REVIEWS
Killer Joe REVIEWED BY LEE MARSHALL
The ghost of Tennessee Williams meets the spirit of Quentin Tarantino in William Friedkin’s vastly entertaining black comedy thriller Killer Joe. Putting its strictly-for-grownups cards on the table with a female full-frontal in the very first minute, this fast-paced and often violent post-recession contract-killer film occasionally betrays the theatri- cal mannerisms of the play from which it is adapted. But Friedkin’s confident direction and some tasty
performances — especially by Matthew McCo- naughey as psychotic hitman Killer Joe, and Juno Temple as his underaged love interest — paper over the odd line of clever off-Broadway stage dialogue. The film has the potential to speak to both a rela-
tively undemanding B-movie genre crowd and to the sort of post-modern hipsters who prefer their thrillers to be of the ironic Kiss Kiss Bang Bang vari- ety — though it will need careful marketing and targeting to mop up both demographics. But Killer Joe will outdo the limited box-office take of Fried- kin’s last film, Bug (also a collaboration with play- wright Tracy Letts) — that was a dour, genre-defying arthouse horror exercise, whereas this has far wider audience appeal. New Orleans locations stand in for the Texas of
the script, but it is a good match: the important thing here is the utter bankruptcy of the trailer park where the Smith family live and the strip malls, auto workshops, 7-Elevens and other seedy, decrepid tokens of a washed-up blue-collar America. Inside the first five minutes we have the plot-
spring and have met four of the five main charac- ters: chancer and small-time drug dealer Chris Smith (Hirsch), who owes money to some bad guys,
SPECIAL PRESENTATIONS
US. 2011. 102mins Director William Friedkin Production companies Voltage Pictures, Worldwide View Entertainment, Picture Perfect Corporation, Voltage Pictures, Ana Media North American sales Roeg Sutherland, Creative Artists Agency International sales Voltage Pictures, www.
voltagepictures.com Producers Nicolas Chartier, Scott Einbinder Executive producers Christopher Woodrow, Molly Conners, Vicki Cherkas, Zev Foreman, Roman Viaris Screenplay Tracy Letts, based on his play Killer Joe Cinematography Caleb Deschanel Main cast Matthew McConaughey, Emile Hirsch, Juno Temple, Gina Gershon, Thomas Haden Church
tells his slow, beer-swilling, anything-for-a-quiet- life dad Ansel (Haden Church) that he is planning to hire a hitman to kill his good-for-nothing mother (and Ansel’s ex-wife) in order to get his hands on her life-insurance money. Ansel thinks this is a rea- sonable idea, as does his trashy partner Sharla (a fine turn from Gina Gershon) and his soignée baby doll sister Dottie (Temple), who manages to retain a naïve innocence in a world of venial grifters. Into the Smiths’ trashy trailer steps impeccably
dressed Stetson-wearing contract killer Joe Cooper (McConaughey), a cop who rubs people out to make a little money on the side. The Smiths are unable to muster Killer Joe’s $25,000 fee until after they get the life-insurance payment — so Joe agrees
to accept Dottie as a “retainer” for his services. Though reluctant to pimp out a sister of whom he is fiercely protective, the desperate Chris eventually agrees — as does her dad, who muses that “it might just do her some good”. Though often hilarious, Killer Joe injects the
black comedy of a Fargo-like loser crime drama with a certain pathos: none of the characters are quite unredeemable, and the script (adapted by Letts from his own play) keeps surprising us — as in the seduction-of-the-virgin dinner scene between Dottie and Joe, which manages to be both kinky and tender. There are even moments of pure slapstick, such as a perfectly-timed gag involving a loose thread on a thrift-shop jacket.
n 22 Screen International at the Toronto Film Festival September 9, 2011
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