Killer
Joe
Smokin’!
Already
slapped with a restrictive NC-17 certificate by the American ratings board and
having just triumphantly opened the 2012 Edinburgh International Film Festival,
William Friedkin’s second collaboration with playwright Tracey Letts (after
2006’s bonkers Bug which gave the world Michael Shannon) is a Southern Fried
American Gothic that’ll change the way you look at KFC. In fact, once you see the use Matthew
McConaughey’s
Joe finds for Gina Gershon and one of the Colonel’s drumsticks, you’ll either never
eat chicken again or rush out and buy a family bucket.
Small-time
drug dealer Chris (Emile Hirsch) owes a lot of money to some very bad people. So with his father Ansel’s (Thomas
Haden Church)
help and stepmom Sharla’s (Gershon) connivance, Chris hatches a plot to
get himself out of the hole. His
divorced mother has a $50,000 life insurance policy and the sole beneficiary is
his beloved, naive sister, the aptly-named Dottie (Juno Temple). But who’s going to kill Mom?
Enter
Killer Joe (McConaughey), a Dallas policeman who moonlights as a hitman. For $25,000 he’ll take care of
everything. The only problem is
Joe wants his money upfront and until the insurance pays out, Chris doesn’t
have a penny. So Joe suggests a
compromise; until he’s paid, he’ll take Dottie as collateral, a “retainer” to
use as he sees fit. To Chris’
dismay, the virginal Dottie isn’t exactly upset at the idea…
A
sick, twisted, darkly funny piece of hick-sploitation cinema, Killer Joe proves that, at 76, William
Friedkin is still one of America’s most exciting directors. At a time when his contemporaries are
busy counting their money and tending their vineyards (yes Lucas and Coppola,
we mean you), the man who gave us The French Connection and The Exorcist is back and at the top of
his game, giving us a savage, cynical, relentless little chamber piece so seedy
and sweaty you may want to shower after seeing it. Killer Joe doesn’t just wallow in sleaze, corruption and
amorality; it backstrokes in it, completely immersing you. At its dark, septic heart the film is a
po’ white-trash fairytale; the put-upon Dottie dreams of escape, of a Prince
Charming. He may be a stone-cold
psychopath but the softly spoken, curiously gentlemanly Joe may actually be the
nicest man she’s ever met. As
Prince Charming’s go, he’s pretty charming. But he also happens to be the Big Bad Wolf.
As
the predatory Joe, McConaughey has never been better, his magnetic, seductive,
reptilian performance banishing the decade of bad chick flicks he’s made with
the likes of Kate Hudson and Shergar Jessica Parker, reminding you just how good he used
to be in movies like Lone Star. Gina
Gershon hasn’t had a part this good since Bound and tears into it with relish (though
her bush should probably get a supporting credit), Hirsch brings a surprising
sympathy to the amoral Chris who, as a man who murders his mother and pimps out
his sister, may be the most loathsome character who’ll scuttle across the
screen all year, while Haden Church stays just the right side of dumb yokel as
Ansel. Almost always the best
thing in everything she does, the wonderful Juno Temple this time is just edged
out by McConaughey’s oily manipulator but gives yet another star-making
performance as the childlike but ultimately steely Dottie.
Perverse,
sadistic, provocative and darkly funny, Killer Joe is obscenely enjoyable,
unwholesome fun.
David Watson
Directed
by:
Written
by:
Produced
by:
Starring:
Genres:
Language:
English
Runtime:
1
hour 42 minutes
Certificate:
18
Rating:
5/5
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