Movie Review: Killer Joe (2012)

Killer Joe (2012)
A movie review by Dave Randal

Genre: Comedy | Crime | Thriller
Cast: Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Thomas Haden Church, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon
Director: William Friedkin
Writer: Tracy Letts(play and screenplay)
Studios: Voltage Pictures, Worldview Entertainment
Distributed by: LD Entertainment
Release Date: September 8, 2011(Venice Film Festival), July 27, 2012(United States)
Plot: When a debt puts a young man's life in danger, he turns to putting a hit out on his evil mother in order to collect the insurance.

If you are looking for an NC-17 rated white trash dark comedy film noir that might make you want to take a shower afterwards, then I think Killer Joe is for you. If you are easily offended this movie is not going to be an easy watch. In fact, if you are easily offended you may not even want to touch this movie with a ten foot pole. I watched another movie a few weeks ago that was very dark and disturbing called Oldboy (2003). Oldboy was really edgy, but I think Killer Joe gives it a great run for it's money.

The movie is about a white trash guy in his early 20s named Chris, played by Emile Hirsch. Chris is a drug dealer and he finds out that his evil mother has stolen his cocaine which means he owes a lot of money to some tough acquaintances. He finds out that his mother has a huge life insurance policy that goes to his sister Dottie, played by Juno Temple, when his mother dies. Chris hatches a plan with his redneck father Ansel, played by Thomas Haden Church, to hire a detective who doubles as a hit man named Killer Joe Cooper, played by Matthew McConaughey. Chris and Hansel can't pay Killer Joe the money up front so Killer Joe decides to hold on to Chris' sister Dottie as a retainer.

McConaughey is at his smooth talking cowboy best here in this movie. He has been in a lot of romantic comedies in the last twelve years which I think is a pretty big waste of his talent. Last year he was great in The Lincoln Lawyer (2011) and I would love it if he did more movies like that one and this one. In this movie his character first comes off as a cool anti-hero, but then later you see in the movie that he is really just as much of an asshole as most of the rest of the characters.

The only character who comes off as somewhat innocent and not an asshole is Dottie, played by Juno Temple. In real life Juno Temple is 23 years old. In this movie it is hard to tell how old she is especially considering that they show her nude throughout the movie, which is an interesting thing to do to make the audience feel creepy. Temple is English so it is really cool seeing her play a simple minded redneck teenage girl. She gives a great performance throughout the entire movie and I can't wait to see her in bigger profile movies.

Overall every performance in this movie is really good. I have always liked Emile Hirsch ever since I first saw him in Alpha Dog (2006) and I find it interesting that he usually only sticks to doing independent movies even though he has the talent to do bigger movies. He has great comedic chemistry with Thomas Haden Church in this movie. Thomas Haden Church taps into that good comedy timing he had on the show Wings (1990-1997). The story of the movie was originally written as a play and if you have seen a lot of plays you can kind of tell. Every scene only takes place in a few areas and the ending is very much like a play.

It's like I said. If you want to feel a little dirty then you should really watch this movie. It is a great disturbing, dark, and funny white trash movie. Just a word of warning though. You may not want to eat any fried chicken for a while after watching this movie. Lets just say that Matthew McConaughey isn't going to be appearing in any KFC commercials any time soon.

Dave's Rating- Rock On!

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 Dave's Star Rating- ★★★★½(4½) out of ★★★★★(5)