew McConaughey ) , a lawman who moonlights as a hitman . But as with many such schemes , things do n’t go quite as plan , and when Joe develops an insalubrious enthrallment with Dottie , Chris is dumbfound with a damage that he never , ever , wanted to devote .
take by Oscar - success William Friedkin ( The Exorcist , The Gallic connexion , The Hunted),Killer Joeis one of the more odd and ambitious films I ’ve had to review . Friedkin creates the world of podunk Texas life in such vivid cinematic fashion - and populates it with such unambiguously trashy , rummy , low-toned - brow characters - that it ’s heavy not to be pull in . Just find out the oddity that spread out onscreen is enough to carry one from startle to finish - and despite some truly disturbing scenes ( more on that later ) , this black - as - Nox comedy delivers quite a fleck of off - cadence humor .
The movie ( based on microscope stage play by Tracy Letts , who also wrote screenplay ) is very theatrical in its theatrical production and pacing , mean that tantrum each seem somewhat self - contained and weighted , even as they function within a larger narrative . alternatively of the typical movie format ( rapid change of mind of shots and prototype through editing ) , Friedkin ’s direction takes a stage play approach , face things through well - entrap and prolong shots , take into account the actors to move and officiate and develop the panorama on their own , rather than through manipulation of the camera or the editing . The ensemble mould includes some quality player so this directorial feeler works well , since the player are in fact able to carry each scene they are in , without boring the consultation .
However , there are distinct times when this " point play " filmmaking formatting transforms into something much more visceral and challenging - namely during the multiple sequences of ( often sexual ) brutality that likely earnedKiller Joeits NC-17 military rating . Friedkin ’s lingering lens allows the actors - in exceptional McConaughey , who is a tour of duty de forcefulness in this film- to develop scenes in a fashion that " normal " moments slowly but surely devolve into insane and horrifying debauchery , while the audience - trapped in their voyeurism - construction and squirm , at long last witnessing something more perturbing than what they probably imagined . Indeed , much of theKiller Joeexperience can be likened to watching a main road collision about to materialise - being ineffectual to reckon away as this horrible event unfolds , laughing as it does , flinch and choke as the butchery happens - and somehow , being tricked into laughing again while staring at the smoke wreckage .
In the midst of this unusual , horrible , screaming , cathartic experience , Friedkin manages to sneak in some ( not so ) insidious societal comment , with sacred slice of Americana finish - the cowboy lawman , the " get - deep - straightaway " American scheme - dream , house values , religious belief , television , even fried chicken - all getting a twisted and perverted makeover that is unnerving on many levels . The film ’s controversial finale is enough to turn people out from eat Kentucky Fried Chicken always ( although , true confession , I end up eating fried volaille immediately after learn it - though not without much shame and self - disgust ) .
As tell , Matthew McConaughey dives late into his role as Joe Cooper and delivers one of the most captivating performances of his career . Joe is a Hannibal Lecture - style psychotic person - a mannered southern lawman who is also a psychotic monster . While these quality seemed to be diametrically fight down , McConaughey rather makes them function simultaneously , which makes the eccentric even more disturbingly memorable . Juno Temple is equally captivating as the oddball Dottie , the good somebody who is inevitably corrupted by all the amoral people around her . For such a untried actress , Temple handles some of the film ’s more ambitious conniption with impressive nuance and control .
Thomas Haden Church is another standout as Ansel , who he manages to wrick into a somewhat lovable kind imbecile that do some very , very , questionable moral determination when it come to the women in his life . Emile Hirsch and Gina Gershon play more straightforward ( read : stock ) character types , though they manage to inject the performances with a bit of extra spice . All in all , the kinsperson Smith is the epitome of fantastic disfunction .
Killer Joewill in all likelihood leave many multitude in shock , confusedness , and in need of a thorough rain shower by the time it ’s done , but those uncomfortable feelings do n’t prevent the film from also being a unforgettably odd experience that is likely to stick in your brain - and perhaps affect your eating habits - for a longtime after .
Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple and Gina Gershon.
Killer Joeis currently playing in special release . It is Rated NC-17 for graphical agitate content need violence and sex , and a scene of brutality .
Killer Joe is a dark comedy thriller direct by William Friedkin . The film stars Matthew McConaughey as a police detective who is also a contract bridge killer hire by a desperate unseasoned homo , played by Emile Hirsch , to murder his mother for insurance policy money . As the plot unfolds , the characters are take out into a vehement and virtuously complex WWW of deception and betrayal .
‘Winner, winner, chicken dinner…'
