Killer Joe

Kentucky fried noir. That’s one of way of describing this frankly, bat-shit crazy adaptation of Tracey Lett’s play. This movie from Oscar-winning director William Friedkin certainly has noir-ish elements, i.e. hapless anti-heroes, a femme fatale, double cross, betrayal, etc., but it is firmly rooted in Southern American literature. Think William Faulkner or Tennessee Williams that has been beaten to a pulp by Jim Thompson and you’re nearly there. The film is dark, twisted, often hilarious, frequently repulsive, and features superb performances, one of which by Matthew “is it time to take off my shirt yet?” McConaughey. One thing is certain about this film though: you never quite know where it’s going and it is certainly never dull.

The plot revolves around a dysfunctional (putting it mildly) lower class family. Ansel (Thomas Haden Church) is married to his second wife (Gina Gershon) and has two children: Chris (Emile Hirsch and) Dottie (Juno Temple). Chris is in deep trouble with drug dealers to whom he owes a substantial amount of money - money he most certainly can’t come up with that is until he learns of his biological mother’s life insurance policy worth $50,000. Chris has no trouble convincing his father and sister to go along with the plan and hires a Texas police detective (moonlighting as a contract killer), nick-named Killer Joe (McConaughey) to carry out the murder. The only problem is, neither Chris nor Ansel has a retainer and Joe insists on taking some sort of collateral in order to carry out the contract…

William Friedkin, who has given us such memorable classics such as The French Connection and The Exoricst, shows no signs of slowing down in his fourth decade as director (he’s 76!). Tracey Lett’s (who previously wrote Friedkin’s 2006 bizarre thriller Bug) screenplay obviously has no problem with alienating its audience with giving us not one honourable character to root for. Newcomer Juno Temple is one to watch as the hapless Dottie conveys a child-like innocence in a world where innocence seems to be long, long gone. McConaughey, however, is the real revelation. After languishing in a decade of emetic romantic comedy, McConaughey has taken a role that is the antithesis of romantic leading man and imbues Joe with a deep coldness and icy violence.

The Smith family are literal embodiments of the American Dream turned horribly nightmare-ish where the land of opportunity has turned them into murderous cads. This is an ensemble family picture about a particularly nasty family in a particularly nasty world. Joe acts in many ways as some sort of moral crusader and strives to assume a patriarchal role where there previously was none. Joe’s “seduction” of Dottie is so murkily ambiguous that the audience doesn't know whether to be scintillated or repulsed. And speaking of repulsion, the last 20mins of this picture have to be seen to be believed. 

4/5