Saturday, February 2, 2013

Killer Joe

Killer Joe William Friedkins 2011 film based on the play by Tracy Lett's is exactly what the movie poster advertised." A totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story." None of the characters betrayed by an amazing ensemble cast are rocket surgeons. Lead protagonist Chris Smith, played by Emile Hirsch is an idiot, just like Hirsch's character in Into The Wild, if Hirsch is not careful he'll get typecast as a dolt, much like his costar in Killer Joe Thomas Haden Church, who always seems to play an idiot. Matthew McConaughey who sometimes plays idiots, plays the title character Joe, a dirty Dallas detective/hired killer. Joe gets mixed up with this white trash family and its  pulp noir murder plot. Joe's character falls between Dennis Hopper's Frank Booth from Lynch's Blue Velvet, or Harvey Keitel's Bad Lieut. character. Gina Gershon plays Churches wife to perfection though she seems a bit pretty to be married to such a loser. Juno Temple daughter of punk filmmaker Julien Temple( plays the daughter of Church's and,  and sister of Chris)  becomes the retainer for the murder that Joe was hired to commit, because no one in the family has any money. Juno plays Dotty the mentally challenged, sleepwalking virgin. Killer Joe is a pretty good thriller, Friedkin's second collaboration with Letts, they worked on Bug together too. I certainly appreciate the non-Hollywood ending. Temple and Gershon are nude throughout most of the film. And there's a pretty sick scene involving fellatio of a chicken leg, that was really intense.

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