kathleen-t-mueller

Killer Joe was a borderline insane screenplay that, when my brother mistakenly told me it was written by a woman, shocked me so much that I had to look it up and verify that that is false. (Tracy Letts is a man) The clarification weirdly comforted me. The story follows Chris, a young man whose demeanor immediately pegs him as a total screw up, which is reinforced by his twisted plan that shapes the plot of the film. It was not so much the thought of Chris arranging his mother's death that disturbed me about this movie, a murdered woman that shows a recent record of increased life insurance immediately puts a loved one under suspect. It is a seldom tragedy we hear on the evening news, therefore its film adaptation can only weird me out to a certain point. Killer Joe disturbed me and excited me in other ways. I loved the relationship between Joe and Dottie, Chris' little sister, a character who was absent minded and psychotically brilliant at the same time. Joe and Dottie's relationship should have felt perverted, inappropriate, and disturbing, yet it felt right; it somehow made sense of all the chaos. That is what makes this film brilliant.

Killer Joe is like seeing the remains of a car crash; it is disturbing yet it stops traffic. Although the final scene became too violent for me, overall the movie is worth a watch.

Spring Breakers highlights the mindless popular culture that surrounds youth of this generation. The reason for its controversy stems from the fact that its target audience found its plot to be pointless, even though that was the point. This film depicts the shallowness of the modern definition of what is 'cool', like idolizing people that suck, those that contribute nothing to society but cheap entertainment. This sort of fascination blindly controls youth, the main reason so many did not understand the meaning behind this movie: they are blind to its influences. They think week long drinking binges, whoring themselves out, and having no goals is cool, because YOLO. However, this film is based off of these components and its audience deems the plot as pointless. Funny. Spring Breakers is like this generation looking itself directly in the mirror.

Overall, Spring Breakers is full of outstanding graphics, bright colors, provocative scenes, and young Disney turned Hollywood stars. It was fun yet hard to watch, depending how serious of a reality check you need (assuming you even understood that it was one)