What's on Redbox?--Killer Joe

          After his initial one-two punch of “The French Connection” and “The Exorcist” director William Friedkin films since then have had one thing in common.  They were all forgettable.  Does anybody remember “Deal of the Century” with Chevy Chase?  Or “The Brinks Job” with Peter Falk?  How about the Shaq-tactular “Blue Chips”?  Okay that was mean, “To Live and Die in L.A.” was pretty solid. It’s also almost thirty years old.  However since 2000, Friedkin has been making a slow rise to his greatness as a filmmaker starting with “Rules of Engagement” then with “The Hunted” with Benicio Del Toro and just six short years ago with the intense “Bug” with Michael Shannon and Ashley Judd written by Tracy Letts.  The writer-director pair has re-teamed for the “totally twisted deep-fried Texas redneck trailer park murder story” starring Emile Hirsch and Matthew McConaughey “Killer Joe”

The story is right out a noir tale from the forties: kill someone, get the insurance money.  Simple.  And just like those movies of old, it’s never that simple.  Hirsch is Chris Smith a down on his luck punk with a plan to kill his mother with the help of her ex, his father (Thomas Haden Church) and his father’s new wife (Gina Gershon) all under the nose of Chris’s not all there sister Dottie played brilliantly by Juno Temple.  They hire a Dallas detective who moonlights as a killer-for-hire to do the job, but since they can’t pay him until after the insurance is collected, Joe decides to get a retainer, Dottie.  The family not-so reluctantly agrees and as you can imagine things start to unravel which then lead to a full-blown meltdown as lines are crossed, and debts are paid with an insane, intense finale that may leave you hanging, but not really.

Much like “Bug” this film centers on the characters more than the story, as things get going, you are just waiting to see what these crazy people will do next.  Temple as Dottie, may have some saying it’s easy to play crazy, but she adds a self-awareness that makes her actions even more believable.  Hirsch, Church, and Gershon play the typical trailer-trash to almost perfection.  But the stand out, and rightly so, since the film is named after him is McConaughey as Joe.  He plays the quiet, sweaty, smooth and slightly insane cop that leaves an impression.  He also does something with a piece of chicken that you will never forget.  I really prefer this Matthew McConaughey over the rom-com guy, maybe they pay his bills but he’s so much more enjoyable to watch when he’s the fast talkin’ Lincoln lawyer, the soldier killin’ dragons, or tellin’ spooky stories like in one of my favorites “Frailty”.

So if you’re in the mood for intense redneck drama, you could do worse than “Killer Joe”, it’s funny, creepy, and unlike the more recent epics that seem to come out every year, clocking in at an hour and forty minutes, you won’t feel like you’re wasting your time.  I hope this is just another step up for the returning to form directing of William Friedkin.  

--Robert L. Castillo