Killer Joe

You will have to look hard and long for a film that's as quirky as Killer Joe. William Friedkin must have been inspired by the equally quirky Fargo in doing this film.

Both films are about people who get into criminal enterprises that really don't have the talent. Bill Macy decides that good way out of his financial difficulty is to arrange to have his wife kidnapped and his rich father-in-law extorted for the ransom in Fargo. In Killer Joe, young Emile Hirsch goes into the drug dealing business and owes some big bucks to some nasty people. So a quick way to some ready cash is to kill his mother and get her insurance policy via the backdoor as his sister Juno Temple is the beneficiary.

Major difference between Fargo and Killer Joe is that Macy and his family are good middle class Minnesotans. Hirsch, Temple, their father Thomas Haden Church and his second wife Gina Gershon are Texas lowlife trailer park trash. The first wife, the mother of Hirsch and Temple is Julia Adams and truth be told no one is really going to mourn the passing of this one in any event.

Hirsch even has a hit man picked out. It's Matthew McConaughey who is a Dallas police detective and doubles as a hit man on the side. He's both mysterious and dangerous and gradually inserts himself into their family group, especially since he demands as a retainer the nubile body of Juno Temple in lieu of the cash they don't have until a settlement comes forth.

Just like Fargo everything and anything that can go wrong does with this foolproof scheme thought of by a fool. If I had to single anyone out in the cast it's Emile Hirsch who is a degenerate and a lowlife, but still you feel a bit of sympathy for him because he's so pathetically dumb. And McConaughey in the title role will also make you take notice.

Killer Joe while not as good as Fargo is still good enough to savor. I agree with another reviewer who says you will either like it or hate it, but won't be indifferent.

Texan drug-dealer Chris (Emile Hirsch) lands himself in hot water, owing money to a gang of big-time criminals. After being refused money by his father Ansel (Thomas Haden Church), Chris comes up with a plot to have his mother murdered, collecting the life insurance money that he believes will pass to his sister Dottie (Juno Temple). To do the deed, they hire police detective and part-time contract killer 'Killer' Joe (Matthew McConaughey). Unable to pay his fees up front, Joe decides to take Dottie as collateral, who he asks to spend the night with, until the debt is paid.

Killer Joe's poster tagline reads 'A totally twisted, deep-fried, Texas redneck trailer park murder story', and really, that's precisely what it is. The central families sheer utter repulsiveness becomes the comedy vein that prevails throughout the plot, as we are greeted by Sharla (Gina Gershon), Ansel's second wife, opening her trailer door to reveal her hairy bush to a disgusted Chris. But Chris's loud-mouthed ineptness, Ansel's zombie-like idiocy, and Sharla's blatant man-eating are neutralised by Juno Temple's strange, quirky presence, and her submissive relationship with Killer Joe that is as unsettling as it is oddly sweet. It's a quite amazing performance, and her scenes with an almost equally impressive McConaughey provide the film's highlights.

If the film has a definite strong point, it is in the performances. While the aforementioned Temple and McConaughey will steal the plaudits, Haden Church's dumb, lurch-like performance reminds us why he was Oscar- nominated for the sublime Sideways (2004), providing a sympathetic character amongst Chris's waster and Sharla's trailer trash whore. It's a shame that the plot can't match the performances, and although the story takes a back-seat to the mish-mash of human monsters, this really could have been a whole lot more. This is Coen Brothers territory, taking place in that sweaty world of the Deep South, full of smoky bars, rusty trailers, cowboy hats, motorbikes and overweight, middle-aged men in vests, a modern-day noir world ripe with possibilities, one that I feel has been slightly wasted here.

But if you've ever wondered if a film's climatic scene would ever involved a woman performing fellatio on a chicken drumstick, then here is your answer. Killer Joe's final frames will undoubtedly divide audiences between those who get director William Friedkin's intentions to take things to Jacobian absurdity, to those who will feel it as a silly contradiction to the film early, more subtle black humour. It's a splurge of extreme, uncomfortable violence with a sprinkling of farce, as the true psychological unbalance of Killer Joe becomes evident. Myself, I found it rather hilarious, and it managed to cement what is really an average film with only spatters of inspiration into my memory.

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William Friedkin's career has been up and down most of his career, I guess it's because he refuses to sell-out and go commercial. His most 'Hollywood' film to date has been The Hunted, from 2003, but even that was unusually muted for a film of that type.

His latest effort is yet another adaptation of a Tracy Lett's play (that's a male Tracy), after Bug in 2006, and is choc full of warped, in-your-face sexuality, bloody violence, and humor so dark only the most depraved viewers will find funny. In fact, it's more like a David Cronenberg film than Friedkin.

If you've seen movies like The Acid House, or the 1998 Todd Solondz face-punch Happiness and find them amusing through the gaps in your fingers then you'll be sick enough to fully enjoy Killer Joe.

Matthew McConaughey plays Joe Cooper, an unorthodox Dallas police detective who is 'hired' by petty drug dealer Emile Hirsch to whack his old lady and thus benefit from an insurance policy with his deadbeat dad (Thomas Haden Church in a wonderful performance) and virginal, oddball sister Dottie (Juno Temple). Only they cannot raise the money to pay Joe so he agrees to spend some quality time with Dottie until the policy pays off in waiver of his upfront fee.

It reminded me a lot of an Oliver Stone film called U-Turn, another Texas-based psycho-sexual murder plot filled with heat-waves and perpetual distrust, but was much more enjoyable. The perverse sexuality and dark humor really appeal to a mind like mine, and McConaughey's performance atones for his crimes in various awful romcoms. Joe is a supremely weird but mesmerising character. You never really know what he's going to do next but you can still see the cogs turning as he evaluates every new plot twist. Plus it has full-frontal nudity from Gina Gershon and Juno Temple, which I absolutely do not disagree with.

The film has been slapped with the dreaded NC-17 in the US, which massively limits the amount of theatres that will be showing it. But, indirectly, it will only turn it into a cult film, and thus a bigger success with its intended audience than it otherwise might have been.

I highly recommend that you a part of that audience, it's as far from Hollywood as Friedkin has gotten since Cruising in 1980. Even at the age of 76, he's still on top form.

Edit: I just remembered that U-Turn is actually set in Arizona.

The end was very unrealistic in my perspective. Also, it's an open ending. I don't really like that. But perhaps this is very art house.

For anyone who has seen any old Matthew McConaughey films, this is not his standard role. He ain't the blue eyed hero or the RomCom interest as his main part in this dark film noir.

Based in the American South, we have one dysfunctional family who are plotting to kill the mother for the insurance money. Into this they call in 'Killer Joe' to do the job.

It's a nasty movie, and treats the characters like trash. A very cynical outlook on humanity and you may not stomach all that happens. The sexual politics aren't going to please many people, and it is a discomforting film.

Yet it is still very well written, and uncomfortably involving. The acting is top notch and the pace is well done with good twists.

Before you watch it, if you've not got a strong stomach for films, then approach this one with caution. Not one for everyone, but still a very good film.