Sometimes I think there is something wrong with me. A miss-wiring of sorts that lets me laugh at events and situations in movies which would be horrifying in real life.
Or maybe I just like dark comedies.
Killer Joe, directed by William Friedkin, is a movie that I would describe as "Tarantino-esque" in the sense that it is graphically violent and also hysterically funny.
Based on the play by the very talented Tracy Letts, Killer Joe is about the Smith family. Chris Smith (Emile Hirsch), a drug dealer, owes his boss a considerable amount of money. He decides that the best way to make some quick dough is to hire a hitman to kill his hated mother, who has a hefty insurance policy. He conspires with his moronic father, slutty stepmother, and young, naive sister, to hire Joe Cooper (Matthew McConaughey, in a performance that deserves an Oscar)--a cop who moonlights as a hitman--to dispose of the woman.When Chris and his dad, Ansel (Thomas Hayden Church), can't front the killer's fee, Joe says he is willing to accept collateral in the form of Chris's virginal sister, Dottie (Juno Temple). With no other option, Chris reluctantly agrees.
Of course, things don't work out as planned.
A few spoilers ahead...
I was surprised at how much of the film was dedicated to Joe and Dottie's "relationship". Dottie is a very interesting character. She's looks like, acts like, and is treated like a naive schoolgirl. However, she is very observant and is the focal point on which the movie turns. I had difficulty figuring out how old she was supposed to be. There was a scene where I thought she said she was twelve; but then the friend I saw it with insisted she was actually older--say, 15. In either case, Dottie is clearly underage, but has a body just mature enough so that's it's only creepy with she and Joe have sex--as opposed to being downright repulsive.
Regardless of whether Dottie is pubescent or post-pubescent, her seduction is indeed gross. It's hard to read what Killer Joe's interest in her actually means: is he trying to infuriate Chris, or does he just really like young girls? In any case, his manipulation of Dottie is short-sighted since the girl is much smarter than she looks, and, as we find out in the end, isn't easily bossed around.
In addition to statutory rape, Killer Joe has some scenes of violence that made me cover my eyes. Let's just say that you will be put off of pumpkin soup and fried chicken for a while. But all of the scenes of violence were undercut by an absurd humor, to the point where the humor essentially overrode the violence. I found the fried chicken scene, which got so much hype, to be more silly than horrifying. But that's just my reaction. This movie is not for people who don't like violence.
Killer Joe is filled with excellent performances. Emile Hirsch, an actor we don't see enough of, is great as the weaselly Chris. Thomas Hayden Church nails it as Ansel, Chris's father, who is so idiotic he borders on brain dead. Gina Gershon plays the sexy, scheming stepmother Sharla who gets her comeuppance in the above-mentioned fried chicken scene (Google it, if you want to know the details). Juno Temple plays Dottie, the observant girl who falls for Joe. And the titular Joe is played stupendously by McConaughey, who, between this movie and Magic Mike, is having a hell of a year.
The wonderful cast has an excellent script to work with. Letts, who has written a few other very successful plays (Superior Donuts among them), balances the conventions of film noir with scenes that range from nail-bitingly tense to hilarious and absurd. There's a scene--and I don't know if I should credit the writer, director, or cinematographer for this--where Joe tells (not demands or requests, but tells) Dottie to take off her clothes and put on a black dress. While she disrobes, he turns his back and removes his handcuffs (remember, he's a cop), and sets them on the table. My stomach turned at the thought of him using the cuffs on Dottie...but then he removes his gun and badge as well. It turns out that he was also disrobing, in a way. But the way in which he removes the cuffs first was a clearly deliberate choice to make the audience cringe for a moment, before realizing in relief that he was only removing the cuffs, along with the badge and everything else, as a way of undressing. Of course, the relief is short lived when we remember that this is a 40-something man seducing a girl barely in her teens.
It's moments like this--moments that aggressively and cleverly challenge the audience--that were so appealing about this movie. Killer Joe really was a smart-trashy film, if such a thing is possible.
5 out of 5 stars
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