WILLIAM FRIEDKIN'S FILM OF TRACY LETTS' KILLER JOE, is perhaps the strangest, most obnoxious beginning title sequence I've ever seen. It makes it seem like Friedkin is absolutely desperate to make sure we don't forget he's still making movies. I don't know how much you know about director William Friedkin, but he used to make pretty good films. Early in his career he was responsible for some of the most masterfully done, gritty and realistic films of the 1970s (THE FRENCH CONNECTION and THE EXORCIST, just to name a few). But as time progressed, he became less famous and more infamous for a long string of duds including JADE , RULES OF ENGAGEMENT and most importantly, THE GUARDIAN, about a tree that eats babies (no, for real).
Recently, however, Friedkin has abandoned herbaceous baby-vores and, instead, has focused his time on directing episodes of CSI and movies based on plays by Tracy Letts (this is their second collaboration after 2006's BUG). And that brings us to the film in question. KILLER JOE, actually Letts' first (and probably worst, ZING!) play, is a southern Gothic tale about a family of trailer park dwellers who do horrible things to each other. The movie itself is really unpleasant and hard to sit through (coming from a guy who sat through both HUMAN CENTIPEDE 1 and 2). Though many people have called it a "dark comedy" it's so dark and nihilistic that the only laughs it produces are those nervous, "This has got to end soon, right?" laughs that make the dark comedy label seem more like the product of studio execs saying, "Jesus, what are we going to say THIS thing is?!" The film would almost be a complete wash, if not for the striking cinematography (by Caleb "Don't Call Me Zooey" Deschanel) and amazing cast.
For one, I was absolutely enthralled with the performance put in by (my former arch-nemesis) Matthew McConaughey. It's fascinating to watch him tap into this darkness which lay, up until this point, dormant (unless you have some messed up views of DAZED AND CONFUSED). In the film, McConaughey plays Joe Cooper, a demented small town police detective who hires himself out as hitman. You give him $20,000 dollars (up front, NO EXCEPTIONS... Actually, maybe one exception) and he'll take care of anyone you want out of the picture. And that's the thing. It really feels like Killer Joe can do anything. Never has this likable and funny actor portrayed such intensity and sinister resoluteness. It just seeps out of him, and you feel like no matter what it is, no matter how demented, he's willing to do anything -- and the movie proves it.
My question to that is: But to what end? Basically the plot of KILLER JOE boils down to Chris (Emile Hirsch) owes some money to the wrong people and decides to hire Killer Joe to kill his mother so that her $50,000 dollar life insurance policy can be had. Chris' dad, Ansel (Thomas Haden Church), who hates his ex-wife and could use some cash of his own, consents. Unfortunately, their murderous scheme, approved by Ansel's brazen new wife (Gina Gershon), doesn't go according to plan (welcome to Understaters Anonymous).
Now, those of you who know my movie tastes know I am always up for some good, old fashioned pulpy mayhem. And KILLER JOE certainly delivers on that account with continuously doling out touches meant to shock and offend including Gershon's character entering the film naked from the waist down and the turning of Chris' dimwitted 12-year-old sister (Juno Temple) into a potential rape victim. The film (this is my best bet, though THANKFULLY I'm not expert on this topic) earns its NC-17 rating with a nearly unbearable scene involving Gershon's character and a KFC chicken leg (in perhaps the most misguided and baffling product placement in the history of film). And even past all that, KILLER JOE still ladles on the violence and absurdity like gravy on biscuits (seemed like an appropriate, albeit gross analogy). And it would all be passable if this was an exploitation movie. However, in a film that is attempting to explore the moral digressions we are willing to commit to get what we want, it all just comes off feeling cheap and manipulative. By the end of the film you just end up feeling sorry for all the people who were in the movie and had to subject themselves to such embarrassments. Except for Matthew McConaughey, who delivers a savage and hypnotic (maybe because it was so unexpected) performance.
Between KILLER JOE and MAGIC MIKE (which put together sound like one amazing duet), Matthew McConaughey continues to surprise me. Friedkin, on the other hand, seems content on keeping his current streak alive (as long as you know he's still making movies).
