Rarely does a film come along that totally changes your perception of an actor or actress and breaks the mould for what they can really do when motivated by a terrific character and script. Step up Matthew McConaughey, because Killer Joe is that moment for you!
Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch, Into The Wild) owes a relatively small debt to some Texan gangster types, but instead of sponging the money from somewhere, he persuades his dad Ansel (Thomas Haden Church, Sideways) to go in with him and hire “Killer” Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey, The Lincoln Lawyer); a cop with a nice side business of killing people. His target, Ansel’s ex and Chris & Dottie’s (Juno Temple, The Three Musketeers) abusive mother, so they can collect on her massive life insurance policy and start new lives away from their trailer park existence.
Everyone in the cast is on top form here. Hirsch goes a long way to reestablishing his career after the dire Speed Racer (playing the idiot son who makes dubious life choices but has decent morals in looking out for his carefree sister), Haden Church as the world’s most retarded hick dad is a riot (he has the right face and gormless look to pull it off), Gina Gershon as Ansel’s trashy southern wife Sharla is outrageous and goes for gold in her role, while Temple as the whimsical but maybe more clueless Dottie manages to pass as a 12 year old convincingly, with no real care in the world and being more interested in learning karate from the TV than growing up.
However, the real star is McConaughey as the titular Joe; he’s such an interesting character; a cool as, hard-ass, cop with stylings taken from Terminator 2 and Cool Hand Luke, with an interesting mindset. Joe dealing justice (as a cop) then doing something completely unconventional (as committing murder for hire) is an intriguing conflict. His slightly wheezy Texan/southern states drawl is something he probably drew on from his childhood (since he’s a Texan lad at heart), and not to do McConaughey a disservice, but this is probably the first time I have ever noticed him in something not aimed purely at a female audience and I’m more than surprised at how ridiculously good of an actor he is; he really should do more roles like this to showcase his talents; and his idiosyncrasies in Joe (like preferring the company of younger girls) make him a captivating character to follow.
It’s great that all the Smith family are dumber than a sack of hammers; making a world where nothing is doubted, and taken at face value, with hilarious consequences. Small things, like Chris blowing a grand on a horse race despite the fact he could buy some time from his debt collectors with it, are also enjoyable, and such utter stupidity is encouraged by this film, adding to the comedy performances. Parts of Killer Joe will have you crying at Chris’ utter stupidity, and when you throw in Ansel being the slowest man in the world, it creates some real comedy gold.
Killer Joe can’t be classed as a black comedy (there are simply too many laugh-out-loud moments for that), but don’t get me wrong, even with the comedy Killer Joe is highly dark; after all, they’re hiring someone to kill for them; and yet there’s, very strangely, a feel-good factor throughout the movie (if you consider certain characters getting what they want out of life), and Joe’s blend of comedy and drama is seamless.
There’s no real hero to get behind in this; everyone is committing some dirty trick, or breaking a commandment; sure they’re likeable enough, and have good intentions, but you do want to see them get punished severely for what happens (even Dottie isn’t all that innocent after all). What’s great about Killer Joe is that it’s up to your own experience and taste to find the least morally corrupt person and pick them as your “cleanest” character in a film shaded entirely with grey.
A few problems sadly drag it down from being an award season contender; some of the camera work was shoddy and it’s really noticeable (like coming in and out of focus once or twice before a scene change), the fight scenes look impressively fake (you could see a biker miss Chris’s face by a good foot or two in a long shot), some of the humour wasn’t great (constantly cutting to the barking dog every time somebody enters the Smith trailer and having someone in the family tell it to shut-up wasn’t funny, and just distracts you from the wonderful acting), and it could have used one small extra scene to establish Joe as a police detective, as all that’s really done to set him up is seeing him wear a badge, carry a gun & handcuffs, and open his police locker and walk out of his supposed district station (leaving everyone more than curious to see how good Joe was at his real day job).
After watching the uncut version, it’s clear the violence and sexual content won’t appeal to some people; whilst the intimate pedophiliac sex-scene between Joe and Dottie wasn’t really graphic enough to get into a fuss about, the horrific encounter between Joe and Sharla is (ending with a bleeding, broken-nosed, Sharla, and Joe finding sexual pleasure from using a piece of chicken in a substitute for fellatio). Add the surprising amount of nudity, and it may run into trouble in some circles when it’s released fully. A real shame, since it’s probably one of the few times in cinema where you can honestly see it actually adds to the characters and plot (rather than distracting from it); we don’t see Joe as the monster he really is outside of these scenes, and without them, he would just be another dull contract killer in a genre filled with them.
Still, Killer Joe is the darkest feel-good comedy ever released, and if you can ignore the technical problems you’ll enjoy a wonderful character and plot driven drama. Not quite the total package to make it a title contender, or a gamechanger, but the cast is so good at what they’ve done in this neat little film, they deserve all the praise they can get; since Killer Joe kills the competition.
Terry Lewis – @thatterrylewis.
