Saw with wife. “Southern Noir”, a “Totally Twisted Deep-Fried Texas Redneck Trailer Park Murder Story” according to its poster. It was as advertized.
Sad, unsettling, disturbing, funny, in that order. We griamced a lot but could not look away. Based on a 1993 play which I would now love to see. Had a scene that was so over the top and contrived, I could see nothing but a desperation to register it into the canon of ‘iconic’ movie scenes.
Matthew McConaughey acts with the ‘Matthew McConaughey’ dial set to medium-high (with the exception of that one scene.) Juno Temple is so brilliant you can’t tell she’s British. I wish I could say ‘innocent’ but none of the characters are.
And there isn’t a single sympathetic character. Except McConaughey’s, they’re all comically, irredeemably greedy and broken and dumb as shit.
William Friedkin’s “Killer Joe” is one hell of a movie. It left me speechless. I can’t say I loved it. I can’t say I hated it. It is expertly directed, flawlessly cast and written with merciless black humor by Tracy Letts. It’s about the Smiths, the stupidest family I’ve ever seen in a movie that’s not a comedy.
The Smiths live in a trailer that is apparently somewhere near Dallas, although we never see a street or a skyline suggesting the city. Our clue is the Dallas police car used by Killer Joe. Whoever painted it must have known where he was. Killer Joe is not stupid, but he makes the mistake of never realizing just how dumb the Smiths are.
This is like “Hereditary” in that it’s brilliant and I won’t ever watch it again but will gleefully recommend it to people.