Country:
USA
Starring:
Matthew McConaughey
Emile Hirsch
Juno Temple
Gina Gershon
Thomas Hayden Church
Directed By:
William Friedkin
Synopsis:
Chris Smith (Hirsch) is indebted to local gangsters for considerable money and out of despair, plots to have his mother murdered to cash in on her life insurance policy. He gets his father Ansel (Church) and his stepmother Sharla (Gershon) in on the secret and hire local cop, moonlighting as executioner Joe Cooper (McConaughey) to do the deed. Only problem, they cannot come with the fee up-front (25 000$). Then Joe decides to take a retainer, Chris' twelve year old sister Dottie (Temple). That quirks up the equation quite a bit. Joe is not letting go of Dottie unless he gets his money.
The best art must have the potency to challenge your boundaries and ultimately break you. There's nothing like viewing a difficult movie scene on the big screen and witness the crowd's reaction. The most moral walk straight out, the twisted minds see what beauty or humor lies in shock value and the weaker ones are welded to their seat, paralyzed by fear. Either way, strong art reveals things you didn't know about yourself. Legendary filmmaker William Friedkin is well-aware of that. He directed the infamous adaptation of William Peter Blatty's THE EXORCIST in 1973 and deprived an entire generation of sleep, faith in the afterlife and a normal upbringing. At the time, it was that strong. Fresh arrived from the festival run, KILLER JOE is his latest attempt on our collective consciousness. Please, leave your soul at the coat-check before entering the theater.
While it's difficult to pinpoint a precise genre for KILLER JOE, it's both noir and a comedy. It's a strange combination and believe me, when the movie kicks in, it becomes even stranger. It is so dark, it's hard to root for anybody. Donald Maass said that if there's nobody to root for, you end up rooting for the strongest character, which here is Joe, but Joe is so despicable that he's very hard to love. Even little sister Dottie is not all innocence. You have to have a sick sense of humor to laugh at KILLER JOE, but I did. A lot. Tracy Letts' humor is bold and darker than moonless night in the woods. There is a lot of rage in the writing and in the way it is filmed too. Friedkin never gives you a moment of rest. The raw and the ugly are always on screen and the scenes are of a grueling length. It's not really gory or visually depraved, it's the uneven psychological battle between Joe and the redneck family depicted on screen that will gnaw away at your comfort, only to culminate in a long, memorable end scene.
Emile Hirsch has a gift for playing low lives. His interpretation of Chris Smith is powerful. He can be charming one scene and be atrociously selfish the next. There is one amazing scene where he jokes around with Digger Soames (who he owes money to), before getting beaten down, that shows the conflicted personality of Chris. He's smart, charming and yet, his life and choices made him a terrible person. I was very happy to see Gina Gershon back on screen, too. The underused belle plays the trailer trash mom with conviction and subtlety. She finds beauty in rotten Sharla. In fact, most of the cast does a tremendous job. KILLER JOE features some of the sharpest, most accurate acting I've seen in a movie this year. Thomas Hayden Church has a background, borderline comical part and nails it with effortless natural. But wait for it...wait for it...
Here comes Captain Nit-Picky...
The atmosphere and the acting in KILLER JOE was so strong, two thing bothered me. It's minor, but it clashed with the movie's otherwise crippling strength. First, Juno Temple is twenty-three years old and...kinda looks twenty-three. She's supposed to play a twelve years old and comes off as a dreamy eighteen years old at best. Another thing (even more nit-picky) is Matthew McConaughey's accent. It's too much, almost chanting. It wouldn't have been a problem in a lesser movie, but in KILLER JOE, everybody is so good, it sticks out like a sore thumb. Don't get me wrong, McConaughey nails the sociopath part very well. He does sickening things on screen and looks like he's filling up paperwork at the office while doing so. It's the way he talks that is a little too forced.
KILLER JOE is so dark and uncompromising, it reminded me the good years of extreme Asian cinema. There are scenes in William Friedkin's movie that I would've expected from Takashi Miike or Chan-Wook Park, but I would've never expected in a million years to see this vibe travel across the Pacific Ocean and land on our screens and tour in our festivals. I love movies like this. I would have love to have somebody to root for, but KILLER JOE is so strong and destructive, I can do without. It does violence to its viewers. Part of the fun I had watching it, was to observe the older, intellectual looking couple sitting next to me, watching the movie in absolute shock and looking at me in horror whenever I laughed. William Friedkin hasn't lost his edge. You don't grow softer with age. In Friedkin's case, he grew colder and meaner. KILLER JOE is a mandatory stop for whoever likes to explore the depths of the human condition.
SCORE: 89%